Does running really increase your height? And if so, how much taller can you grow by running?
What are the different ways of running?
I used to sprint with a lot of different people and what I have found is that not everyone understands the same thing. From my experience, there are three basic understandings of sprints:
- Running a short distance very fast, but only once.
- Run a short distance very fast, take a longer break of 5-10 minutes, and then do it again.
- Doing interval training.
In other words, when I ask a friend if he wants to run with me, he assumes one of the three variations above. For me personally, running is variation number two. It’s kind of like weight training where you do very intensive sets and repeat them over and over again to increase performance.
It is important that you know that variation number two is also the type of sprint in which you benefit the most to increase height. If you can perform exercise number two on the list above several times a week, sprinting can really help you grow bigger.
Why do sprints increase height?
Obviously, don’t just take my word for it when I say sprinting increases your height. So, let me give you a brief explanation of the science behind it all. In order to grow taller after puberty, you must achieve the following:
- Lengthen the extremities, either the legs or the spine (preferably both).
- Stimulate your body to naturally release more growth hormones.
As you may have guessed, sprinting helps you with both of the criteria listed above. When you run, you have to lift your body off the ground with a lot of force, and you also have to raise your knees quite a bit to maintain speed. In other words, you are taking long strides. These long steps are a way to stretch your legs.
At this point, it’s important for you to understand that there is no way to lengthen your leg bones after puberty. As an adult, you have solid bones that simply cannot be altered unless you have surgery. However, between the bones of our legs, we have small spaces. By stretching out your legs, you can make use of these spaces and lengthen your legs a bit.
Finally, all types of vigorous exercise stimulate your body to release more growth hormones. Sprinting is a classic exercise for this purpose and can greatly increase the amount of growth hormones released into the system by the pituitary gland.
Something is missing?
As you can see, variation number two of the sprint exercise is truly the best sprint exercise for increasing height. Number one hardly helps at all because it’s too short. And number three would help a lot to release more growth hormones; however, it doesn’t work as well in stretching and therefore lengthening the legs.
Most importantly, though, sprinting is just part of a bigger picture: If you combine regular sprinting as described above with other stretching exercises, you can easily increase your height by 2-4 inches in just 2 months.
