How to Grow Taller Using Yoga

Like pilates, there has been a lot of buzz in the past few years about how to grow taller using yoga.  But also like pilates, there is so much misinformation on what yoga can and cannot accomplish that it would be hysterical if it wasn’t so downright sad. The truth is that yoga can be great for flexibility, relaxation, stabilization, and toning muscles that you never knew you had.  But yoga – in and of itself – will not make you taller even though it can help you train your body how to grow taller.


I want to repeat myself because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been presented with this question.
Yoga – in and of itself – will not make you grow taller.
Whew.  Ok. That’s out of the way.

Now, that being said, certain yoga stretches can be absolutely great as a supplement to other grow taller exercises. In fact, I have found them so useful that I included them into the Grow Taller Blog after consulting with several of the most knowledgeable yoga teachers and experts in the field today. My goal was to isolate no more than three yoga stretches that would assist in properly aligning the spine and providing strength to those crucial core muscles that are so imperative in making it possible to stand taller and – in effect – get taller.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Curled Pelvis Thrusts
Lie flat on your back on the floor (or on a mat) and bend your knees so that the heels of your feet are touching your behind. Grab your ankles with your hands. Keeping the back of your head on the floor, slowly thrust your pelvis up into the air so that the only parts of your body that remain on the floor are the back of your head, your shoulders, your upper back, and your feet. You will feel the stretching motion in your entire back so it’s crucial that you maintain control and perform the stretch slowly. Hold this position for 5 seconds and slowly return to the floor. Repeat 10 times.

Cross-Legged Back Stretch
Remaining you on your back, cross your legs so that the tops of your feet and toes are resting on the opposite thigh.  It may take a few days or even weeks of stretching to be able to accomplish this, but you can still do the motion even if you can’t get your feet quite that high at first. Bend your neck backwards so that you are resting the top of your head on the floor instead of the back of your head – this will put you in a position where you are looking behind you. Lift your back up as high as comfortable in this position and feel the stretch. Hold for five seconds and relax yourself back down. Repeat ten times.

Side Bends
Come up to the sitting position and cross your legs again.  Bring your arms up and lace your fingers behind your head. Your elbows should be pointing straight out to the side, not in front of you. From this position, bend to the left as far as comfortable, feeling the stretch. Hold for one second and then bend to the right and hold for one second.  Perform the stretch slowly and carefully to avoid any risk of injury.  Perform the stretch 20 times – 10 for each side.

Like the pilates grow taller exercises, incorporate the yoga stretching exercises to increase height into your stretching regimen once per day, three days per week but alternate from the days you have incorporated the pilates.

For example, if you have included pilates on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, you may want to add in the yoga on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings and then take Sunday “off” for your standard set of stretches.

Remember to only perform them once per day, not twice like the other exercises.

How to Grow Taller Using Pilates

Although Pilates was never designed as a way how to grow taller, in recent years it has become known as one of the most effective methods of stretching exercises to increase height.  However, with that popularity comes some misconceptions about the true extent of what pilates is and is not capable of so this post will detail exactly how to grow taller using pilates.


Pilates is a conglomeration between the body and the mind using focused, specific stretching and exercises. Its name comes from Joseph H. Pilates, who is credited with its invention.  pilates was specifically designed to develop the entire body in a uniformly beneficial manner that develops endurance, flexibility, and strength (particularly core strength). Though pilates had begun to catch on with both medical and fitness experts by the late 60’s, Joseph Pilates’ death spurred a controversy of sorts from other parties that felt that while pilates was beneficial, it could be improved upon. This resulted in the various methods of pilates seen today. While many practitioners adhere to the fundamentals of the original design there are other schools of thought (Stott Pilates, for example) that have taken the original design and expounded upon it.

