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[badgerbrocktree]

TLDR:
Idea:
1. Short men seem to lean towards bodybuilding / hypertrophic training for respect as a man.
2. Short men potentially more likely to have body dysmorphia.
3. Short men potentially also feel the need to be extra funny, outgoing, agreeable, or rich to not be invisible (larger than life).
4. Curious if CLL solves this.

Disclaimer: I'm not 100% knowledgable about body dysmorphia, so please enlighten me if you know more.


Post

I've been a short person all my life (was 150/4'11 clear until 9th grade, then slowly progressed to current height, 170/5'7).

I noticed that I was not really respected until I put on a lot of muscle. I also realized that my taller friends felt no pressure to be muscular to gain respect among peers. In fact, they are far more confident and okay with being just "not fat".

As such, I've definitely developed some form of Body Dysmorphia. Not a need to be chiseled, per say, just a need to be muscular or broad to not be looked down upon or dismissed. And this has led me to do stupid psychological things like, when I'm socializing, constantly compare myself to the other men to ensure I'm in the largest 20% or so.

I know that lots of other short men on these forums also lean towards body building-- this seems logical to me, as shorter men really have to fight for space in society. They have to fight to be "larger than life" in many aspects, physique simply being one of them (super funny, super outgoing, rich, etc). In some diaries, I've read this need to be larger than life goes away, and a seemingly healthy shift towards "fitness for health" rather than "fitness for size" occurs. I'm assuming that those who do CLL also feel less of a need to be extra funny or outgoing, since they no longer have to fight to not be invisible.

Potential pushbacks: CLL potentially leads to health anxiety (heart stress, joint function) AND increase in maturity (insanely hard experience, reevaluation of your place in the world and your priorities), so that probably also encourages the shift from looks to fitness.

Thoughts on this? Has this shift occurred for any of you who did CLL?

Thank you!

[Lennys]

Are you sure you were just 150cm at 15? Because growing 20cm more after that age is quite unusual.

[badgerbrocktree]

I know I was 5'3 / 160 cm in 10th grade. So I was probably 4'11 / 150 in 7th or 8th grade, then. I probably put the final 10 cm on during 10th, 11th, and 12th (15-18 y/o), so 3cm-ish per year?