Monthly Archives: January 2013

Body Hack XVIII: How To Fight And Beat A Person Taller And Bigger Than You

andre arnold wiltAt some point I realized that I would have to write a post about this type of topic especially for the young men who might read this website and post feeling at some level resentful or fearful of other men who might be taller and bigger than them. Being smaller than other people in life is hard since automatically you have a disadvantage to them from your size.

Since we  know that the average human grows at a proportional way, we can say that if you are shorter than another person, you probably also have shorter legs than them, shorter arms than them which translates to a shorter reach to reach their body points, and maybe also a smaller fist and feet to punch them and kick them with.

Here is the real truth of most fighting arts you might have picked up when you were younger like Tae Kwon Do, Karate, or Kung Fu. They don’t really work unless you have had at least multiple years of training to calm your instinctual reflexes which involve the fight or flight response.

It was probably the legendary Bruce Lee who was really the first really Mixed Martial Artist who decided to really look at the effectiveness of all the systems of martial arts to see which were just for demonstration and looked good but were useless in a confrontational fighting situation and which ones were effective. He tried to remove all of the extraneous useless material that was being taught.

In most cases, you would lose to a crazy drunk male who has more testosterone than reasoning in their brain when they decide to first lunge at you. The systems of Tae Kwon Doe, Karate, and Kung Fu all have movements only for a person who is standing up. However one would find that the fight often ends up on the ground after only less than 30 seconds of full contact physicality. One person would be already down on the ground in the rather defensive position and the other person in attack mode would go down with them and also have to deal with fighting in a ground based position.

If we remember how the physics of proportion works, in general the 7 feet tall human is probably at least 25% stronger than a person who is 6 feet tall on average, just do the fact that the muscles on their skeletal structure has to be stronger just to allow for the entire organism, in this case the human being, to be able to function and move around. In the picture to the right Arnold Schwarzenegger, 7 time Mr. Olympia winner (source) stands next to 7′ 1″ Wilt Chambarlain and 7′ 0″ Andre the Giant. When arnold was younger he was measured around the 6′ 1″-6′ 1.5″ range in height but since he is in his 60s now, it would not be that crazy to guess that his height might be down to 6′ 0″ now. Even if Arnold was 6′ 1″ and Wilt was 7′ 1″ in the picture, you can see just how strikingly difference their sizes are in comparison. Schwarzenegger may have trained his muscles to look nice but both Andre and Wilt had functional strength which they proved many times in their professional athletic careers.

Let’s look at five cases of people over 7 feet tall.

All 5 men are giants and have been known to have extraordinary amount of strength.

Andre the Giant had spent about two decades in the former WWF (now WWE) as a superstar who went to Wrestlemania vs Hulk Hogan as well as other .

We know that Muhammad Ali once challenged Wilt Chamberlain to a real boxing match and it nearly took place many decades ago. (source) The match was taken very seriously by Chamberlain and if I was a betting man, he might have beaten ali due to his length and reach since the fight was boxing which is standing up so his arms would have given him a huge advantage.

As for Shaq, If we remember from maybe two years back, Shaq had his short TV show Shaq. Vs. when he decided to take on the former “golden boy” Oscar de la Hoya and did a really good job against de la Hoya in the ring for 3 rounds.

Hong Man Choi received his size from a pituitary gland tumor issue like Andre the Giant but that condition has not stopped him form becoming an internationally recognized feared fighter just from his size alone.

Nikolai Valuev is a two time former WBA Heavyweight champion with a 50 and 2 record and it was shown that he barely even tried on a lot of the bouts due to his size and reach alone.

All of this is to first show that the taller, longer man has a tremendous advantage against his fighting opponent, even compensating for years of fighting training.

So if you are say “only” an average sized 5′ 9″ male who comes across a 6′ 5″ 260 giant of a man due to some kind of misunderstanding or intentionally verbal incitations,  how would you take on the taller, bigger opponent?

First, you have to recognize that although you have a size disadvantage, you still have advantages in other areas. Most tall men who are also big have that weight converted to mostly fat. It is very rare that most of the weight of a really tall opponent to be all muscle. In wrestling, you learn that a person’s class is determined by their weight, not height since the weight they have is a positive correlation to their muscle mass which is correlated to their overall strength.

Tall people generally have a higher center of gravity which means that they will be easier to fall down from a decisive lower side attack that would cripple even for a second a joint like the knees. Remember that the bigger they are, if they do fall, it would be far more damaging that if a smaller person fell due to the effect of gravity alone. If we imagine the human body as a long board where the height is the length, we realize that for a taller person, they have far more areas of weakness to exploit than a smaller person.

Taller people mainly have only one true advantage in a fight and that is their reach. Their kicks can cover more area, and their punches can reach further. If they are brought down to the ground, almost all of their advantages will be neutralized. On the ground, grappling becomes the most important and due to the longer limbs of taller people, it is easier to get a hold of their arms or legs and put it in a lock.

