What did he mean?

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I am 24 years old 5ft7 1/2 in height and weigh 140 pounds. My 21 year old brother is 5'11 1/2 and weighs 182 pounds.

He said to me once in regards to working out at the gym "I have a better foundation to build on at the gym than you". And also "building up a lot of muscle would not suit you because it's for really tall people"

My brother has always been more prone to being fat than me but what did he mean by "I have a better foundation to build on than you?

My experience is that shorter people "show" more results because their muscles bulk out more since it doesn't have to cover longer stretches.

What you get is largely based on genetics. You have tall and muscular men and tall and thin men doing the same training and diet.

So why would muscles bulking out more be a bad thing?

It isn't. I frankly can't figure out what your brother meant by his comment.

Next time he spouts off nonsense like that, show him this picture....

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This doesn't really make any sense, and totally oversimplifies the situation. Humans are different in so very many ways. Everyone has a different ability to remember things, visualise things in space etc... and they also have different muscle building capacity and fat storing capacity. You also have different relative lengths of specific bones, and different shapes to your muscles due to your bone structure.

Have a close and critical look at a series of pictures of athletes and fashion models. Carefully examine the different shapes of shoulders, biceps, pecs, abs etc. They are all SO DIFFERENT! My favourite example is that some people have abs that don't line up symmetrically.

Everyone can benefit from exercise, for health, for the ability to do things like run and carry and lift things, for good looks etc. You definitely should do resistance training if you want (resistance training can be lifting weights, or doing anything that causes your muscles to push strongly just like weights e.g. a push-up or chin-up).

Some people really do have a better foundation for building muscle. That can be a combination of - more exercise done over their lifetime, especially in sports needing strength like wrestling, boxing, rugby; genetic advantage; more knowledge of using the gym; more mental toughness; better knowledge of nutrition; more money and spare time etc.

He just thinks that he has the shape (currently) that will assist in building muscle. If you are very thin you might find it harder to build up, but you still can.

So my advice is, learn about nutrition, work out 3-4 times a week and always push yourself an extra 20-30%, do some exercise for fun and not just for looks, and become so lean and ripped that you show your brother he doesn't know much about body-building!

My second piece of advice is - it is putting your muscles under progressive overload that makes them grow, not eating protein.

And my third piece is - most people are eating way too much of everything already, and that includes too much protein.

If you want more advice I'm happy to help.

Good luck.

I'm 5 foot 5, 185 pounds. I used to work out quite a bit. It never showed, however.

I became pretty good in cardio exercises. I got to the point where I was able to do 3 marathons.

All my efforts did not make a difference in my physical looks, except for when I lost weight.

SydneySputnik reccomended strength-related sports, and I agree. I actually gained a lot of weight when I played Rugby, but my clothes were starting to look huge on me.

And the beauty of sports like wrestling, boxing, and rugby is that there's always a place for you to compete fairly. Wrestling and boxing have weight classes, and rugby has so many different positions that anyone with any body type is well-suited to the game (I'm a little bit on the stockier side and I'm tall so they made me a Prop/Lock).

Your brother was basically telling you that he was better than you, which is technically untrue. No one is better than anyone else.

You could try ice hockey; that's even faster.