Ever since I started Running, I have heard from and spoke with fellow runners who are all curious about one common question; does running increase height?

A lot of people believe that you cannot grow Taller once you are over 22 years or so.

The truth is that you can actually grow a few inches taller and running can help you with it. 

So how is that possible?

How Can Running Increase your Height?

Running has always been my favorite workout routine. I love running because it has helped me obtain a fairly healthy lifestyle. Other than maintaining a lean body and boosting my health, running has also helped me add a few inches to my height.

Here is a look at some of the ways running can help increase your height. It might not increase too much of your height, but people will notice a change in your tallness.

1. It Stretches the Spine

According to Steady Health, this is the first way of how running contributes to your height. The spine is supposedly the most susceptible part of the body that relates to the posture. An inactive lifestyle or other activities that lead to a poor posture can end up compressing the spinal vertebrae.

Unlike most of other exercises, running will force you to get off your comfortable position and get moving. For that, your body is kept busy, which in turn maintains a perfect posture. When this happens, your spine is decompressed.

That is where tallness comes in because a compressed spine makes you look shorter.

When your spine is decompressed, and it is more upright, your posture will also be upright. As you might have noticed, many people try to straighten their back so as to look taller.

The good news is that running does this for you in a more natural manner.

2. Stimulating the Growth Hormone

Health therapists also state that running can contribute to the height increase by stimulating the growth hormone. When you run, the HGH growth hormones are naturally produced. Nonetheless, this will only happen if you are running intensively. Also, proper diet is needed for this to happen naturally.

The level of the growth hormone will depend on the effectiveness of the exercise. This concept applies perfectly for longer distance runners. I have personally noticed that several of my experienced marathon running friends have increased their height after several mnths of training.

The good thing about the effect of intensive running is that the released hormones will be effective in the body for about 24 hours after the exercise.

So if you are a regular intensive runner, you can end up releasing a lot of the growth hormone that will contribute to the natural body growth.

Don’t forget to incorporate your intensive exercise with a well-balanced diet. The Fit Indian recommends such foods like eggs, soybeans, dairy products, chicken, nuts and seeds, bananas, among others.

3. Repairing of Microfractures

As pointed out in Find Health Tips, running also contributes to a height increase by repairing the Microfractures in the body. When you run for short distances at top speeds, it will repair the microfractures around the ankle area or the lower shin.

Having a very inactive lifestyle of the body can also lead to ossified bones in the leg. Sprinting helps to fix the injured microfractures in the bones, which then increase the length of the bones. Longer bones lead to a taller body. And that is how running helps to increase your tallness.

4. So Should you Start Running to Grow tTaller?

Technically, running will not directly make you taller, but it will contribute to some factors that increase your height. If you want to run basically to simply get taller, you might be disappointed (sorry Skee Lo) You will end up adding only 3 inches or so to your normal height.

What running does is to reveal your hidden height by fixing your posture. You will have relaxed shoulders, a straight back, and your head will stay up. In other words, running helps to fix the curved posture that makes a person appear shorter.

Also, it helps to trigger the hormones that lead to the natural bodily growth. So if the growth hormones work at your height, you will end up looking taller than before. Unfortunately, if you have a shortness gene, the growth hormone will only work to the maximum height that still looks short.

4. Sprinting or Long distance? What's the best Way to Run to Increase your Height?

The Natural Height Growth points out that how you run will affect the growth hormone synthesis. Here are some of the strategies to apply when you want to add some inches to your height through running.