The strongest and most  powerful kicks found in traditional martial arts training are by the Muy Thai and Tae Kwon Doe practitioners. A single kick that lands even if it is deflected by the arms will result in severe bruising. To neutralize kicks

In general, humans are creature which fear pain so in most fights, unless one person is crazy and hell bent on charging at his opponent, both sides will get into a defensive stance protecting their vulnerable areas and wait to see what their opponent will do and react towards that. This leads to a lot of seconds in a fight where there is a lot of verbal aggression, posturing, and defensive maneuvering.

This causes the fact that both sides will try to stay a safe distance from each other until one person decides to go forward with some form of attack. In general, it is usually the taller, bigger guy who will go forward for the first attack due to their unconscious knowledge that they are bigger and probably has a slightly better chance of winning. If you are smaller, understand that your main strategy will be on counter-attacks and defensive neutralizations.

Being in a extreme size advantage means that going for a bare-handed pound for pound fight means that you will almost always lose.

Here are the 3 suggestion I would tell a person who is preparing to fight and beat a person taller and bigger than them. This is assuming that you/they have at least a few weeks and/or months to prepare for a upcoming battle.

  1. Learn Krav Maga – for learning about knife, gun, weapon attacks that might happen.
  2. Learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – for the ground fighting and grappling techniques.
  3. Learn basic Dim Mak locations – Learn the vulnerable areas that you can strike in the human body. – This would mean that any hard hit on most parts of the front neck area would lead to some serious damage if not death. other areas include underarm, under the elbow, inner thigh, side of the stomach, eyes, and genital areas.

Here are the 6 main tactical suggestions I would tell a man who is in a fight at this moment, if I had only 10 seconds to give them some advice.

  1. Strike at the body’s most vulnerable points as fast as possible for during a counter attack. 
  2. If the opponent charges and lunges at you, slow down their attack with an upper knee kick. – at this point, you should realize both of you will be very soon going down to the ground.
  3. Most people have not been in a real fight where they have felt the true full impact of a blow to the body or at the vulnerable areas. Even in boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, a full impact blow is almost never allowed so you and your opponent are never completely prepared or ready for a real life attack. If they are not drunk and somewhat clear headed they would stop fighting slightly to go into a defensive mode due to the shock to their system.
  4. Focus on using fake attacks followed by real attacks. – the fake attack will cause them to react and move to a certain location to avoid or block the fake attack. That should be where your real and next attack will be going. Like Wayne Gretsky said about Hockey “You should not be going to where the puck is, but going to where the puck will be at.”
  5. Look for access to the neck area at all times. a sharp knuckle shot to the side of the neck or into the clavicle cavity swould cause that area to become paralyzed for a few precious moments.
  6. Use everything around you as a weapon or a shield to block. 
  7. Forget all rules since there are no rules when it comes to most fighting situations. Just beat your opponent in any way possible to win.

Overall, the system of fighting known as Krav Maga has been consistently found to be effective in more real life situations than anything you find in a karate dojo. There is no gi you are wearing, there is no mat to protect your skin when you fall, and there is no point system to show when you have hit and the person backs away.

In the movie Enough with Jennifer Lopez who is around 5′ 5″, she gets trained in the Isreali Special Forces invented fighting art called Krav Maga to be able to defend and beat her ex-husband who is trying to hurt her and their child. From the Wikipedia article on Krav Maga…

Krav Maga is a noncompetitive eclectic self-defense system developed in Israel that involves boxing, muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and grappling techniques, along with realistic fight training. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and extremely efficient, brutal counter-attacks.[1] It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava[2] in the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late 1940s, following his immigration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF, who went on to develop the system that became known as Krav Maga. It has since been refined for civilian, police and military applications.

Basic principles

Krav Maga promotes finishing a fight as quickly as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury. Drills provide maximum safety to students by the use of protective equipment and the use of reasonable force.

Students learn to defend against all variety of attacks and are taught to counter in the quickest and most efficient way.

Ideas in Krav Maga include:

  • Counter attacking as soon as possible (or attacking pre-emptively).
  • Targeting attacks to the body’s most vulnerable points, such as: the eyes, neck/throat, face, solar plexus, groin, ribs, knee, foot, fingers, etc.
  • Maximum effectiveness and efficiency in order to neutralize the opponent as quickly as possible.
  • Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to defend or help attack, and so on.

Training can also cover situational awareness to develop an understanding of one’s surroundings, learning to understand the psychology of a street confrontation, and identifying potential threats before an attack occurs. It may also cover ways to deal with physical and verbal methods to avoid violence whenever possible.

In most fighting situations there is a lot of aggression and the likelihood of actual fatality from a confrontation is usually low, since the head does have over half a inch of thick skull bone covering. Most of the major organs are also covered by a rather strong sternum and ribs. However, one should always take a fight in a serious manner because one’s life can theoretically be on the line, if the opponent’s intent is really to kill you.

From the WikiHow article written entitled “How To Beat A Taller And Bigger Opponent In A Street Fight”

How to Beat a Taller and Bigger Opponent in a Street Fight

Edited by Ben Rubenstein, Paintsaint, Brandywine, Sondra C and 57 others

Let’s face reality. Size really does matter – but it’s not everything. You may not be bigger than your opponent, but you may be faster, smarter, or more savvy than him. Take advantage wherever you can. Brains are much more important than brute strength.

