Day 16

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Fruits: One whole orange, half an apple
Sinful snacking in between.

I have finally proceeded to Stage Two. It started yesterday on Day 15. I continued with the exercises in Stage One and further proceeded with the first five exercises in Stage Two.

Stage Two is pretty intense. The focus is a lot on your breathing. Most people tend to hold their breath in their midst of an intense stretch. This not only makes the seconds more unbearable but it also strains the muscles. As not enough air is allowed to enter your lungs and expel to regulate a proper blood flow, you run out of steam very fast. Therefore, it is important to exercise deep breathing.

Here are some deep breathing exercises I picked up while surfing the net:

Inhale slowly for a period of five seconds
Hold your breath for five seconds
Exhale slowly for five seconds

This is easy to complete, whether you're in school or at work. Once you get the hang of it, you do not need to actually count the seconds but rather you automatically realise when it is you have to inhale, hold and exhale. Other things to do during your stoning hours are massaging the pads of your thumbs and the back of your neck. This helps to regulate blood flow and releases the tension that builds up at your shoulder area, especially after parking your ass in the office for 8 hours straight.

These exercises do not directly help in spine strengthening but they make the exercises less strenuous on the back muscles.

Day 12

Today’s breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs and 2 banana and walnut bread
Snacked cookies (sinful!)
Lunch: one papaya, one kiwi
Dinner: Hearty Beef Stew and Garlic Mushroom at Cedele (YUM)
Coffee check: 2

It’s been 12 days and I honestly have not gotten past Stage One. The reason for this is my incessant procrastination, my inability to bring myself to stretch in early mornings and before bedtime. I really should not complain, considering I start work later than most office workers. The thing is, it is getting increasingly painstaking to spend that extra 15 minutes stretching yourself when you’re not even sure if the program will yield results. (Honestly, I haven’t grew but then again, I haven’t been practicing due diligence have I?)

I blame work, I really do. How is it possible for me to stretch 45 – 75 minutes straight unless I break it up into sessions throughout the day? Really, if you’ve tried, you’ll know how much it hurts your spine. And can you imagine how stupid you’d look if you sprawl yourself on your office floor and do ridiculously visual exercises you’d ONLY do in the comfort of your bedroom? You get my point.

Fuck, back to work.

Day 11

I haven't been able to update for the last week. Here's a little recap for my absence.

I began doing sprints. 8 sets of 8-10sec sprints after a 20-30min jog. Sprints apparently increases your HGH more than jogging but I thought if I combined jogging with sprints, I could keep up with my diet and tone up at the same time.

I have also decided to extend my Stage One exercises for another two days as I haven’t been doing them consistently. It’s Day 11 and I can safely say, I have probably only done 5 days worth of stretching.

I skipped my morning stretch today, as usual (man, it’s just impossible). I did my stretches before bedtime, though only the first, second and last one in the guide. I have been thinking, do the other stretches really help? I mean, cycling in the air, what does it do? I don’t understand. If it helps in my flexibility or anything else, even if it does not concern spine lengthening, I gladly will do it. But I don’t see the pros in this, so I decided to skip it.

I am a little more adventurous today. I downloaded to free e-book provided by Grow Tall Forum (found a little link somewhere cos I didn’t complete 15 posts). I browsed through the first 5 exercises and thought, hey, they don’t look too bad. I attempted the Cobras. Those were easy but be careful not to strain your spine. 5 sets of the maximum amount of seconds should suffice. I did the leg stretch (can’t really remember the name offhand but I’ll check), the one where you part your legs as far apart as you can and try to touch both toes. It is hilariously how a picture can speak a thousand words and how some can so conveniently deceive. I really don’t think it is possible for your head to touch one of your knee caps when you’re in this position! I couldn’t and I’m pretty flexible. So yea, do not be deceived by the drawing.

Okay, I realized some of you might not know what I’m talking about. I do not think it is legal to post the pictures of the stretches here but if you want, you can leave your email address in the comments and I’ll send a copy to you.

Goodnight.

Day 4

Ugh, I skipped stretching today! Mannnn. You never would’ve imagined how tired it is, waking up as you usually would and willing yourself to spend 15 minutes lesser in the shower just to complete your stretch. And when you get home all shagged from work, how do you tell yourself to put your legs in the air and cycle like an idiot?

Okay, bad day.

Day 1 to 3 has been good, really. Stretched day and night. I actually do feel better at work and I can feel my posture getting better. I don’t feel the need to arch my spine a little and it’s actually starting to feel natural to stand straight. (Disclaimer: I do not have a crooked spine but I do slouch a lot to release the tension on my shoulder muscles. They say it’s TMJ or something like that)

Exercising actually helps your posture. I have been doing Muay Thai for 2 years now and I’ve realized that I don’t usually stretch after practice. So after training today, I made sure I stretched every part of my body. Feels good really.

Now I’ve gotta go do Stage One. –grits teeth

Day 1

If you have printed out, scrutinized or browsed through the pages at Get Taller For Free (the link is provided in my previous entry), you would have discovered that the guide is divided into three stages.

I am still at Stage One where I try and force myself to stretch every morning when I wake up and straight before I go to bed. The stretches are easy, though my muscles and back ached after that, probably due to overstraining of the lower back muscles. The third exercise amuses me. It is the most challenging of the Stage One conglomeration and the only one that’ll make you sweat but does it really help in your growth? I really don’t know but we’ll find out.

So I dutifully completed by my required morning and before bedtime stretches. Going pretty damn well for Day 1.

Introduction

My obsession (or not) with height issues only began recently. I am not particularly short nor am I extremely unhappy with my height. I am 5’3” (160cm) and 22, pretty average for an Asian female. Admittedly, it is precisely this stereotypical agenda that spurred off my initial doubts on whether I could grow any taller.

A week ago, I typed in ‘height growth’ in the Google search box which produced millions of results on height growth, most of it dubious and predictably named e-books that probably would yield the same kind of information as any you would find on Wikipedia..

Given any scientific documentation, height growth is largely attributed to ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’, with its roots deeply set in the evolution of genetics. A large part of height prognostics is hereditary and a hodgepodge combination of environmental and cultural factors. Adult height between ethnic groups differs significantly – a Swedish male is typically 5’10.9” (180cm) tall whereas a Singaporean male averages at 5’7.8” (172cm) tall. With accreditations to nature, a person’s growth culminates at adulthood with women ordinarily reaching their peak younger than men.

What I believe is ‘nurture’ however is the ability for one to manipulate the lengthening of the epiphyseal plates. These plates are bone growth centers that disappear under the hormonal surges brought about by the completion of puberty. Vertical growth thus stops when the long bones stop lengthening, resulting in the closure of the plates. However, rumour has it that the closure of plates occur at an age as late as 24. It is therefore, speculated that it is still possible to lengthen your vertical bones through a series of intense stretching and cardiovascular exercises that will increase the HGH secretion along with an appropriate high protein / low carb diet.

I am new to this entire height growth routine and have been at it for a week now when I decided that I should document my height growth process to inform everyone else if it really works for someone my age (and I am assuming that my plates are almost closed). My knowledge is little and honestly, I am not gifted with a scientific vocabulary. Recent reads on Grow Tall Forum convinced me that an extra 1 to 2 inches is likely possible. I have also chanced upon a free 7-week guide on stretching exercises here that I have been religiously following.

This blog will document my stretches from Day 1 (I promise I will try to update at least once a day) and other information I find on the internet that might be useful to the subject.

(I am keeping my fingers crossed!)