Taller How To Get
Increase your Height and Boost your Confidence!
JAMES SILVERSTONE CEO, Height Increasing Altitude Shoes www.AltitudeShoes.com
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Disclaimer Information found in this book, How To Get Taller, should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions, or as a substitute for professional medical care. If you have a health concern or believe you may have a health problem, please consult your healthcare professional. We assert that this is only for informational purposes and is not a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professional. You should not use the information contained herein for diagnosing a health or fitness problem or disease. You should always consult your own physician and medical advisors. Reasonable care has been taken to provide you with correct and accurate information, but we take no responsibility, nor make any warranties as to its accuracy thereof. We assume no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of this book.
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About The Author James Silverstone is the Founder and CEO of Height Increasing Altitude Shoes. James spent over 5 years researching how men could look and be taller, more dominant and more confident. Soon after, he wrote this book and established the international phenomenon which is now known worldwide as "Altitude Shoes". Altitude Shoes are designed to look and feel like normal, stylish and classy shoes while simultaneously making men taller by up to 4 inches. The objective of Altitude Shoes is to make men stand out. Both short and tall men wear Altitude Shoes. The only criteria of wearing Altitude Shoes is that you have to be OK with 'standing out'. Although Altitude Shoes look like completely normal shoes on the outside, they will give you the height to stand out. Fans and loyal customers say that the extra height and stylish design leads to higher levels of self confidence, social & business success and attractiveness (see customer Testimonials). A vast amount of research & development has gone into this book and the entire Altitude Shoes range. The Altitude Shoes team hopes that you enjoy the book and our shoes as much as we have enjoyed putting them together.
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Introduction We all know that first impressions count for a lot. One of the things that determines first impressions is how tall you are. This book presumes that you have an interest in knowing how to become taller. In Chapter 1 we outline that there are inherent advantages to being tall. However, whatever your reasons for becoming taller and reaching your maximum height potential this book aims to give you simple and easy to follow steps to reach that potential. Not everyone can grow to be a Yao Ming or Shaquille O’Neal, but what everybody should do is maximise their chances of growing to their full potential. This book will help you with that. Something you may be thinking is “I’m already too old to continue growing. So should I stop reading?”. The answer is the later chapters in the book (particularly Chapters 5 and 7) will teach you how to ‘look’ and ‘become’ taller and also teach you ways to express your confidence so that height is less of a factor. We still recommend you read the entire book because the information contained within will enhance your life in other ways aside from height alone. This book was written primarily to be an informative, easy to read guide on how to maximise your potential. We hope you enjoy it.
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Chapter 1 Advantages of Being Taller You’ve downloaded this book because you want to become taller, so naturally we’re assuming that you already know (or have some inkling) that being taller has inherent advantages. However, before we start, let’s crystallize some of those thoughts and establish clearly some of the advantages that height gives us, and particularly reasons why most men want to be taller.
Taller men are physically more attractive to women Numerous studies show that women prefer men that are physically taller. This is because height is an indicator of good genes. Evolutionary psychology suggests that this is because tall men were seen as physically dominant and thus more able to lead and provide for a woman and her offspring. To ensure longevity of their offspring, women consequently looked for taller men to mate with. This bias still exists today and women sexually prefer men who are taller.
Taller men are more likely to succeed in the business world In his bestselling book ‘Blink’, Malcolm Gladwell documents the link between height and leadership and success. His findings were telling. In roughly 250 Fortune 500 Companies, 58% of CEO’s were over 6 feet tall. This is an over-representation of 400% when compared with American men in the population who are over 6 feet tall. Other studies corroborate this finding. According to a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology someone who is 6 feet tall earns, on average, nearly $166,000 more during a 30-year career than someone who is 5 feet 5 inches--even when controlling for gender, age and weight.
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There is consequently strong evidence that being taller and achieving success in life go hand in hand. This may be because taller men are less ignored by others or are simply subconsciously more dominant. The tallest guy in the room will always command more attention than a similarly capable individual who is shorter. Whatever the reason, the findings are clear: taller people tend to have more success in life than shorter people.