The most compelling accounts of pilates successfully helping people get taller are typically from people that have either suffered a decrease in height from age or suffered from bad posture before pilates helped straighten and optimize the way they carry themselves. Though there are rumors and speculation, pilates itself will not make anyone get taller in and of itself unless the person suffers from either of those two conditions. However, as said before, the exercises below can help strengthen and stretch the vital muscles necessary for permanent height increase and train the body how to grow taller naturally.

There are three pilates exercises that are most often attributed to strengthening these crucial support muscles and optimizing posture, thus contributing to growing taller:

The Hundred


The hundred is designed to strengthen the abdominal muscles. Strong abdominal muscles are crucial to optimal posture because they form a solid framework of sorts that supports the spine. To complete the hundred, lie on your back and pull your knees up to your chest. From this position, straighten your legs out in front of you while keeping your upper back and head lifted off the floor. The heels of your feet should be about 6” from the floor and your arms should be perfectly perpendicular to the floor as well, with your fingers pointing straight ahead. Hold this position for 10 restful, easy breaths in and out before bringing your knees back to your chest. Rest in this position for 10 restful, easy breaths and repeat 4 more times. As time goes by and the exercise gets easier, gradually increase the amount of repetitions. For example, if you perform the exercise three times per week, the second week you may want to increase from 5 reps to 7 and increase by two or three reps per week.

Scapular Isolations


Scapular isolations are a very important pilates exercise that can help straighten out unsightly and unhealthy forward slumping shoulders. Start the exercise seated on the floor and extend your arms forward. Spread your shoulder blades apart and then press them back together. Remember to conduct the entire exercise slowly and deliberately while using deep, controlled breaths. Perform this squeezing and expanding motion 20 times and then rest between 30 seconds and 1 minute. Perform a total of 5 sets of scapular isolations.

Breast Stroke Prep


Lie down on the floor on your stomach, lengthening your back by pulling your hip bones away from the floor and tucking your tail bone. You must maintain this position throughout the entire exercise so focus here is key. Keep your inner thighs squeezed together if possible, but if you feel pain in your lower back at any time you can try opening the distance between your hips just a bit for more comfort. Form a “W” with your arms (bend your elbows with your hands right above your shoulders) and allow your shoulders to roll forward, towards the floor. Remembering the position of your pelvis at all times, roll your shoulders back away from the floor and curl your upper body off the floor.  Your neck should always be in line with your spine and your back should be doing all of the work. Refrain from pushing away with your arms and keep your bottom ribs on the floor the entire time. Hold the risen position for 10 seconds and then allow your shoulders to roll back to the floor.  Repeat the motion five times.

Incorporate the pilates stretches into your stretching regimen once per day, three days per week. For example you can add them into your morning stretching routine Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Only perform them once on the days that you include them, but keep your normal stretching routine of twice per day as well.

Remember to only perform them once per day, not twice like the other grow taller exercises.

2 Powerful Ways to Grow Taller

While researching ways to grow taller before you found the Grow Taller Blog, you may have already come across information that suggests that yoga and pilates can help you train your body to learn how to grow taller.  Both yoga and pilates are extremely popular forms of fitness that have become ingrained in the exercise culture in many countries around the world over the past decade. While expert opinions vary (when don’t they?), the overall consensus regarding both of these forms of exercise and relaxation is that they are overwhelmingly positive and their practitioners enjoy a wide range of health benefits.  But are yoga and pilates viable ways to grow taller?


The short answer may not be the one that you’re looking for. On the whole, neither pilates or yoga were specifically designed to make you get taller. However, both can be immensely effective at improving your posture, building and toning core muscle groups, and leading an overall healthier
lifestyle.

So, in effect, both are actually effective grow taller exercises. In distinct, supplementary ways.
The idea behind this post is not to tell you to go out and enroll in either a yoga or pilates class. If it’s something that you want to do and you think you will enjoy, however, then I say go for it. I’m always “all about” someone getting out there and enjoying any kind of exercise that will heighten their current fitness level.

However, I am also a huge believer in getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. I’m also a huge fan of getting results.

