February Height Increase-LSJL Update

Still hovering at around 5'9 3/4"-5'10".  I was a little bit spoiled by St.it's progress at the forums but I'm going to be changing my routine around to try start growing taller again.  I was a little disheartened by Peter22 not getting results over at the forums so I'm going to be making some adjustments.

First, I'm changing my weight lifting routine around.  I was doing some experiments with axial loading with very heavy weights as described here.  I've been doing growing taller experiments for almost five years and I started out reading Easy Height and Giant Scientific.  I even took some classes in Anatomy and Physiology(the knowledge is nothing compared to what I learned on my own).  Lifting with very heavy weights is interesting as it's almost as if your body won't let your muscles contract and the majority of the load goes onto the bones(axial loading has unique benefits).  It also may help you grow taller by spiral forces.  The problem with lifting heavy weights is that's very taxing on the CNS leading to overtraining so I'm going back to grass roots and doing very light weights, very quickly, for a lot of reps.  The goal is to get a lot of pulling forces against the bone to mimic vibration.  Doing lighter weights will allow me to focus more on clamping.  I'll alleviate some over-training symptoms and start growing taller.

Some people over at the LSJL forums were reporting gains so I was getting lazy.  But Peter22, didn't and no height seeker left behind so I'm reinvigorating myself.  And frankly, it's going to take some big results to convince people that's possible to grow taller.  The height increase Lateral Synovial Joint Loading study should have gone viral. Scientific studies don't tend to go viral but I've seen some bone autograph studies go viral.  People have an ingrained bias that it's impossible to grow taller.  So it's going to take more results to get past that bias(even if those results

I've started using the Irwin Quick Grip for my finger test and arm.Quick-Grip 546 Mini Bar Clamp.  Some people like it better for the legs but I prefer the C-class clamp for the legs.Bessey DHCC-6 6-Inch Double Headed C-Clamp.  I'm going up to 1 minute for clamping.  It's much more intense than 30 seconds but I think 1 minute is better for inducing hypoxia which may be needed for chondrogenic differentiation(the skin is temporarily whiter after clamping).  In terms of dumbell loading, I'm going to try around 40lbs.  Too light means I have to put more effort into pushing the dumbell down.  I'm still going to stick to 30 seconds for dumbell loading until I've found what weight I want to use.

My goal is a 1/4" height gain in 2 months.  A full 5'10"(as I've never quite hit 5'10" when I've been measuring) or hopefully 5'10 1/4" as well.  And the Irwin Quick Grip will hopefully help me get a more noticeable finger length gain(I need to use dumbell loading to get the part closest to the base of the finger, I'm doing one minute for that).

So, expect pictures in one month.  No more letting St.it carry all the height increase results.  We lost Peter22. Doing one minute loading will allow me to bypass actin cytoskeleton adaptation and get me another 1/4"(there are tons of before pics on this site, if the irwin quick grip results in a large finger length gain that will result in video proof which is impossible[or at least incredibly difficult] to fake).

About the Loads I use

I have been weightlifting for six years.  I decided I really wanted to grow taller for five.  Easyheight provided a lot of inspiration for me but I was sick of seeing the same old cobra stretches and scam crap like Growtaller4idiots.  Easyheight gave me the mindset that I am an experimenter.  Everybody who does a height increase routine is.  We are all scientists.

I don't know what the best exercises are to do.  Nobody does.

People don't even know what the best exercises are for weightlifting.  We know which lifts are good for using a lot of weight but not which are good for hypertrophy.  I am in this to win it.  In Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd said "If you set your mind to it you can accomplish anything..." except for height increase.  For years, I've heard people say you can't grow taller with 'proof' riddled with logical fallacies or just blanket statements like "it's impossible."

I use as much weight as I do because I'm an experimenter.  I want to put every possible tool I can available in order to gain height.  Sometimes, I've lost track a little bit but this blog has helped me focus.  I saw the movie Julie & Julia and thought if a blog about cooking could bring people together imagine what a blog about something really important like height increase could do.

This blog is a filtering service.  I go through pubmed articles and other available research to see which is applicable to height increase.  Sometimes that research is my own.  The key to injury prevention is practice and control(work your way up in weight) even exercises like the upright row which cause shearing forces on the tendons and ligaments(anatomical parts that do not heal as well as muscle and bone) take a while to deal any significant damage.

I'm a researcher.  I'm presenting my research.  Over time, we'll know more about which exercises are best to increase height but right now we have to decide how badly we really want this and if we're willing to take chances that are head of the curve(even if that risk is wasted time and ridicule).

What common grow taller routines are missing and my own personal routine

There's a lot of uniformity in what exercises the height increase "experts" recommend people to perform in order to grow taller.  Remember, altering your bones is the best way to get height.  There may be ways using articular cartilage, disc space, and posture but bone is bar none the best way to have definitive height.

