Cool - So it seems like there is actually hope for us “midget T-rex” types after all!
[quote]scottiscool wrote:
You give me those level genetics with someone who is willing to put down 6-10 meals a day of high protein food and train like an animal with low volume but moderately high frequency and in 5-7 years I’ll show you a freak that shatters those maximums. [/quote]
Agree Scott. According to their figures my 7.5 wrists limits me to my CURRENT size. I’ve only been training for 6 months and I’ve met my potential?
Side note: I’m not sure how wrapping your finger and thumb around your wrist leads to anything meaningful. Long fingers, short fingers …
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
With todays knowledge on training and nutrition … I’ll show you a freak that shatters those maximums.
[/quote]
Anyone have any examples of any bodybuilders “Shattering” these predictions?
from the author of the article in question…
“It is practically impossible for a man to increase his true adult wrist girth by more than 5% (unless he gets fat). A 3/8” increase is not uncommon for a man who begins training in his late teens …and that would be for a man with at least 7.5" wrists to start. Most people will not come near this. Most apparent increases in “wrist girth” are due simply to body fat increases."
[quote]98V wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
With todays knowledge on training and nutrition … I’ll show you a freak that shatters those maximums.
Anyone have any examples of any bodybuilders “Shattering” these predictions?
from the author of the article in question…
“It is practically impossible for a man to increase his true adult wrist girth by more than 5% (unless he gets fat). A 3/8” increase is not uncommon for a man who begins training in his late teens …and that would be for a man with at least 7.5" wrists to start. Most people will not come near this. Most apparent increases in “wrist girth” are due simply to body fat increases."
[/quote]
Ok first, I didn’t write that, Scott did. Give credit where it’s due. 
Second, we’ve already heard from numerous posters that they did indeed increase their wrist circumference from years of heavy lifting. The whole idea that the wrists don’t continue to grow after adulthood goes completely against what we know about bone. Bone continues to grow and remodel itself, in response to the stresses which it is exposed to, until much later in life than the early 20’s.
Like I mentioned in the original thread, once the epiphyseal plates have calcified bone no longer continues to grow longitudinally (length wise), but I have never seen any evidence that it can’t still continue to grow latitudinally (width wise).
Not even taking into account the possible growth of tendons and ligaments, this would seem to disprove the above statement.
As far as bodybuilders who “shatter” those figures, seriously, have you looked at any of the “golden era” bodybuilders? Sure, they’ve got great genetics, but until the likes of Platz, leg size was considerably smaller even in champions. You also have to realize that the author makes the inaccurate statement that he is using only “natural” bodybuilders for his study. When in fact, I recall reading an interview with Sergio Oliva where Oliva states that Steve Reeves took steroids. Not to mention that any champions of today cannot be used as examples, as there is now way of knowing for certain that they NEVER took steroids.
But, I feel like I’m repeating myself. Go and read through that thread, we pretty much exhausted all of the arguments that we could think of on that topic.
Good training,
Sentoguy
[quote]scottiscool wrote:
Sentoguy,
Now I’m mad because A) Professor X is funny as hell and we don’t get to see him post anymore and B) you posted a couple months ago exactly what I was saying but more thoroughly explained it, again haha.
I thought that generator was familiar.
[/quote]
Yeah, Prof X was a great asset to the forums here. Anyone with as much experience and success as him is always an asset, but he also had a very straight to the point (albeit sarcastic) way of putting things. Lots of people didn’t really like him because of this (he could be very abrasive). But, I’d still say that his wisdom, experience, and humor are missed here at T-Nation.
And I don’t know, I think that the way you stated those points was clear and to the point.
Good training,
Sentoguy
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Ok first, I didn’t write that, Scott did. Give credit where it’s due.
[/quote]
Haha yeah I was reading it thinking hmmm I’m pretty sure I said that.
Sentoguy explained what I would have said about wrist size, although why someone would need or want to increase it in the first place is still beyond me.
The main problem with asking for examples is that the genetic elite for this sport will more than likely take steroids to be competetive, and that’s just the left over top of the line genetics from other sports. Some of the pro football players have physiques that rival national level bodybuilders and they barely get any training in most of the year. The next dominant champion in my mind will be someone who had pro sport level genetics and got hurt, someone convinced them to take up bodbybuilding and they went straight to the top of the class. Sort of like Phil Heath’s situation.
Then the problem comes that we can’t prove natural or unnatural for any of these athletes. If I throw up a guy who competes in drug tested events I’ll get a naysayer who just KNOWS that guy is on AAS and beats the tests, so it’s a lose lose situation.
Since I’m one for if you are going to lose, lose bad, so I’ll throw out young Ronnie Coleman as an example who shatters this maximum size for height. It is well known by those would would have the best ideas on this that he got his pro card natural, and some reason to believe he remained natural(simply because he didn’t need it) for awhile.
[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
From an aesthetic point of view this is a good thing, having small ankles and wrists make your forearms calves and even upper arm and thighs look bigger. I would imagine you could add size to your wrists like the poster above me mentioned, but it would take so long you wouldnt even know if what you were doing was the right thing.[/quote]
The small boned and small jointed are both blessed and cursed. People with small wrist bones and small ankles usually have a harder time putting on mass but when they do, it looks more impressive. But the small wristed can always make that pompous argument that they’re royalty. Course They’ll need wrist wraps.
I got logged out when I tried to post so I don’t think it went through.
The main point I tried to make was that unfortunately for this discussion most of the top of the line bodybuilders in the world must take AAS to be competetive and therefore aren’t good examples for this discussion. And others that likely exceed the maximums(think NFL players) we don’t know if they are natural or not, much less their ankle size.
Sentoguy I emailed you just a minute ago, check it out when you get a chance.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
But, I feel like I’m repeating myself. Go and read through that thread, we pretty much exhausted all of the arguments that we could think of on that topic.
Good training,
Sentoguy and scottiscool[/quote]
Thanks for the replies… both of you.
First off, I have no horse in this race and I have read the thread you referenced, both back then and again today. I agree that the thread is full of arguments and rhetoric, and the most vocal of the posters simply called “bullshit” on the article.
Sure, posters tossed out a couple of the genetic elites/freaks (I don’t know their measurements and they weren’t offered, and yes drug status was debated) and then we also had a few posters who claimed they were “there”, and even on this tread we have 1 guy claiming his wrists grew an inch in a matter of months and another poster claiming “I’ve only been training for 6 months and I’ve met my potential?” - profiles…?
As for the question on wrist size and/or bone growth studies, one of the studies I found at the time on increasing bone density involved exercise and gh injections that resulted in a 39% increase in body weight, 7% increase in femure length, and a 12% increase in cross-sectional area… which would support the authors quote on limits of increasing wrist girth. The control group, saline & exercise only, resulted in an increase in mineralizing surface but no significant differences in bone formation.
I seriously don’t intend on rehashing the issue any futher, I just found the discussion interesting and was looking for any examples that would refute the article.
My wrists are roughly 7 inches…my ankles are probably about as small as my wrists. I’ve always considered this a blessing.
My forearms are 14" … No doubt about it, there are guys out there with 15" forearms that don’t look as big as mine do. Calves, similar story…my calves are small, but they look big because of their proportion to the ankles.
small joints are good for bodybuilding, bad for strongman/powerlifting
The ONLY thing good wrists for are making other things look comparatively big.
It sucks, hard.
My wrist is only 6.3
I’m kind of ashamed of it