Unlike facing an adversary who’s equal in size, fighting a bigger person has certain challenges, and following these steps make help you emerge victorious – or at least survive in one piece!

Steps

  1. Size up your chances honestly. Only engage in fighting bigger people if you have no options left. Avoid a confrontation if possible. Because of his size, you’re at a disadvantage.
  2. Choose the wisest option. There are two choices when faced with a larger, potentially stronger opponent: either face your adversary and fight or run. Choosing to retreat is not a sign of cowardice, but a decision to survive and spare yourself. It is foolish to fight while lacking confidence, or when you know you cannot win.
  3. Use the element of surprise. If you’re cornered and the situation leaves you no choice, prepare yourself mentally and physically without being too obvious. Pretend that you’re unprepared, then surprise him by throwing a punch in the solar plexus (the soft tissue between the middle portion of the chest and the abdominal muscles). This will more than likely wind him.
  4. Prepare Plan B. If you’re unsuccessful in winding him with your surprise attack (the sucker punch), prepare yourself with your fighting stance and follow the rules below.
    • Always guard your head with your forearms; a bigger guy could easily land a blow to your head because of his reach advantage.
    • Respect your opponent’s longer reach and power due to his mass and length. Keep a safe distance. To penetrate the inside range and get a punch in, use the proper timing to parry (blocking and diverting your opponent’s strike) or slip his blow while shifting your feet forward (to compensate for your disadvantage in reach) finding an opening, and projecting the punch. (Dodge and weave so his punch misses and unbalances him) This is a relatively risky maneuver, but effective if properly executed.
    • To neutralize your taller opponent’s reach: When he throws his straight punch, (head movement by ducking is essential), have the proper timing to throw a hook (this will serve as a parry) to his forearm, and follow up with a combination of strikes to the body or to the head by getting in close. The main objective is to cripple and disable his forearm to discourage his attack.
    • It is more efficient to parry (a simple tap against a forceful blow is enough to divert the strike) than to block the attack. Parrying gives you more opportunity to counter-attack, while blocking a blow can physically drain you and cause you damage. But without proper timing, effective parrying is impossible.
    • Never fight fairly if you’re at a disadvantage because of his size. The main idea is to use your common sense and practicality, and to protect yourself at all costs. This isn’t about competition, nor about showing off. This is about realistically defending yourself. In a street fight, there are no rules. If you have something in your hand, like a pen, bottle, or rock, turn it into a defensive tool. Throw a handful of sand in his eyes or slit his legs with a cutter. Blinding him with hot sauce or chili powder is a clever way to temporarily incapacitate your foe, and will give you the opportunity to land a combination of strikes, or escape. When possible, do not engage in a street fight empty handed. Unlike in combat sports, nothing is fair in a real fight. Besides, if he sees you holding something that could be a threat to him it may make him more likely to back off, and could possibly make him hesitant to attack you. That would be a good thing.
    • Knowledge of handling a martial arts weapon (e.g. kali sticks, nunchaku, staff, or shinai sword) is essential. Never expect a 5’1, 95 lbs. small guy to beat up a 6’5, 200 lbs. big guy with his bare fists. Although possible if the smaller individual has superior speed and skill, it happens very rarely. The most realistic way to beat the bigger foe will most often depend upon the small guy’s expertise in handling a weapon, and/or his willingness to retreat rather than just blindly attacking. A weapon is a great ‘equalizer’.
    • Close-range fighting is advisable for smaller fighters. Proper timing is the key, because taller fighters prefer to fight the outside range. This makes sense because of their longer reach.
    • Play dirty. Kick his groin, finger-jab his eyes, throw a chopping blow to his throat, bite his [ear (like Iron Mike against a bigger Holyfield, which was totally uncool in the ring, but may save you in a real brawl). A hair grab is a very effective and practical move, leaving him with less mobility. Pulling his hair in a downward direction may give you the opportunity to throw an uppercut or knee strike to the face. Application of tactics which are labeled as foul and “below the belt” in combat sports is as normal and advisable as breathing in a street fight.
    • There are four ways to break the hold and escape when being grabbed by a bigger man. Deliver a headbutt to the face, bite the skin (the Masseter muscle, the muscle for biting, attached and located in the jaw area, is the strongest muscle in the human body. However, be aware that biting the skin endangers you because your adversary’s blood may be infected with HIV or other contagious viral diseases). Stomping the toes can discontinue a bear hug. Or you can simply twist and break your foe’s finger joints to break his hold.
    • Use a heavy bag in your training routine to help you develop more power. Power, speed, stamina and skill are attainable attributes. Hard work and training are the best ways to achieve these attributes.
    • Stick and move, hit and run. As Ali said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. Move forward, move backward, sidestep, move in a circular path. Footwork is a very essential factor combined with the ability to hit with perfect timing. Never be in a flat-footed stationary fighting stance, a bigger opponent can easily own you if you let him catch you.
    • Slipping, bobbing and weaving before a snappy strike is a very essential and effective skill to develop. Being the smaller guy, you’re more likely faster than him. Take advantage of your lightness and know the fundamentals of evasive fighting. Bruce Lee (Chinese name: Li Xiao’long- “Li, the little dragon”) said that “evasivefighting is to hit without getting hit.” You, as a smaller adversary against a bigger foe, should identify with a bullfighter’s evasiveness and swiftness against the bull’s powerful rage.
    • Side-stepping and finding unusual awkward angles is also a good way to intercept the larger opponent’s inside range. Avoiding being in front of your adversary gives you an opportunity to seek for an opening and makes you less predictable. However, it takes a lot of training and practice to acquire this skill.
    • To fight toe to toe with a bigger foe is way too risky. Evasiveness is the one of the most important attributes. Run if you get an opportunity.
    • Capitalize on your speed, lightness and quickness. Volume punching (accumulation factor) favors small fighters. Training with a speed bag is an excellent training tool to develop your speed and rapid striking.
    • Diminutive Manny Pacquiao Pacman, after beating a taller and bigger “Golden Boy”, Oscar De La Hoya, said: “Speed is the key to beat him”.
    • Speed doesn’t only refer to the rapidity and quickness of the strike but the quickness of the footwork. Possessing the ability to glide inside and outside the fighting range with ease.
    • Study the art of counter-striking. Strike before your adversary strikes, as you tend to stop his attack or strike after you’ve slipped his strike.
    • Practice combinations of blows to confuse your opponent. Don’t throw the same attack more than a couple of times in a row.
    • Feint. Throw a fake strike followed up by a real strike. Throw a fake left punch to the head then strike him with a real right punch in the solar plexus. Experiment with combination of strikes. The purpose of faking strikes is to distract the attention of the opponent, to deceive and divert his coordination, focus, timing, and concentration. Bruce Lee said, “When two fighters with equal skills spar, the one who has the more superior feinting skills wins.”
