Does stretching your legs make you taller?

I bet many of us have wished to have longer legs or to become taller at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, once we stop growing (our growth plates have fused completely), it is not possible to get longer legs naturally. Although a person’s height is largely determined by their genes, a mix of environmental factors such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, and living environment also contributes to how tall they will be as an adult. In addition to your total height, these factors also influence how long your limbs are during your growing years. Most of the advice on how to grow taller in your legs you find online will only be effective if your puberty is not over and your growth plates are still active. Despite this, you can practice the following stretches to tone and strengthen your leg muscles to make your legs appear at least a little bit longer.

How to grow taller just in legs by stretching exercises

Some exercises and stretches can help your legs look longer by toning and strengthening your muscles. They can also counteract the effects of lifestyle and gravity to bring your legs to their full and genetically determined length. Some stretches to makes your legs look longer are:

Bridges

This exercise tones and stretches your glutes, quads (thighs), and hip flexors, thereby improving your hip flexibility and making your thighs appear longer.

To practice Bridges, you should:

• First, lie on your back with your knees bent in front of you and your feet flat on the floor.
• Then, raise your hips into the air while pushing your feet onto the floor. Your back should be raised off the floor.
• Hold the position for several seconds.
• Return to the initial position and repeat.

Lunges

Another tip on how to grow taller in just your legs is to practice different types of Lunges. This stretch targets all your leg muscles to tone them as well as improve stability and strength to make your legs look longer.

The most common type of Lunges is a standard Lunge. To perform this stretch:

• Stand with your feet together and step one foot forward.
• Bend both of your knees as close to a 90-degree angle as you can. To avoid hurting your knees, you should not go further than 90 degrees. Remember to keep your torso upright while bending your knees.
• Keep this pose for a few seconds.
• Push off your front leg and return to your initial position.
• Repeat alternately with both legs.

The same general structure also applies to other types of Lunges with slight variations, such as:

• You step backward with one leg instead of stepping forward and then perform a standard Lunge. If you have a difficult time keeping your balance in a standard Lunge, you should try this helpful variation.
• Step one of your legs forward at a 45-degree angle instead of stepping forward in a straight line. After that, bend both knees.
• Instead of bringing your front leg back to the starting position after lunging, bring your back leg forward in front of the leg that is currently in front. This is called Walking lunge.
• Step one of your legs to the side instead of forward. Bend the leg that you step to the side and put your weight on that leg. Your other leg should remain straight. This variation tones your thighs more than the standard one.

Downward dog

This pose is nothing foreign to those who have ever taken yoga classes.

To practice Downward dog:

• Kneel on a mat or on the floor.
• Place both of your hands on the floor in front of you.
• Extend your legs out into a pushup position.
• Push your hips backward and forward while keeping your torso, legs, and arms straight. You had better end up in a V-like shape with your head between your shoulders.
• Practice this exercise a few times and return to the initial pushup position while holding your body as straight as possible.

Hamstring stretch

Another great tip on how to grow longer legs is to perform hamstring stretch. Hamstring stretch will increase hamstring flexibility and allow your hamstrings to reach their maximum length, hence making your legs appear longer.

There are two methods of hamstring stretch.

Raised leg stretch:

• Lie straight on your back.
• Grab one leg wherever you can reach and raise it up into the air.
• Keep that leg straight and pull it toward your chest as far as you can.
• There is a passive variation of this stretch where you can ask someone else to push your raised leg toward your chest.

Seated stretch:

• Sit upright on the ground with your legs stretched in front of you.
• Lower your upper body toward your legs and extend your arms toward your feet as far as they can go until you feel a stretch in the back of your thighs.
• Touch or grab your feet if you can. Otherwise, grab whichever part of your legs that you can reach without pain while keeping your legs straight.
• Hold the position for as long as you want, then return to the initial position.

Squats

The last but not least stretch to make your legs longer is squats.

This stretching exercise is an excellent way to tone your entire legs, especially your thighs.

• Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Keep your back straight by stiffening your core.
• Push your hips behind you and bend your knees. Make sure that your weight is on your heels and your knees do not go past your toes.
• Lower your upper body until your thighs are parallel to the ground.
• Keep this pose, then rise and repeat.

You can make this exercise harder by adding weights or using your body weight.

Do legs grow longer after puberty?

Your growth speeds up exponentially during puberty. Throughout this time, your bones grow around the growth plates which as their names suggest are the areas for new bone formation. Besides, not all parts of your body grow at the same time during puberty. Your legs and arms are among the last body parts to stop growing.

The growth plates fuse closed at the end of puberty. After this, you stop growing completely. There is no way for bones to grow longer naturally once the growth plates fuse. As a result, your legs cannot get longer naturally after puberty.

It is impossible to get longer legs naturally once puberty ends and your growth stops. Notwithstanding this, you can tone your legs and make them appear longer with the help of exercise and stretching.

• Related post: Do Squats Make You Shorter?