So what I have done is consulted with dozens of resources and as many experts in both pilates and yoga that I could find to effectively “whittle down” the basics of both to their core levels to find the key movements from each that will work to enhance the stretching exercises to increase height that you are currently doing.

The resulting exercises are absolutely phenomenal at not only stretching and aligning your body so that you can gain height, but also at strengthening and toning those oft-neglected core muscle groups that are so indescribably important at both gaining and maintaining optimal height.

How to Get Tall While You Sleep

It may be surprising to learn, but in addition to stretching exercises to increase height and other grow taller exercises you can actually begin to teach your body how to get tall while you sleep as well.

Did you know that astronauts often gain two to four inches in height after they have been in zero gravity for an extended period of time?  This is because the lack of Earth’s gravity pulling down on them allows their spines to decompress, making them temporarily taller.  However, while it would be nice to simulate such an experience here on Earth, it’s pretty much impossible.

Well, it is and it isn’t.
Did you know that you already simulate the conditions that the astronauts go through every day?  It’s true and you can verify this yourself.

If you are really curious, you can try this little experiment.  You should already be measuring your height regularly while you are training your body how to get tall – perhaps not every single day, but regularly.  Measure yourself just before you go to bed and once again right after you wake up in the morning.  You will find that you’re likely to measure up to a full inch taller in the morning.

The reason that this happens is the same principle that applies to the astronauts.  Between each of the 33 vertebrae in your spine, there are discs that are composed of stretchable cartilage.  The entire premise behind the Grow Taller Blog and the methods I’ve used to learn how to grow taller are designed specifically to safely and effectively take advantage of this elasticity to make permanent height gains.  This is done by strengthening these discs and promoting their elasticity.

When people fail to properly exercise their spinal columns (and most people do fail to do this), over time these spaces compress, which greatly minimizes the elasticity of the cartilage.  Not only can this make you permanently shorter, but it can also lead to chronic back pain, fatigue, and headaches as well.  No wonder we have such an epidemic of chronic back pain sufferers!

Your spinal column will naturally compress some throughout the day as a result of the gravity being placed on it.  Gravity makes a pronounced difference on the spine no matter whether you are standing or sitting.  But the one time that gravity has no effect on your spine is when you are sleeping.  This is really one of the only times that your spine has the chance to lengthen itself to its natural condition and is why sleeping is truly one of the most important ways how to get taller naturally.

This is also why it is so important to maintain a healthy weight.  Simply put, the less weight that you are burdening your spine with, the less weight that is dragging it down.  Additionally, the stronger your abdominal and other support muscles are, the more they naturally support your spinal column and keep your posture optimized.

The idea behind all of this is to increase the thickness and integrity of the cartilage between the vertebrae so that it is more resilient and less prone to the downward pull of gravity, making it possible to “teach” your body not only how to look taller but also how to be taller.

While the stretching exercises definitely help, proper sleeping position is crucial to making this possible.
Everything that mattress companies tell you about proper sleep position is a lie.  But their messages permeate our culture because their advertisements are what we are constantly exposed to.  We see the images over and over of a happy couple laying in bed together and waking up “refreshed” and “energized” in the morning.

But how many people that spend the thousands upon thousands of dollars for these mattresses (and there are many of them, I assure you) are jumping out of bed refreshed and full of vigor like in the commercials?  Very few.

One of the main culprits of this is the simple use of a pillow.  Using a pillow should be avoided at all costs for the simple reason that pillows cause your neck to bend forward at an extremely unnatural angle.  Your head is being forced forward, which arches your back as well.  Not only does this severely decrease the ability of your spine to naturally decompress, but it also leads to back problems and posture problems as well.

Your spine needs to be as straight as possible during sleeping periods to allow it to fully decompress.  Sleep on your back as straight as possible.  Your legs should be straight as well.  Your arms can lie at your sides or, if you wish, you can cross your hands over yours stomach.  Your head can turn slightly to the left or to the right if that is more comfortable for you.  The most important aspect to this sleeping position is to keep your torso, your neck, and your legs aligned and relaxed throughout the night.


