Height Increase versus Bodybuilding: Which Should you Chose?

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Many people take up bodybuilding when what they really want is height increase. However, bodybuilding may actually have the potential to increase height by increasing shearing forces on irregular bones (spine, pelvis, calcaneous) or by encouraging appositional growth by encouraging osteoblast bone deposition underneath the periosteum.

Even though bodybuilding has benefits for height increase, if you want to increase your stature then you should design a specific routine for that purpose. Even though bodybuilding can increase the length of short, flat, and irregular bones it is still lacking in the long bone department which is where a dedicated height increase routine can come in handy.

There are only so many hours in the day and eventually, you have to decide what you really want. Many height increase methods involve mechanical loading so you will get a benefit for hypertrophy by doing a height increase routine. Fat loss is also important for a height gain routine as you want your insulin sensitivity to be as high as possible (insulin is anabolic to everything including bone). Fat loss is incredibly important to bodybuilding as if you’re not low body fat percentage you have no chance of winning a bodybuilding competition.

Muscle growth is another area of intersection between height increase and bodybuilding. Muscle provides a stimulus on the bone and has been shown to be correlated with bone growth. Muscle also gives you better posture which will allow you to stand taller. Another place where bodybuilding and height gain share a common theme is that they both use the gym. It’s very difficult to perform advanced height building exercises at home unless you have a large budget for your gym.

You can see that building your height and bodybuilding share many common attributes. However, you still need to focus on one goal in order to optimize for that goal. Bodybuilders have not been very successful at gaining height. I hope that you chose height increase over bodybuilding and realize that you can still get your gym fix by being a height seeker.