The Napoleon Club
All of my talk about being “short” has made me realize I have a little man’s complex. That’s right! I’m right up there with Napoleon Bonaparte himself, leader of the short man’s revolution against the power of the tall!
As I have gone about, picket sign in hand (“Short People can Dunk Too!”), I have had moments of pause. These moments have come in between my shouts of “Stop the tall, make them fall!” and “Average height rules, we dunk too!”. They have been quiet moments because, quite frankly, the picket line I joined was made up of mostly just me. Correction- it was literally just me.
Yet, in these moments an introspective voice has asked, “Have I had any role in my own lack of height?” As I look at my immediate family, the male family members consist of my father, my older brother, me, and my younger brother. If you stood us next to each other, tallest on the left to shortest on the right, you would see that I fall dead last. I may tie for dead last with my father but his curly hair seems to stand taller than my thin “wavey” hair.
Escaping the Short Man Cycle
Either I drew the short straw in my family, or my brothers and father did something different from what I did during my adolescent years. Whatever it may be, the height difference between me and my male family members ranges from a fraction of an inch up to two or three inches in height. The tallest of the Lambert crew is my oldest brother Connor (looking at you bro, you will remain anonymous to the tens of readers I have no more!).
My research into how environmental factors influence adult height ran into more question marks than real answers. The consensus as of now seems to be that: 1. 80% of your height is determined by your genetics, 2. the other 20% is determined by environmental factors but we don’t really understand how.
We seem to have a better understanding of things that will STUNT your growth rather than what will HELP you grow taller. For example, multiple studies indicate that malnourishment, stress, sleep deprivation, and exposure to dangerous chemicals are linked to stunted growth. On the other end of the spectrum, however, little to nothing is linked to positive outcomes with regards to adult height.
Hit that HGH!
The one thing that I could find good research on was the way our body releases human growth hormone during our sleep cycle. One study1 that seemed to be interesting, if not particularly robust (only eight “young adults”), took blood samples of participants during sleep at 30-minute intervals.
What they saw was that growth hormone peaked after the onset of deep sleep for 1.5-3.5 hours. Reaching that deep sleep stage can take up to 1 hour. The peak for participants with undisturbed sleep was MUCH higher than any other peaks that they showed. The undisturbed sleepers hit as high as 72 mug/ml; whereas, participants that were woken up and allowed to returned to sleep only hit growth hormone peaks as high as 46 mug/ml.
It is no surefire formula, but it seems to be that getting high quality, undisturbed sleep may be one of the best ways to MAXIMIZE a child’s potential adult height. Maybe that’s where I went wrong, all of those sleepless nights reading “The Hobbit” left coming up a little “short” (*wah wah wah*).
Training Update
Since this past week I have begun a new era of shoulder rehab! Chris Williams of Archery Strong has me strengthening the muscles around my scapula. While the movements were simple enough, they challenged my back and shoulder muscles in new ways. The movements are ones I have never really practiced in the past.
Week 1 consisted of the following movements on the days shown:
Wednesday
Open Book Stretch - 60s/side
Prone A- 2x10 with 5 lbs in each side
Protraction Wall Slide- 2x10
Prone Snow Angel- 2x10
Standing Banded Protraction- 2x10
Thursday
Open Book Stretch - 60s/side
Prone A- 2x10 with 5 lbs in each side
Protraction Wall Slide- 2x10
Prone Snow Angel- 2x10
Standing Banded Protraction- 2x10
Saturday
Open Book Stretch - 60s/side
Prone A- 2x15 with 5 lbs in each side
Protraction Wall Slide- 2x12
Prone Snow Angel- 2x15
Standing Banded Protraction- 3x10
Monday
Open Book Stretch - 60s/side
Prone A- 2x15 with 5 lbs in each side
Protraction Wall Slide- 2x12
Prone Snow Angel- 2x15
Standing Banded Protraction- 3x10
In addition to my shoulder work, my jump training was focused on easier jump days mixed in with slow squatting, hip thrusts, calf raises, and hamstring curls. The primary goal of the week was to prepare my knees for more jump volume going forward. Despite over-jumping during the week (I was supposed to only do 10 jumps last Monday and ended up doing more like 40-50), my knees seem to be recovering from the patellar tendonitis I had been experiencing. My pain levels have gone from 4s and 5s to 2s and 3s.
Restarting weight training after about a month of only jumping was BRUTAL. Squatting 225 lbs again felt more like 400 lbs, but after a good lift Tuesday, I felt like I was getting back to myself by Friday. It was encouraging to see I could still back squat over 225, and my max for my 5x5 sets on Friday was 255.
Cutting additional body fat has proved challenging since getting into the 165 range. I went from 164.2 lbs. last week to 164 lbs. this week! Woohoo! I’m shaving off those lbs. like crazy! At this rate I will be down to 10% body fat by 2034! Realistically, it was a small step in the right direction, it seems like these last 10 lbs of fat are going to be very stubborn and it will require some serious discipline on my part with regards to my diet.
Happy jumping everyone!
Takahashi, Y., Kipnis, D.M., & Daughday, W.H. (1968). Growth hormone secretion during sleep. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 47(9), 2079-2090. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI105893
Uh-oh... didn't realize I was the tallest! Haha did Landon and I compare last time we were together?