    • When you’re on the outside range, never punch for the face unless you’re confident enough to knock him out. You can easily be countered because of his reach advantage. It will only make him angrier if you’re unsuccessful knocking him out. Because of your disadvantage in reach, it is unwise to do so. Instead, use long range attacks like the sidekick, hitting the nearest target, which is the knee or the groin. Only hit him in the face if he is in crippling pain and stunned. Head shots must only be thrown if you’ve closed in.
    • Do not hit the hard tissues of the body, only aim at his vulnerable areas like the knees, groin, eyes, bridge of the nose, kidney, heart, neck, throat, and the solar plexus. These are the pain sensitive areas of the body.
    • No matter how big a person is, a solid kick to the crotch will inflict a crippling pain. Even world-class heavily muscular boxers will collapse in pain if accidentally or perhaps deliberately struck in the groin with enough force. You can call it dirty, but it is practical and effective. A solid uppercut (you can apply this as a sucker punch) to the groin is one of the best weapons a small man can deliver against a bigger opponent. Practice delivering the uppercut with a heavy bag to develop a powerful groin shot.
    • Have the proper timing to close in. When you’re in the inside range, use striking techniques designed for short range, a headbutt to the face, a hook to the jaw, knee strikes to the groin and elbow strikes to the solar plexus are very effective.
    • How many times have you seen a boxer cut due to a headbutt in a boxing match? A headbutt can easily cut and bleed a face. Use it when the opportunity strikes and you’ve closed in.
    • A hair grab, pulling the head in a downward direction followed by a karate chop to the the nape area is a life threatening move. This is an extremely damaging blow which can cause instant death or permanent lifelong paralysis due to the injury it could inflict to highest level of the spinal cord. Never, ever execute this unless you’re in a life threatening situation.
    • Hitting the temple with the “knife edge” area of your knuckle can daze and distract your bigger foe’s coordination. Hitting him there with a weapon can kill him, so use care and attack only if you are fearful for your life or another’s.
    • Striking the ears can unbalance your opponent and knock him unconscious. The ears are the center of our equilibrium (balance).
    • Learn the art of ground fighting. On the ground, survival depends on one’s ability to use leverage to pin and subdue an opponent, or the knowledge of attacks one can to damage the opponent’s joints. Finger-breaking, hitting the eyes, and jabbing the throat and groin are some techniques one can use to survive a ground fight. Many stress the use of Jujitsu techniques, and while the use of arm and leg techniques are effective, do not forget that a twisted finger can end an opponent’s hold on you. On the ground, what matters most is the refinement of skills and techniques in grappling rather than one’s size.
    • The “clinch and strike” strategy (a la Ricky the ‘Hitman’ Hatton) is designed for smaller fighters. By closing the gap and space (by clinching), the bigger opponent will be unable to throw their longer arm, while you are using your advantage by striking on the inside range, throwing short powerful blows.
  5. Remember your advantages. You do have some:
      • Smaller people tend to be lighter and more slender, which is essential for evasive defensive fighting. Most of them have excellent footwork. Agility is also an asset a small person possess.
      • They are also quicker which will complement for rapid throwing of strikes. Although they have less power for striking, they can compensate by throwing strikes quicker and more often.
      • They tend to have greater stamina than their bigger foes.
      • They’re in an excellent position to throw a devastating uppercut with greater leverage to the kidney, solar plexus, and the jaw of their taller adversary.
      • When ground fighting, they are harder to take down or tackle compared to taller foes because they’re nearer to their center of gravity.
      • Although a shorter arm reach is a disadvantage when throwing a strike on long ranged outside fighting, it can be an advantage during closed ranged in-fighting. A shorter arm can facilitate greater power and leverage (especially throwing short hooks and short uppercuts) at this range than a longer arm could.
      • Psychologically, smaller fighters tend to have greater motivational drive and hunger to excel because they’re up to a greater sense of challenge facing a bigger adversary. Meanwhile, bigger fighters tend to underestimate their smaller foes, which may lead to overconfidence and taking their training for granted.
      • Tips
  • A study sparring against a taller, bigger opponent is an essential part of training for modifying and figuring out skills and technique.
  • Always keep in mind that size really does matter. A bigger opponent can inflict much damage because of heavier, stronger blows. But having a strategy and brains is much more important. There is an old boxing adage that “a good big man will always beat a good little man “. Be that the case, if you’re the smaller one, you should not only be good as he is, but be better. If he is bigger than you, you must be wiser than he. The main prerequisite is to be sure that you can surpass his skills and possess better fighting techniques. Having skills equal with his is not enough, because he has the edge and advantage.
  • You must have the proper range adjustment against a taller opponent. It’s a matter of closing-in or getting out the distance. It’s either be farther, beyond his reaching range or get inside. Taking advantage of your shorter range and to lessen, neutralizing his leverage by closing the gap. Never be on his reaching range.
  • A heavyweight championship boxer of the earlier part of 20th century named Sam Langford popularized the adage, “Kill the body and the head will fall”. He only stood 5’7″, but defeated almost every larger person who challenged him. Body striking is very important to remember in fighting. It favors smaller fighters because they’re more likely leveled on the body area of their bigger foe. You can strike the head as a follow up if you’ve thrown a solid straight punch or uppercut to the solar plexus or kidney area.
  • In practical self-defense, Bruce Lee always emphasized that the starting line of defense is a sidekick to the knee. Kicking or stomping the knee is very effective because it is one of the most immobile and dislocatable parts of the body while the longest defensive move is a sidekick. Hitting the knee doesn’t require long reach and it is one of the nearest and the most vulnerable targets. However, you need to develop your kicking power to inflict enough damage to be of help.
  • Rely heavily on kicking strikes (especially when a bigger foe only knows how to throw a punch and doesn’t kick), because the leg is longer than the arms. This will help to compensate for your disadvantage in reach. Punching is secondary; this will be applied in the mid-range or you’ve closed in.
  • Muay Thai fighters (kickboxers in Thailand) train themselves to develop a devastating shin kick. Practicing striking on a heavy bag is the best form of training to develop powerful shin strikes.
  • The solar plexus is a vital target. A smaller person’s uppercut towards it will cause an opponent to experience excruciating pain, and possibly death. Because of the upward direction of the blow, the visceral sensitivity to pain will cause a very great damage and shock. When it is injured, it delivers a painful signal to the brain which causes partial paralysis, shortness of breath and unbearable pain.
  • An overhead punch is a strike with a circular path coming from above-level of the head sinking on a downward direction towards the target which is the opponent’s head. It is a very tricky counter-attack and intended to throw on the “blind side/spot” of the bigger adversary.
  • There is no shame in living to fight another day. The saying, “Discretion is the better part of valor” means there are some things even the brave don’t talk about – running away isn’t something to brag about, but it is sometimes the only way to have a successful outcome in a brawl.
  • It is important to keep your eyes on your opponent. If you are trying to do a spin kick, do it quickly so he won’t be able to act before you act.
  • Scream. A loud, high-pitched and unexpected scream can not only daze your foe but also alert others that you’re in trouble and bring them to your aid.

