I really can't since i don't know much about it. But i think that several stretching programs, like Pilates could make you an inch or two taller, ive heard it said.
Sorry this is so long but i have to chime in on the details. After a serious bacck injury, "Palates: Balanced Body " was a life saver. I atribute my ability to return to active play and live pain free with out surgery, recovering form ten day paralysis, entirely to the program. This is not the course you take at a local gym or YMCA. At about 400 US per hour and half. I attended for 3-4 days per week for 4 months. the next month was 2 per week and last month was 1 per week.
Pilates: Balanced Body. It isnt that you actually get talller. It is said tha you FEEL taller. The "balancded Body" is a bit more than mat work and I am not going to get into the details of it. The program targets your core body. It seriously engages joint motion and your connective tissues as well as anterior and exterior spinal muscles. Fascia is a type of covering for each of your muscles.
If you have ever seen a side of beef that was skinned out, there is a white semi transparent "sac" for want of a better word. Looked it up close it is formed by long fluid filled tubes, like hollow spaghetti. Each connected to the adjacent at each end like sausage links. These can get twisted, kinked and bound up. The program tends to smooth the structures out.
to demonstrate use a bundle of ten skate laces or you imagination and any stringed instrument. With the stings flat, untangled and taunt they are under tention and elongated. Grip the grouping at its middle in your fist and slacken a little. Those "tubes", with just simple movement of the grip or swisting at any end will cause the tubes to cross or lay over each other instead of being smooth and in a row.
Next test, lay your forearm from wrist elbow on a flat surface and relax. Reach over with other hand and gently pull on your wrist or finger. IF your truely relaxed you will feel the pull all the way to your sholder and above. If not you can just have someone do the old "pull your finger" deal. You WILL feel that into the shoulder but its not subtle. With the stretch, the fascia "tubes" are elongated causing the added "fluid pressure" in these tubes. Fill a hose with water and hold each end closed. Have someone jump on it in any where on its length and fluid will quirt out each end. With the dascia, there are not "ends". The pressure is transmitted up and down the lengths from muscle to muscle along the sacs.
It is that pressure that provides the feed back to your brain. Its the reason you can reach both hands anywhere out of your sight and touch them together finger tip to finger tip. those who believe te body has a FLOW of energy, chi, hakra, whatever and that the Fascia is the "distibution system" for your bodys "energy". People call this "proprioception" or more simplistic and illogially, Muscle memory". Muscle does not have memory. Unlike a nylon rope, if you mull its strands apart and then try to retwine, the do not hold a shape.
When these tubes become fluid, smooth and unbound they (fascia) are, as mentioned above, elongated. This is what makes you FEEL taller. along with ity comes improved reaction times and efficient impulse passage. Ever get a sharp burning sensation that last for just a few seconds and fades away as rapidly as it started? Maybe in the middle of the back, shoulder oor ouside of the knee at the Bend. It can happen frequently for runners stretching out the legs. Nerves pass through these and can get "pinched" by kinked and bound facia. Many consider it a muscle cramp but there is no visible contraction of a local muscle. In many cases its a bound nerve passage causing the pain. It can be repetetive in nature or a "phantom" pain.
On a side note: Flesh eating disease....This is an infection that attacks that muscle coating. It spreads along the tubes. If you have seen any pictures, its like getting a rotten layer between two good ones. You know what happens when you have a bad apple in a barrel of good ones? Did you know that ir is unproven but surmised that Creatine affects these fluid levels? The long term consequences are unknown...
Fascia is not something you hear about much but is vital to your health and well being. On the first visit, the Instructor told me of the "taller" thing and I didnt have a clue as to what he meant. Nearing my full recovery, I totally understood. Entering the studio on day one with my full stride length so short that my heals did not pass each other, 3 weeks later getting to the studio 10-15 minutes earlier and using a treadmill to warm up, 3 months later back to doing complete splits in either axis, 1 year 4 months and 16 days later, returning to the ice in a skate and shoot. That day is a whole other wild story involving an old time Sabres alumni, but that is a strory for a different thread.