On average, a person earns $789 more per inch they are taller
Taller men are more dominant and accepted socially Taller people are more likely to be in a position of power in the workplace, schoolyard and other social groups and gatherings. This likely stems from what happens naturally in interactions between shorter people and taller people. For example, a tall person looking down on shorter person during conversation is demonstrating inherently dominant behavior. On the flipside, shorter people must look up to taller people during interactions, which is inherently submissive. It is no wonder then that tall people are seen as having authority / dominance in a relationship
Taller men make better, faster, and more agile athletes Remember in high school when it was always one of the taller guys who got picked as team captain? Here are a few reasons why:
• I bet you can figure out why being tall comes in handy when playing basketball or vol - leyball, but height gives you an advantage in other sports as well. • Longer legs help greatly in sports requiring running since a longer stride length means that speed doesn’t need to be developed to the same extent that an athlete with
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shorter legs has to reach. • A longer reach helps in all martial arts, boxing and fencing. Studies have shown that, time and time again, height and being taller has great advantages and improves one’s chances of upward mobility in all areas of life. One over arching theory suggests that someone who unknowingly intimidates others with their height for their entire life gets their way more as people are less likely to oppose them. They thus learn to experience less resistance in their life and their behavior adjusts so that they are naturally act more in line with influence and success without even knowing it.
Summary Height isn’t the only way to judge a person’s potential in business, sports or any other area of life, but studies show that there is an undoubted correlation that cannot be ignored. Thus, if you had the power to even out the playing field, the question is… why wouldn’t you? The good news is that you do have the power to change your height.
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By the age of 33 taller men and slimmer women are much more likely to be married
For more information on studies of why height is an advantage please see Height, Relationship, Satisfaction, Jealousy and Mate Retention, Gayle Brewer. This fascinating study of evolutionary psychology established that male height is associated with high mate value. The study details why tall men are perceived as more attractive dominant and of a higher status than shorter rivals, resulting in a greater lifetime reproductive success. See the full study in the Evolutionary Psychology Journal at http://www.epjournal.net/.
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Chapter 2 An Introduction to Height According to the magazine ‘The Scientific American’ “about 60 to 80 percent of the difference in height between individuals is determined by genetic factors, whereas 20 to 40 percent can be attributed to environmental effects, mainly nutrition.” Nutritional strategies will be discussed later in this book, but for now, let’s explore some genetic and biological factors which affect height.
Biology and Genetics The first gene linked to tallness in humans was isolated by researchers working in hospitals in association with Harvard and Oxford Universities. It was found that humans inherit a copy of the ‘HMGA2’ gene from the mother and father. A specific form of this gene can add a little over an inch to the child, while inheritance of two of the genes can add about two and a half inches to the child’s adult height. This skeletal growth allows more height to be achieved, causing muscles and connective tissue to adapt to the new size. Your skeleton provides a framework for your body’s size and dimensions, and height is a predominant factor of this (others being shoulder width, waist width, muscle mass. There is little that can be done to increase the size of a bone when it has reached its full growth, but during the growth process (childhood and adolescence), nutrition plays a big role in determining your adult height. If you are in this phase (or have loved ones who are), then pay close attention to the later chapter on Nutrition.
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Growth spurts Growth takes place from time of birth to adulthood. However, it is not a regular or predictable process. Two major growth spurts occur in a child’s life: o The first is during infancy o The second occurs at the onset of puberty A youth may grow as many as 4 inches in one year. After a year or two and toward the end of puberty, the growth rate slows down again. The beginning of the puberty (the second and most significant growth phase) increase in height is about age 9 in girls and 11 in boys but varies widely from individual to individual. However, the major puberty growth spurt begins a little later on in early adolescence. Most girls have their major adolescent growth spurt between the age of 12 and 13 years; whereas most boys experience this between the age of 14 and 15 years.
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After the growth spurt, for most individuals, growth continues but slows down to a much steadier rate. Each individual may experience growth spurts earlier or later than the average age. Although it is widely accepted that an individual’s maximum height is achieved by the late teens, this is not correct. While it is generally true that most girls reach their full height by 18 while most boys by 20, there are many examples of individuals that continue to grow taller even into their twenties.
The Spinal Column This Spinal Column is important to the topic of how to increase your height because, unlike your limbs, the spinal column can be shaped and modified to make you look taller (this will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5 - How to look taller). The spinal column is made of the seven cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar, five sacral and four coccygeal vertebrae, that is, a total of 33 bony segments or vertebrae. These are strong bones with several functions including providing a framework for your upper body and allowing movements such as twisting and bending. Your spine is naturally “S” shaped and when you are standing front-on, a correctly aligned spine will appear as if a straight line is running through your
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body from the crown of your head, down the centre of your torso, and finishing between your feet. In between the vertebrae, 22 discs made of cartilage material are located. The main function of these discs is to absorb the shock, provide the spine flexibility and hold together the vertebrae providing them support. These discs contribute to about one-fourth of the height of the vertebral column.