We are only interested in the methods that will increase bone size!  Posture and bed rest may give you a half an inch or so but that is nothing compared to what bone will give you.

A common method listed to increase height is hanging.  The problem with most people and this method is that they either don't weigh enough or don't add enough weight to their body(via a weight belt).  Hanging causes the right kind of strain on the bone(pulling).  Now you don't have to use as much weight as you would use in regards to compression as the bone is weaker when being pulled then when being compressed but you still have to use some weight.

Right now I use 245 lbs via a weight belt and I weigh about 195lbs.  I also twist while I do the exercise to get additional spiral forces.  I don't do this for very long(about 4 180 degree rotations) as the criteria for height increase is deformation of the bone and causing microcracks.  I'd much rather use heavier weight to make sure I'm meeting this criteria than by increasing volume.  The maximum weight I'd recommend is one where you can do at least one 180 degree rotation.

Another common height increase or grow taller exercise is inversion using inversion boots.  The problem with this is that you are very weak when inverted and you will not be able to add very much weight to your body at all.  What I do is get on a decline bench with 140lbs dumbells(280lbs), I get the same pulling effect and a partial inversion but I'm in a much more advantageous strength position and I don't get the feeling of blood rushing to my brain.

Another common exercise is sprinting, the problem with sprinting for one is that it's biased towards performance(the more training you have the more effective it is at generating forces on the bone and causing microcracks) and the other is that it causes mostly compressive and shearing strain.  Now you remember the study that showed that shearing and compression strain caused an increase in periosteal length in the mouse study.  However, we need to increase cortical bone length!  But, even though sprinting may cause mostly shearing and compressive strains on the tibia it can cause transverse strains on the bones of the rib and foot!

Also, remember that compressive and shearing strains have not been shown to decrease bone length(compressive exercises may temporarily decrease height) and that microcracks stimulate the growth of articular cartilage which can also increase height via the joints.  A strong bone is one that is more apt to microcrack so compressive exercises may make our pulling and spiral exercises more effective by allowing those exercises to cause more microcracks and therefore increase height.  It is much harder to decrease bone length then it is to increase it as microcracks by definition create space in the bone.  The way that physicians do limb shortening surgery is by removing bone so unless you cause a fracture in such a way that knocks a piece of bone out you are not likely to decrease bone length by doing compressive exercises.

I still do compressive exercises to strengthen my bones(more propensity to microcrack) and to cause transverse microfractures in the ribs and foot.

What I do is 1340lbs on the leg press and stomp against it.  This reduces some of the performance bias of running(as I don't have to worry about speed).  When you use heavy weight all you have to worry about is moving the weight you don't have to worry as much about technique as you would with sprinting.  I also rotate my body while isometrically holding the weight to cause spiral forces.

I also do 890lbs on a machine hack squat(the load is fully on the back) and do stomps and jumps(again transverse microcracks in the foot).

Then I do 675lbs stomp walkouts(walking out with 675lbs in the cage and then stomping).

The rest of my routine:

Tapping all bones with 10lbs dumbell.

Sitting down forcefully while wearing a 45lbs weighted vest and 60lbs worth of weight to cause microfractures in the pelvis.

rotating 180 degrees while in the top position of a dip(245lbs right now) to cause spiral forces in spine and humerus.

Doing step ups with 180lbs dumbells each(spiral forces in femur).  Usually I can only do one "repetition" a day so I alternate between right and left every day.

Spinning around 360 degrees with same dumbells(spiral forces in spine and femur).

Spinning 180lbs weight around 180 degrees with forearm(spiral forces in radius and ulna).

Doing clap pushups without the clap or the pushup(jumping up with my body and landing with my hands).  This causes transverse microcracks in the hand bones and the the clavicle and again strengthens the other bones.  Tried to add weight to this via a vest or a medicine ball in between my legs but it's too cumbersome.  This makes the exercise heavily performance biased though.

Rotating body left and right while keeping leg still with about 290lbs right now on leg extension machine(not sure as every machine is different)

Same rotation on leg curls

Pressing 65lbs dumbells overhead and rotating right and left to cause spiral forces on spine.

Remember if it was possible to increase height via yoga or pilates there would probably be much more evidence on this(as yoga and pilates are much more popular and more well documented by scientists then activities done in 'hardcore' gyms).  However, that does not mean that the exercises are ineffective as they do have a lot of mainstream resources behind them but they are likely missing the key ingredient of heavy weights.

Scientists do some in vitro studies(studies not performed on live subjects) however in vitro studies have confounding variables of their own.  So, there's really no way to avoid scientists bias against using very heavy weights.