Warnings

  • Never discard escape as one of your best options, especially when you don’t have the sufficient knowledge and training to deal with a larger adversary. If you can’t outbox him, at least outrun him.
  • Turn something into a defensive weapon (like a pen, bottle, or rock) but not to the extent that you’ll kill him, just cripple and immobilize (unless your life is in grave danger).
  • At least learn and study the basics of a martial art self-defense you prefer. It is better to deal with an adversary using scientific knowledge defending yourself than mindlessly brawling with them.
  • The purpose of this article is to give you emphasis on what we should do if we might encounter belligerent people way beyond our size. The intention is to educate and prepare us for self-defense especially in a deadly situation, not to encourage nor sensationalize violence. Having an open mind will lead you to a broader sense and a deeper meaning about this article. This page is only intended for worst case scenarios.
  • Grappling is extremely effective against one opponent, but is useless against multiple attackers. You need to learn when to and not to apply those grappling techniques.
  • This article is essential to every fighter, no matter how tall or big you are. There will always be a taller and bigger fighter than you, so you should a have sufficient knowledge and the know-how to handle the situation if ever you encounter one.

When Researching How To Grow Taller, Having Common Sense And The Right Perspective Is Important

stupiditySometimes I get messages from people who ask question which I know have not taken any time to ever read the beginning of the website on what they can do. The message is very short and asks me to tell them how to grow taller.