This method of sleeping will likely seem foreign and uncomfortable at first.  It certainly was for me for at least 5 days.  Some people may take longer to acclimate themselves to it.  However, once you grow accustomed to it, you will find that you stay taller longer in the mornings and you are getting a more restful sleep.

One method that will help ease you into this sleeping position much, much faster is to make sure that you don’t go to bed until you are absolutely tired.  The stretching exercises and increased amount of cardiovascular exercise should help tremendously with this.  Additionally, if you are taking the supplement ZMA at night, you will find that you are able to get much more restful sleep, much, much faster than you were before.

If you have a history of back and neck injury or pain, I urge you to contact your physician before altering your sleep position if the one that you are now using was medically recommended to you.  Your physician may suggest a special pillow that is ergonomically-designed to take the stress off of your spine as well.  These pillows are usually made of a foam substance and have two “hills,” one at the top of the pillow and a smaller one at the bottom.  The generally-prescribed use of these pillows is to rest your head inside the “valley” with your neck across the smaller “hill.”


While these pillows are, indeed, better than standard, store-bought pillows, if you are able to sleep without them, it’s much better to forgo the pillow altogether.

Beginning immediately, begin sleeping without a pillow on your back.  This will probably feel awkward and foreign to you for the first several nights, but you will find that you become accustomed to it after a short while.  To help you become adjusted much easier, be sure to complete the prescribed stretching and  cardiovascular exercises as well as eat as prescribed and take the supplement ZMA.  This will ensure that your sleep is much more restful and you get to sleep much sooner.

How to Become Taller by Hanging

Hanging is not what any of us would call an “advanced” exercise by any means but can be a powerful arsenal in training your body how to become taller.  By all rights, all you’re doing is holding on to a bar and allowing your body weight to help uncompress your spine.  It’s a pretty simple maneuver, to say the least but in spite of this, hanging is one of the absolute best exercises you can do to train your body how to become taller.


In spite of its effectiveness, I feel compelled to point out that hanging is not always fun.  In fact, until you’ve built up your grip strength, hanging will probably be one of the most tedious height increasing exercises you will do.

It’s definitely difficult to acquire a grip that is strong enough to hang your whole body weight on a bar for an extended period of time.

Many people don’t even have a bar to hang on to.

Here’s where I show you a couple of tips to help you get the most out of your hanging so you will see how it is one of the most powerful ways to grow taller.

The first thing you obviously need is a bar.  Now, unless you already have some sort of home gym that has a stationary bar to hang on to, you’ve probably been scratching your head as to how you can perform this oh-so-important exercise effectively.

I installed a pullup bar in a doorway frame in my basement.  It installs easily within about 10 or 15 minutes with just a couple of screws.  But even the most expensive bar in the world isn’t going to help your grip, however.  So what I’ve found that has helped with this immensely is to use writs wraps.  They work like this:
You wrap the looped portion around your wrist and then the strap around the bar.  The friction this creates helps you keep your grip on the bar while you hang much, much more efficiently.  Bodybuilders use these straps to lift hundreds of pounds doing an exercise called “dead lifts” so you can be pretty well assured that they are strong enough to help you hold your body weight.

Now, you should be hanging for at least 30 minutes per week to get taller, but the more you can hang the more you get out of it.  That’s why I highly recommend that you are able to place a bar somewhere in your home and have access to some good wrist wraps.

You can also vary your grip on the bar to produce a variety of results.  A wider grip will help sculpt your shoulder and back muscles to create a more defined “V” shape after a while.  The wider grip is also harder.

Unless you are already comfortable with the hanging exercises, keep performing a close-hand grip for another two weeks or so and then you can graduate to a wider grip.  If you feel that you’re ready to graduate to the wide grip, then by all means, go for it.

The most important thing is to get your hanging time in for the week.