Saturday, April 10, 2010

The millimeter methods to increase your height

Lateral Synovial Joint Loading(or lateral loading of the epiphysis of long bones) has the most potential to increase height right now but their are several other methods that I'm trying to increase my height or you can use to increase your height.  Some of these methods I can absolutely guarantee to work with 100% effectiveness unfortunately they only add mere millimeters of height.  But their are ten millimeters in a centimeter and combining all of these methods can result in a significant height gain.

1) Increasing the cortical area and periosteal width of flat, short, and irregular bones

Properties of non-long bones that make it easier to increase the size of those bones as to result in a height increase.

We're not sure whether an increase in cortical area is as a result of an increase in total bone width or if it is a result of internal trabecular(spongy) bone being converted into cortical bone.  Microfractures are not needed to increase the cortical area of short bones(or long bones for that matter) as increasing the cortical area is a result of mechanical signal induced bone modeling.  Since, short bones and flat bones have pretty much the same physiology in all directions, an increase in cortical bone area has the potential to increase height.  I don't know why cortical bone can increase in horizontal directions but not vertical directions in long bone.  Two possibilities:  increase in cortical bone area is only a result of conversion of existing trabecular bone(which would also make increase in cortical bone size ineffective in non-long bones) or perhaps the epiphyseal line inhibits a vertical increase in bone modeling induced cortical area.

Even if increasing the cortical bone area of the non-long bones may not increase height, increasing the periosteal width of these non-long bones definitely can.  With the exception of flat bones, non-long bones are completely covered with the periosteum so any increase in periosteal width will increase height and if the flat bones have the periosteum perpendicular to the vertical axis then an increase in periosteal width will result in an increase in height in those bones as well.

Now, periosteal width is only a small portion of these non-long bones(that's why it's called a millimeter method) and the current examinations of periosteal width increase show only a limited potential for size increase(but as always the current scientific progress is a very slow beast indeed).  Unlike an increase in cortical bone area, increases in periosteal width may not be as a result of bone modeling but may require shearing forces along the relevant bones(shearing forces are a rubbing of the outer covering(periosteum) of the bones).

The following bones can make you taller by increasing their periosteal width:

The top cranial bone of the skull(flat bone)
Spinal Bones
Pelvic bones
Patella bone
Feet bones(including the calcaneus and possibly some metarsal bones)

The following bones can increase your hand size:

Carpals and metacarpals

The following bones can increase your foot size:

Tarsals and Metatarsals

The best exercises to cause shearing forces on these bones is unclear.  Tapping these bones is the most direct method.  Anything that involves rotation or bending of these bones may also be effective such as deadlift/deadlift variations, standing shoulder press,  power clean for combined effect, hanging with rotations, swimming, boxing(not actual boxing but the motions associated with boxing), and running.

Increasing periosteal bone width of non-long bones:

Speed of Height Increase:Very Slow
Guaranteed to Work:  Yes
Potential for Height Increase: Potentially unlimited

Increasing cortical bone area of non-long bones:

Speed of Height Increase: Slow(since it is a function of bone modeling and not a function of repair of damaged bones)
Guaranteed to Work:  No
Potential for Height Increase:  Potentially Unlimited

2)  Increasing the height of your interverebral discs and articular cartilage

Height increase via Chondroitin and Glucosamine
Microfractural induced increase in articular cartilage growth
Direct exercise of the intervertebral discs and how that might increase height

The easiest way to increase your body height via intervertebral discs and articular cartilage is to prevent damage to them in the first place.  That's where chondroiton and chiropractic care come in.  The former by increasing the resistance of your discs and cartilage to damage and the latter by helping to align your spine to reduce shearing based damage.

Supplementing your diet with Glucosamine can help repair disc and cartilage damage.  Microfracture releases bone marrow stem cells that induce articular cartilage and disc growth.  Exercises designed to specifically target the intervertebral discs only causes hypertrophy in the outer covering of the disc(annulus populus) and not the internal part of the disc which resists compression(their may be exercises in the future which can strengthen the nucleus pulposus).  This hypertrophy of the annulus populus may increase your supine(laying down height) as when you're supine there's no need to resist compression forces.

Articular cartilage and intervertebral disc growth can be effective wherever they are present.

Increasing height via intervertebral discs and articular cartilage:
Speed of Height Increase: Very Slow
Guaranteed to Work: Yes(if damaged which is true to some degree for almost everyone) No(if not)
Potential for Height Increase:  High up to restoring damaged discs, limited after discs have been restored to previous strength

3) Increasing your Height by maintaining proper alignment

How proper Skeletal Alignment can make you taller

Chiropractic care(professional or self adjustments) can help make you taller by putting your skeleton in proper alignment.  Massage and massage-likes can help your skeletal alignment by relaxing your muscles and reducing any unnatural pulls that are taking you out of alignment.

Increasing Height via Skeletal Alignment:
Speed of Height Increase: Incredibly Fast
Guaranteed to Work:  Yes(If out of Alignment) No(if in Alignment
Potential for Height Increase: Only as much as you are out of alignment for

4) Increasing your Height via non-bone and cartilage tissues

Gaining Muscle Mass to Increase Height
Gaining Adipose Tissue to Increase Height

Hair and skin also technically can increase body height.  Hair I guess doesn't count because it is dead tissue but skin would count during a height measurement.