They give outrageous desires on the height gain they want like from 5′ 3″ to 6′ 0″ when they are 23. When this happens I either get annoyed at the fact that they have not been willing to read the directions which I put very clearly in the middle of the main home page or I sympathize with them because I understand the difficult situation they are in.

However, I also would guess that these same people are probably not the people who are aware of the same things I do. I sometimes have to realize that I need to get out of the research and all theory mode of science that is absolutely required for this type of project and get into the point of view of people who have only started to look into ways to increase their height.

Here is what I feel are two critical elements the height increase researcher or seeker should have to help give them a better life and make better choices..

  • Common Sense
  • The Right Perspective

Common Sense

Obviously the thing about common sense is that it is a very vague term to refer to somewhat self evident understandings on how the relativistic world we live in operates and the rules that are expected of us to function, survive, and thrive in them. For some people, what some people think is common sense would not be so self evident for another person.

I define “Common Sense” as understanding, realizing, and acting accordingly to the fact that the existence or reality they live and operate in has certain rules which apply for most of the situations they will find themselves in.

It is absolutely critical that a person does not fall for their own egotistical tendencies which is termed Confidence Tricks, which are cognitive and mental biases and errors in thinking which makes people not be able to model and describe the world correctly, resulting in them making more errors in judgement and choices than other people leading to unnescesary pain and suffering.

What this means for our endeavor of height increase is that one should probably not be emailing me or other height increase researchers asking us how to grow 8-9 inches taller hoping to find some magic pill which would be cheap and relatively easy to obtain and available.

What they think is possible and is reality is much more different than how the world really will work and how the results will most likely come out. If we were to be more accurate, we can say that the term “Stupidity” is actually the lack of common sense. In scientific humor circles, there is a well known called the Darwin Award, which goes to people who lack the common sense from stop doing dangerous acts which will most likely kill them. This means that they are doing the process of Natural Selection a favor and taking themselves out of the evolutionary gene pool.

So, really all a person has to do to avoid being called “stupid” by most other people in life is to develop some common sense.

The Right Perspective

The importance of having the right perspective is that in our pursuit of the goal of height increase, we should not forget that there are far more important things in life to worry about, think on, and consider.

The best example I can think of right now is to propose the scenario that would a person be willing to try out a type of real height increase technique which would possilby work but also has an extremely high chance of it causing the development of Cancer. In a recent previous post I talked about the possibility that the Parathyroid Hormone related peptide, the PThrP, of being the key compound we need to cause regenerated growth plates in people who have completely closed growth plates. However, at the end I showed that the reason it could even work in a injection series along with IHH, an initital chondrocyte pellet, and other growth factors, was because of its shown appearance in cancerous cells and tumors. If a person who is clearly intent on increasing their height is told that the treatment comes with a steep price, they would need to have The Right Perspective. It is not longer just will the method work to increase their height or not, which is very important but also, will the treatment cause them to develop cancer, which can potentially kill them.

In this case, the right perspective will help them realize that in life, there may be more things than just getting taller. Is it really worth it to gain a possible 2 extra inches and height and risk having a 30% chance of the area of injection developing a malignant tumor/ cancer?

Most people would say that it is not a good idea to risk ones life for such an endeavor.

They are using the right perspective.

Some things in life are worth it, from an investment/ cost and gain perspective, and other things are clearly situations where the choice of continuing to go down a certain path will obviously only lead to a loss of some form. Choosing to save 50 cents from clipping coupons for an hour and then deciding to buy a $600 tablet on the same day shows that one is not using the right perspective. Getting 3 big MacDonald’s sandwiches and then ordering a Diet Coke because of one’s diet shows that one is again not using the right perspective.

Focus on the big things in life, and also be able to recognize what are the big things in life that you should be putting most of your energy on so you can avoid wasting effort and precious resources on the small stuff which will get very little rate of return.

Keep things in perspective.

 

 

Increase Height And Grow Taller Using Local Subperiosteal Injection Of Growth Factors IGF-1 And TGF-Beta Percutaneously.

As a followup to our previous post “Local Growth Factor Injections In Aged Periosteum Result In Increased Cambium Proliferation And Cartilage Formation (Breakthrough)” which I found a study which proves that the 2nd major step or element that has to be done was shown to be successful.

This method I am very confident will result in some height increase, even if it is from the thickening of the articular cartilage or the thickening of the periosteum layer on top of the epiphysis at the end of the long bones will lead to height increase.

Overall, this is probably the easiest method I have devised so far to lead to possible height increase so far. We already know that we can get TGF-Beta 1, 2, BMP-2, 7, and other growth factors from some companies which sell to biology and genetics researchers like Sino Biological Inc. and Invitrogen and Boston BioChem. From a quick look at the websites and the companies, we are finding that these growth factors like TGF-beta 1 and BMP-2 are very expensive at around $300 for just 25 or 50 micrograms. If we don’t wish to throw away money we would have to be very acurate in where to inject the growth factor. If we remember that even growth hormone injections for growth hormone deficient children is also very expensive due to the nature of real somatotropin being hard to make as a human recombinant derived synthetic version.

