Short height can potentially cause serious psychological issues such as low confidence levels, introverted nature, inferiority complex, etc. This is not the only reason people wish to gain an inch or two in height. A good height is generally associated with an attractive appearance, nice personality, suitability for leadership positions, and even better dating chances as women tend to prefer taller men. Even though the growth of height is a continual process until your growth plates have closed completely, you can reach your maximum height potential or even surpass it if you incorporate a healthy nutritious diet and stretches to grow taller into your daily routine. Let’s find out how to grow taller by stretching exercise in this article.
Is it possible to grow taller with stretching?
The growth plates of a typical person will have closed by the age 20, which age most of us stop growing taller. Fortunately, stretches to grow taller can be practiced if you want to add some inches to your height. In fact, your joints and intervertebral discs, or the thick cushions in your spine, are full of water. Gravity takes its toll throughout the day by compressing your spinal discs. Besides, your discs also pull in the water they lose while you sleep. As a result, you can wake up slightly taller after drinking plenty of water and getting a good night’s sleep.
More importantly, stretching to grow taller results in improved posture and loosened tight ligaments and muscles. This can make you reach your full potential to feel and appear taller. Furthermore, astronauts are known to show a 3% increase in height while they are in space. Once they come back to earth, they return to their normal height. The explanation for this is that their intervertebral discs swell up a little bit just like a sponge under the condition of less gravitational pressure. Likewise, the effects of hanging upside down and less gravity can add even more height to your body, eventually leading to a slightly taller person.
What stretches make you grow taller?
Stretching exercises are an effective method to grow taller fast. The following list of stretching exercises will improve and increase your height naturally while ensuring you maintain optimal posture through various benefits including increase spinal muscle strength, spine flexibility, and stretched leg muscles. They also play a powerful role in boosting growth hormone levels released into your bloodstream, thereby helping you gain height quickly.
Wake-up stretch
Stretching exercises can be much more effective when done right after you wake up in the morning as they are used to take your muscles outside of their normal range of use. The fluid inside the intervertebral discs of your spinal cord is able to flow freely if you stretch at this time of day. The more the space between your vertebrae expands, the taller it would allow you to grow.
You can start doing the wake-up stretch by extending both of your arms high over your head and stretch them using enough force to feel the elongation. Keep this position for about 30 seconds, and then allow your body some rest before repeating the stretch. Another useful morning stretch to grow taller starts with lying straight on your back and extending both of your legs and arms straight into the air. Hold this stretch for about 30 seconds and allow your body to relax before stretching again. Each of these stretches to grow taller should be performed between five and ten times.
Cobra pose
This stretching exercise originates as a yoga pose that was initially developed with a view to stretching the spine and increasing its flexibility. As a highly worthwhile stretch for the growth of cartilage between your vertebrae, this yoga stretch can cause an increase in vertical height. Despite certain requirements in terms of precision and concentration, this exercise which stretches out your upper body is quite easy to do.
Start the Cobra pose by lying down with your chest flat on the floor, your face facing downwards, and your palms directly below your shoulders on the floor. Lift your upper body gradually leading with your chin so that you are arching your spine upward to form an elevated angle while keeping the lower half of your body flat on the floor. Hold the pose for 15 seconds and try to stretch out as much as you can, then slowly bring the upper half of your body back down into the initial position. At least 3 or 4 repetitions of this stretch are recommended, each of which should last from 30 to 45 seconds in total.
Hanging stretching
This form of stretching helps you grow taller by combating the adverse effect of gravity on your height. As a matter of fact, gravity compresses your spine by thinning out and squeezing the cartilage, which gives your body a visibly shorter look. But you do not have to worry about this issue so much as hanging from a horizontal bar can be a perfect solution. Weird as it might sound, hanging helps your body to grow and increase height by decreasing the vertebrae pull while using the weight of the lower torso to stretch your spine. Consistent practice of this exercise can result in an increase by 1 or 2 inches in height over time.
There is nothing too strenuous or complicated about hanging from a bar. You can even resort to a sturdy tree or something else that can hold your weight easily in the event that you do not have a hanging bar. You should hold the stretch between 10 and 15 seconds and repeat the exercise 10 times. It is suggested that you hang for a minimum of 30-45 minutes on a weekly basis. You can also do extra stretches while hanging such as rotating your torso both clockwise and anticlockwise or raising your legs side to side as far as your flexibility allows.
Mermaid stretch
Many people have the habit of standing or walking with rounded shoulders, which causes them to have bad posture and look shorter than they really are. As it primarily involves your shoulder and intercostal muscles, mermaid stretch is a great exercise for posture correction. This stretching exercise counteracts your bad posture and helps you walk and stand straighter, hence making you look taller.
To start this exercise, you should sit down with both of your knees bent underneath the right-hand side of your body. Then, use your right hand to grab hold of both of your ankles. Raise your left arm and fully extend it high above your head until you feel a good stretch all down the left-hand side of your torso. Keep this position for about 30 seconds and repeat with your knees bent on the left-hand side of your body.
It is totally possible to grow taller by stretching. However, the above information should not be considered tips on how to grow 6 inches taller by stretching. Instead, you need to combine these stretches with a proper diet with good nutrition, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep in order to increase your height effectively. It will likely take some time but as long as you practice these stretches frequently and correctly, you will see that they can gradually increase your height.