How To Grow 4 Inches Taller

If you want to find out how to grow 4 inches taller, then I’m afraid that the rather simple answer might be disappointing.

Unless you’re still in puberty and your growth plates are open, you can’t grow 4 inches taller by using any kind of height-increasing tactic.

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How to grow 4 inches taller

If your body still has the ability to gain additional height, here’s how you can maximize your chance of getting 4 inches taller.

Hope that you’re still in puberty

Once the epiphyseal plates at the ends of your long bones fuse, you won’t be able to get any taller, regardless of what you do. ^[1]

That’s why I decided to begin the discussion with growth plates.

Sure, you can add 4 inches to your height by wearing certain shoes and insoles, but that’s not what most people want.

They want a 4 inch height increase naturally. But unless your body is still growing in height, such an increase simply isn’t possible.

Maximize your height potential

If you’re still growing, or think that you might still be growing, and want to maximize your future height growth, then you need to get good sleep, eat a healthy, whole-food diet, and perform plenty of exercise.

Let’s take a look at each one in more detail.

Sleep releases growth hormone and helps you to recover from your day of work and physical exertion. This rest and relaxation is important because having excess cortisol flowing through your body can actually suppress growth hormone production.

That’s not what you want when you’re trying to grow 4 inches taller.

In terms of diet, you should avoid junk foods and instead eat nutritious foods that contain an abundance of vitamins and minerals.

This means eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, but it also means getting in your healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

As for actual meals, oatmeal with berries and/or seeds and a bowl of yogurt is a great way to start the day because it’s nutrient-dense and gives you plenty of energy, which is important when you’re exercising intensely.

We’ll discuss working out in just a sec.

Be strategic with your shoes

If you’re really insecure about your height but don’t want to wear special height-increasing shoes, then you can simply opt to wear boots or certain types of trainers that have a solid heel.

You can also get smart shoes that have a thicker heel as well if you’re wearing a more formal attire for work.

This tip might get you an extra inch (yes, a full inch) compared to wearing flatter shoes. But when you combine it with my next tip, the height increase will appear even more dramatic.

Stand tall and improve your posture

A man demonstrating how to have good posture

Standing tall makes you look more confident, which is important, considering that most people equate height with status. ^[2]

When you walk, act, and speak with confidence, there’s a very good chance that people will overlook your height if you’re short and potentially even overestimate your height as well.

Add in a concrete improvement in posture, which will help you to display your full skeletal height, and you’ll be well on your way to getting 4 inches taller.

Note that I said well on your way. Standing tall and wearing heeled shoes won’t give you an instant 4 inch height increase. But if you wear special height-increasing insoles as well, then there’s a good chance that you will actually add 4 inches to your barefoot height.

Exercise every day

Exercising every day is an important part of maintaining good health. But if you’re working out with the goal of maximizing your height and getting 4 inches taller, then you don’t want to do just any old workout.

Intense workouts release more growth hormone than low-intensity activities. So while you shouldn’t overtrain, it’s a good idea to make some of your training sessions more intense than others so that you can trigger a massive surge in HGH.

Now, growth hormone secretion will most likely return to baseline later in the day. But when you keep spiking this crucial hormone on a daily basis, there’s certainly a chance that these transient HGH spikes could make some difference to your height growth.

Or let me put it to you like this, as long as you’re recovering properly via diet and sleep, intense workouts aren’t going to hurt your height development.

Is it possible to grow 4 inches taller in a week?

Is it possible to grow 4 inches taller in a week? No, it’s absolutely impossible to grow 4 inches taller in a week or in 2 weeks. The human body simply cannot grow this quickly.

So, while it’s true that growing 4 inches taller in a week is a physical impossibility, you can grow taller (but probably not noticeably taller) within a week if you’re going through a phase of rapid height increase during puberty.

Related: 4 inch height difference

Can you really grow 4 inches taller in a month?

A man showing how to add 4 inches to your height

Although some people claim that you can get 4 inches taller in the space of a month, this simply isn’t possible because your bones don’t grow that fast—even during puberty.

To be sure, a person who’s experiencing rapid pubertal development might be able to get a bit taller in a month. But 4 inches taller in a month? That’s just not possible.

How long does it take to grow 4 inches taller?

A boy getting measured with a stadiometer

So, given that you can’t add four inches to your height in a week or a month, how long does it take to grow 4 inches taller?

Well, if you’re in puberty, it could happen in a year or 18 months. This is especially true if you’re just starting to experience rapid height growth.

But if you’re toward the end of puberty or are in adulthood, then the chances of you growing four inches taller in any amount of time are slim to none.

Conclusion: Should you try to get 4 inches taller or not?

Unless you’re currently going through puberty, then trying to grow 4 inches taller is a waste of time and energy—time and energy that you could spend on developing areas of your physique or life that you can control.

So while there are ways to make the most of your current height and improve your stature a bit, such as stretching, these small changes will not lead to a 4 inch height increase.

References

Epiphyseal Plate. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/epiphyseal-plate
Samaras T. T. (2012). How height is related to our health and longevity: a review. Nutrition and health, 21(4), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106013510996
Cole, T. J., & Wright, C. M. (2011). A chart to predict adult height from a child’s current height. Annals of human biology, 38(6), 662–668. https://doi.org/10.3109/03014460.2011.598189