All that is needed to be done is to inject the growth factor TGF-beta 1 and IGF-1 into the cambium cell layer of the perisoteum on top of the epiphysis to get them to start differentiating into cartilage, increase the Type II collagen content, increase sulfate incorporation, 

This method I am very positive will lead to increased periosteum thickness and cause some height increase. However, we have to note that the cambium layer in humans do get thinner and thinner as we get older but never completely disappear until our later years.

The hard part is to figure out how to find the exact location of the periosteum layer on the epiphysis since it is covered by the articular cartilage Any type of injection would obviously have to puncture the articular cartilage covering and lead to medical complication.

If we couple this with LSJL it would lead to a possible synergistic effect.

Local Growth Factor Injections In Aged Periosteum Result In Increased Cambium Proliferation And Cartilage Formation (Breakthrough)

This study shows that the 2nd step in what we had proposed in previous posts about how to induce cartilage regrowth has already been tested, experimented, and being shown to be successful. From PubMed study “Rejuvenation of periosteal chondrogenesis using local growth factor injection.“

Analysis And Interpretation: There are two studies we will be looking at here. First we must remember that for the overall thickness of a outer cortical bone layer of a long bone to stay constant after physical maturity, the rate at which the inner layer of the bone to dissolve and get absorbed into the marrow must equal the rate at which the layer of the outer of the bone, next to the periosteum must be the same. If not, the long bone with either get thicker or thinner. We remember that there is constant appositional growth of the periosteal layer of the bone even in adulthood.

For the 1st article…

This shows that if we take the growth factors TGF-Beta1 and IGF-1 and injected them into the subperiosteal layer of the periosteum even in aged mammales, it would result in the periosteum restoring its chondrogenetic abilities like when it was younger. The cambium cells in the lower layer of the periosteum which is what really divides and forms new bone thickness increased in number and in proliferation ability. This is in vitro but I can’t see why the same results would not occur in vivo.

All I can say is to read the really short summary/abstract and you will see that this experiment shows what may be the first easy to implement way to increase chondrocytes in the right area. This would be a way to explain the occasional results we find in people who do the LSJL method. Maybe the dynamic loading laterally manages to cause the cambium layer to form more growth factors, speficially the TGF-1 and cause it to increase in thickness on the top edges of the epiphysis which leads to overall height increase.

For the 2nd article…

The researchers state very clearly that ” The findings of this study indicate that exposure to TGF-beta1 has a stimulatory effect on periosteal chondrogenesis“. As for the correct dosage for maximum increase in cartilage formation and chondrocyte cell numbers, the researchers stated it was at 100 ng/mL of TGF-beta1 for thirty minutes. So if you inject a high level of TGF-beta 1 at short bursts of time, it causes the periosteal cambium cells to go through chondroogenesis. Not only cartilage, but the Type II collagen content and sulfate incorporation ability increased as well.

Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2009 Jun;17(6):723-34. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2008.10.011. Epub 2008 Nov 6.

Rejuvenation of periosteal chondrogenesis using local growth factor injection.

Reinholz GG, Fitzsimmons JS, Casper ME, Ruesink TJ, Chung HW, Schagemann JC, O’Driscoll SW.

Source

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Cartilage and Connective Tissue Research Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. gregory.reinholz@mayo.edu

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To examine the potential for rejuvenation of aged periosteum by local injection of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) alone or in combination to induce cambium cell proliferation and enhance in vitro periosteal cartilage formation.

METHODS:

A total of 367 New Zealand white rabbits (6, 12, and 24+ month-old) received subperiosteal injections of TGF-beta1 and/or IGF-1 percutaneously. After 1, 3, 5, or 7 days, the rabbits were sacrificed and cambium cellularity or in vitro cartilage forming capacity was determined.

RESULTS:

A significant increase in cambium cellularity and thickness, and in vitro cartilage formation was observed after injection of TGF-beta1 alone or in combination with IGF-1. In 12 month-old rabbits, mean cambium cellularity increased 5-fold from 49 to 237 cells/mm and in vitro cartilage production increased 12-fold from 0.8 to 9.7 mg 7 days after TGF-beta1 (200 ng) injection compared to vehicle controls (P<0.0001). A correlation was observed between cambium cellularity and in vitro cartilage production (R2=0.98). An added benefit of IGF-1 plus TGF-beta1 on in vitro cartilage production compared to TGF-beta1 alone was observed in the 2 year-old rabbits. IGF-1 alone generally had no effect on either cambium cellularity or in vitro cartilage production in any of the age groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results clearly demonstrate that it is possible to increase cambium cellularity and in vitro cartilage production in aged rabbit periosteum, to levels comparable to younger rabbits, using local injection of TGF-beta1 alone or in combination with IGF-1, thereby rejuvenating aged periosteum.

PMID: 19064326 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

For the 2nd study from PubMed “Brief exposure to high-dose transforming growth factor-beta1 enhances periosteal chondrogenesis in vitro: a preliminary report.”

J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2002 May;84-A(5):793-9.

Brief exposure to high-dose transforming growth factor-beta1 enhances periosteal chondrogenesis in vitro: a preliminary report.

Miura Y, Parvizi J, Fitzsimmons JS, O’Driscoll SW.