Their is no muscle at the top of the cranium but there is a limited ability to gain fat their thus if you gain fat you will be a little bit taller.  Their are muscles at the bottom of the feet, if you hypertrophy those muscles you will be slightly taller(akin to wearing lifts or heels).

Increasing Height via Fat/Muscle:
Speed of Height Increase: Very Slow
Guaranteed to Work: Yes
Potential for Height Increase: Unlimited

5) Growing Taller by causing microfractures in the cortical bone portion of long bones

Studies about causing microstrain/microstretching in the long bones

By causing microfractures in the cortical bone followed by microstrain in the cortical bone portion of the long bones we are mimicking the effects of distraction osteogenesis(limb lengthening) on a small scale.

Microfractures coupled with Microstrain on the long bones:
Speed of Height Increase: Very Slow(Limb lengthening is slow therefore you can imagine how slow a micro-version of limb lengthening would be)
Guaranteed to Work: Yes
Potential for Height Increase: Unlimited

That's a list of all the valid natural non-LSJL methods of height increase their are.  These methods should be coupled with LSJL if you want to accelerate your rate of height increase.  LSJL has the most potential to increase height because it could potentially stimulate the growth plates whereas the other methods of height increase do not.  If their are any other methods I'm missing please mention them in the comments section.


7 comments:

  1. can i increase my height by stretching the spine?

    not improving posture but stretching

    i keep seeing testimonials about people having increased their height with 2-6 inches by stretching

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stretching the spine helps fluid flow for your intervertebral discs so it can help height by increasing disc height. I don't want to outright dismiss that theory because that's what the other side does but the bigger better deal for increasing spinal height is trying to increase the periosteal width of your spinal bones. If you don't want to do weightlifting(deadlifts/deadlift varitiations) do shadow boxing or swimming. Both of these activities are heavily skill biased whereas deadlifts are harder to mess up on.

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  3. would it be better to do with a punching bag?

    if so, should it be heavy or not..



    thanks


    by the way, what is your current height?

    ReplyDelete
  4. On to your earlier question about stretching increasing height by 2-6 inches. Gaining 6 inches of height is pretty significant and something that would definitely stand out in a routine physical. If you gained two inches the examiner might go hmmm...postural improvements but at six inches a doctor would start performing examinations.

    And remember there are a lot of height increase scams on the internet. A lot of scammers set up farm sites(like grow taller 4 idiots) where they might not support grow taller 4 idiots themselves but might be pointing to a website pointing to grow taller 4 idiots. The easiest type of unique content to write for these fake farm sites to write are testimonials as there are hundreds of possible variations.

    The testimonials more likely to be true are on blogs with no affiliate advertisements and are not linking to sites they also own. Forum testimonials might be valid too if they don't have a link in their sig. I could believe up to 4 inches with nobody noticing it or dismissing it as "posture" but after that people would notice.

    As for boxing, shadow boxing is all that is needed to cause shearing forces on the spine. If you do heavy bag(or really heavy bag) that will help increase your hand size but for spine shadow boxing is all that's needed.

    You need to alternate between both orthodox and southpaw stance. How effective boxing is for spinal height gain is all based on you. How fast is your spine rotating when you're throwing the punches and how much you weigh.

    Whereas with say a deadlift or goodmorning I can guarantee that no matter how you perform the exercise if you use at least 200 lbs you will get some shearing forces on your spine.

    As for my current height I am most frequently measured at 5'8 1/2". My previous height increase methods were only effective for gaining height in irregular bones. I have some pictures where you can see my hand and feet size gain. I wasn't taking chondroitin and glucosamine at the time so all the shearing forces I was doing on the periosteum was also causing shearing forces on the intervertebral discs. Last time I got an X-ray there was some disc degenration but that means that since my height was the same despite intervertebral disc degeneration I had to have gained some vertebral bone height.

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  5. uum so shadow boxing is just punching air ? how long would it take to gain a inch

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  6. Shadow boxing is punching and throwing your whole body into your punches. Plus, slipping. Just keep moving as fast as possible. The boxing provides order to it. The rotational forces and the slipping is to provide shear strain on the periosteum. To gain an inch it would take a very long time with shadow boxing. Shadow boxing is meant to be a supplemental way to increase insulin sensitivity via the PI3K pathway and get a couple millimeters by the periosteum.

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  7. There was a letter to the editor in an old York barbell company Strength and Health magazine(1940s)where someone wrote in claiming to have gained a couple of inches or so wearing a weighted backpack of some sort all day long for about a year. It may be something to be thought about or looked into. I don't still have the magazine.

    The lsjl experiments on mice are a starting point but 60 seconds of pressure a day may be the equivalent as far as effectiveness as one set per body part weight training. Most professional bodybuilders do multiple sets and even proponents of "heavy duty" 1 set per bp training like Mike Mentzer and Casey Viator actually did multiple sets but called the first 3 sets "warmups". Not that there is a direct correlation between pressure on bones and resistance training for muscles but here may be similarities and a little more could be better.

    ReplyDelete