The spinal column contributes 30-40% of an average person’s height
The spinal column allows for good scope of growth and can be stimulated even post puberty. Even though most of the height growth happens during the early stages of life, that is, adolescence and puberty, growth after puberty can be achieved by stimulating the less dense material in the body like cartilage and muscles. On the other hand, the denser bones do not grow much after a certain age. This is why the spinal discs are so important for gaining extra inches to your height. You can do this by regularly stretching and moving your back to keep your discs elastic and susceptible to increase in length by a few millimetres, which can add up to inches, combining contribution from all the 22 discs.
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The other important area of height increase from the spinal column is the supporting spine muscles and ligaments. These are a major contributor to your posture and determine the amount of curvature your spine will have in its different regions. Weak muscles lend to a bad posture, which in turn makes you look shorter. An upright torso is supported by strong spinal muscles. Pilates and other muscle building exercises can be immensely helpful in building strong muscles, which will support your spinal column well and give you a good posture. Another spinal column related factor that affects your height is the spinal curvatures. The lesser the extent of these curvatures, the taller you will be. In fact, a higher degree of curvature than normal also puts stress on the discs causing them to compress and further reduce your height. Moreover, abnormally high curvatures can also cause stress and strain on your body leading to other medical problems. The common spine curvature problems include swayback, hunchback and poke neck. In swayback, the lower back’s curve is exaggerated, usually caused by weak abdomen muscles or excessive fat around the stomach. Hunchback or rounded upper back is caused by poor posture practiced while sitting and walking. This is also a sign of weak shoulder muscles. Poke neck, mostly a habitual problem, is the forward thrust of the head, as if protruding out of the neck. To maintain the right curvature of your spine, the way you carry yourself becomes very important. The more you tend to slouch when you sit, stand or walk, the more the spinal column bends and gets abnormally curved. Sitting upright, standing straight and walking with your shoulders thrown back and your chest out helps to straighten the spinal column and makes you look taller. To illustrate this point further try a simple test. Stand as you normally would against a wall, get someone to measure your height, and mark it on the wall. Do it once again, only this time stand erect and try to align your spinal column as close to the wall as possible, keeping your back straight and chest out. You will notice that there is a difference between your first measurement and your second measurement, the latter being more by an inch or so. This clearly confirms that your posture affects your height. Make a conscious effort to keep your spinal column straight. Initially you will feel strange and awkward but once your body adjusts to your new posture it will come to you naturally and you will notice a difference in your height.
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Stretching and reaching out for things out of your way is also a good way to stimulate the nerves, cartilage and muscles in the spinal area. Since the nerves are dense around the spinal column, the stimulation causes production of more growth hormones. These hormones will get absorbed by the body when you do activities like stretching, resulting in growth. Though the bones of the spinal column cannot grow much, the cartilage of the discs and muscles have the potential to absorb these growth hormones and nutrients. It is therefore necessary to exercise the spinal cord to force it to absorb these nutrients that will cause growth. Sit-ups, squats and pull-ups are excellent forms off exercise that help stimulate the vertebral column. Like any other body part, the spinal column also needs to weaned back into growing to help you grow taller after puberty. You need to create an environment that would favour and facilitate this growth. This can be done through proper exercise and nutrition. The chapters on exercise and nutrition in this book will give you more details on a how to follow a focused approach to stimulate the various parts of your spinal column to grow taller.
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Chapter 3 How We Grow The changes in height which occur from childhood to adulthood can be thought of in two ways: 1. The total height made at successive ages; and 2. The increments in height from one age to the next, expressed as growth rate. For the purposes of this chapter, you can think of growth in height as a road trip, where total height is the mileage from your origin to your destination, and the growth rate is the different speeds you would be travelling at throughout the trip.
Physiology - Childhood Although most babies grow an average of 10 inches in length during their first year of life, by the time they go to school, their growth rate slows to approximately 2 inches each year. During childhood, and through puberty, the long bones of the body contain epiphyseal plates, commonly called “growth plates”. These are populations of cartilage cells, which are located at each end of the bone. The cartilage cells, called “chondrocytes”, are very responsive to the growth signals present in a normal growing body and continue to divide during growth. This enables the bones to keep on growing until the person reaches their adult height. Once this height is reached, the cartilage in the epiphyseal plates is replaced by rigid bone, which does not respond to Growth Hormone.
