Height and Bodyweight

Weightlifting requires muscles. Here are pictures of the Gold medalists in the 56kg, 62kg, 77kg, 105kg, and 105+kg weight classes at the 2013 Worlds. None of those guys is skinny, lanky, or lithe.

So what weight class do you need to get to at a given height? The following chart uses the data from All Things Gym and their post on London 2012 Weightlifting Athletes Statistics. It averages the heights for all 158 weightlifting athletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

While these are ideals, they’re not going to hold for less elite lifters. A local weightlifter is not going to be as thin and muscular as Lu Xiaojun. Even within the London data set, there is wide variety.

At 5’9″ I should be smack dab in the middle of both the 77kg class and the 85kg class. Right now, I’m about 83kg. I need to gain another 10 pounds to get the most out of my height (more specifically lose ten pounds and gain twenty). Very tall lifters won’t get the most out of their longer levers without gaining significant weight (105kg is 231 pounds). I have a client who is 6’3″ 185″ and he’s just too lanky to really feel comfortable weightlifting, at least for now.