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Genetics Genes play a major role in growth, which is understandable because almost everything about us (to varying degrees) can be attributed to heredity or genetics. According to an article published in the November 2008 issue of “Growth, Genetics & Hormones Journal,” genes are primarily responsible for determining a child’s growth pattern.
Hormones The Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is responsible for regulating the growth of the body. The growth hormone provides the information about the cellular make-up, which is used by the body to produce more cells of the same genetic structure causing body growth. These hormones are carried to the various organs of the body via the blood stream. The pituitary gland is responsible for the production of this essential hormone in the body. This gland is situated deep inside the brain, and synthesizes and releases several important hormones including HGH.
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The pituitary gland that synthesizes growth hormones in human body is of the size of a pea and weighs only 0.5g
Human Growth Hormones are produced and released in response to stimulus that the pituitary gland receives from the different organs of the body. During the pubescent stage of an individual, the chemical messengers and hormones signal the body to grow in height. As a result of this, the organs of the body demand HGH from the pituitary gland and are ready to absorb the growth hormone when it is made available to them. An artificial growth hormone has been developed and is used extensively as an anabolic agent while training in the sports industry. It is also used to treat older people suffering from certain medical conditions. It is found to delay the effects of aging and helps to increase longevity and life span. This artificial HGH however has been found to be ineffective in dealing with the increase in height. Though this compound helps to lose fat and put on muscle mass, it was discovered that only natural Human Growth Hormone is effective in bringing about changes in a person’s height. This is because when the synthetic hormone is induced, it encounters the body in a state when it is not in a position to absorb it. Synthetic growth hormone can be consumed in the form of a shot or a tablet. Both these methods of obtaining the hormones are artificial and do not involve any bodily functions to be active. Since the necessary triggers required by the body to synthesize the hormone are missing, the brain does not receive any messages stating that the body requires the growth hormone. Due to this the body believes that the hormone that it has acquired through these artificial means is unnecessary and in excess. The organs of the body refuse to accept it and the body in turn expels it out as waste. Because of this reason, synthetic growth hormones have failed to deliver results especially when dealing with height issues.
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The whole idea behind inducing human growth hormone is to force growth of the body in the cartilage, bones and muscles. Synthetic products may be beneficial for putting on muscle mass, but they could work against your body under a few circumstances. The platelets of the bones are responsible for bone development and formation. Until the age of 25 these plates are open and help in cell reproduction and increase in height. During the adolescent years, due to the mixed chemical signals and hormonal imbalances present in the body, a person may suffer from temporary human growth hormonal disorders. Lower amounts of HGH may be produced at this time, but if the body is stimulated properly and with the right kind of exercises, this problem can be easily rectified. However, at this stage, if the adolescent decides to take synthetic HGH it could be harmful and result in permanently stunting his or her growth. The HGH could cause the plates to close prematurely and affect the growth. Whether below or over 25 years of age, you should definitely consult with a paediatric endocrinologist before taking any synthetic growth hormones. A doctor would also be able to advise you on the quantity of the hormone you need to consume to ensure that you are benefited from it.
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Chapter 4 How We Can Grow Some More Thus far we have provided foundational knowledge regarding anatomy and how various tissues in the body grow through natural processes. This chapter is where we put this to practice and discuss what influences growth, and more importantly, how YOU can influence these factors so you can grow just a little bit more. While there is no magic pill that you can take to grow taller, taking action on these factors will ensure that you do not miss out on growth opportunities. Later chapters will cover more actionable steps of how to increase your height immediately, but this chapter is crucial so that you do not miss out on growth opportunities. Nutrition is a big player here, but it will be covered in Chapter 6 – Nutrition. However, the next most important growth factor is so easy to take advantage of that you can do it in your sleep!
Sleep Sleep or rest is crucial for optimal functioning in everyday activity.
The body grows most during deep sleep
Losing as little as 3 hours of sleep can result in a 50% reduction in immune function, making someone who is sleep deprived for a few days or a few weeks far more susceptible to disease and illness than someone who is smart about their recovery and getting sufficient sleep. Sleep
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can be broken down into stages, here’s a table describing what goes on physiologically when you sleep: Sleep stage
Brain wave type
Wave speed
Bodily reactions
Fully awake
Beta
20 cycles per second
Alertness
Feeling sleepy
Alpha
10 cycles per second
Deeply relaxed, reduced Central Nervous System activity
Light sleep
Theta