Source

The Cartilage and Connective Tissue Research Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Articular cartilage has limited potential for repair. There have been various attempts aimed at improving the repair process in articular cartilage. Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) has a stimulatory effect on chondrogenesis in periosteal explants. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of brief exposures (i.e., thirty and sixty minutes) of high concentrations of TGF-beta1 on periosteal chondrogenesis.

METHODS:

Five hundred and seventy-three periosteal explants were harvested from forty-six two-month-old male New Zealand White rabbits. Explants were exposed to 50 or 100 ng/mL of TGF-beta1 for thirty or sixty minutes. The amount of cartilage formed was then determined with use of a standardized six-week agarose culture assay.

RESULTS:

There was a significant increase in the amount of cartilage formation (p < 0.01), Type-II collagen content (p < 0.05), and sulfate incorporation (p < 0.0001) in explants treated with TGF-beta1. Maximal stimulation occurred following exposure to 100 ng/mL of TGF-beta1 for thirty minutes. There was also an increase in chondrocyte proliferation as measured by [ (3) H-] thymidine incorporation on day 5 of culture (p < 0.049). Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that exposure to TGF-beta1 has a stimulatory effect on periosteal chondrogenesis. This stimulatory effect is observed even with a very brief exposure time of thirty minutes. Clinical Relevance: A possible clinical application of these findings is exposure of periosteal grafts that are currently utilized clinically to resurface articular defects to TGF-beta1 during the short time between graft procurement and implantation into the joint. This may obviate the need for intra-articular administration of TGF-beta1 and may enhance the ultimate graft incorporation and quality of cartilage repair.

PMID: 12004023  [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Women With Wider Hips Result In Bigger And Taller Children, A Personal Theory

koreanI was recently in a conversation with my gf and we got into a discussion about the cultural relativity in how people in different cultures and societies views beauty and the subject of the size of a woman’s hips was raised. She showed that in Korean society, the attractive female is one who has a slim waist, and skinny, long legs. I guess the best example is with the picture to the right.

Of course she also added that being tall is also very important. So it seems like the Korean ideal for attractiveness is height and skinniness, something which most other Western countries and their modeling and fashion industries also agree with.

However, I felt that there was something critical missing in the argument. In general, we know that to be skinny, most young girls actually sacrifice a lot of potential height from going on diets, not eating properly, and having some form of eating disorder, whether bulimia or anorexia.

I have always believed that to be skinny and stay skinny, it has to be a habitual lifestyle, since I have found that most people when asked love food and have an incredible desire for food. This would imply that for a person to be that skinny in their adult years, the habits which would lead to this type of body type had to have been developed when they were younger, probably during the years when they still had their open growth plates. If this was the case, any type of intentional restriction of food and nutrition would lead to height growth stunting.

So I showed that it may not be possible to ask for both height and skinniness. The smart person would instead choose to focus on eating as much nutritious and high protein food as possible while they were still growing into physical maturity. Once they have reached the maximum natural height after growth plate closure, they can then start focusing on food restriction diets to decrease the width size. Like I will always say, you can change a person’s weight a lot easier than changing their height. Focus on getting the maximum height first, and then focus on trying to skinny up.

While I was making this first main point I thought about another idea which I wanted to propose, similar to a very old post I did about Michael Phelp’s torso to leg lengths, which are disproportional, entitled “Torso Length To Leg Length , A Personal Theory“. This is the theory…

Women with wider hips can give birth to and result in bigger and taller children, which will thus lead to bigger and taller adults. 

We must remember that on average, European and North A merican Caucasian females have wider hips than East Asian females due to lifestyle choices, eating and diet habits, etc. in the modern world. The “white” women you would find from the rural towns of Iowa or Nebraska I would guess has a larger and wider hips than the urban “asian” girls you might find in Asian cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, etc. I would next propose that the height of these “white” women from Iowa and Nebraska may be around 1-2 inches taller than the women you find in rural asian countries.

If the hips of a women are bigger, by the law of a proportional body, we can say that the uterus of the female should be also bigger.  As a correlary, we can thus infer that the bigger uterus can carry a bigger baby inside it before it is time for the final gestation process, ie. giving birth.

The best example I can think of is the case of Yao Ming. Yao was born to a mother who was either 6′ 2″ or 6′ 3″ and to a father who was around 6′ 7″-6′ 9″. Obviously he had the genes for height working for him from the beginning. I remember reading an anecdotal story about the fact that Yao’s grandfather was supposedly the tallest man in all of Shanghai during a certain early 20th century period. If we use the law of proportion, we can say Yao’s mother had great height, so she had a larger waist hip, which resulted in a larger uterus, so she had the capacity to carry a bigger baby.

I have been finding studies which show the endochondral ossification of long bones process in both prenatal (before birth) and neonatal (after birth) are different. It is well known that the human embryo into fully functioning human grows the fastest while is it still in it’s mother’s womb, the prenatal stage. Once the baby comes out of the mother’s uterus, womb, the growth rate drops as it goes through the younger years, until the growth rate increases slightly during the puberty years. This would suggest then that for women who have the bigger uterus/womb, they will be able to hold their baby slightly longer, giving them a slightly higher chance to grow more before birth. From Yao Ming’s  unofficial biography, “Operation Yao Ming” we find out that Yao came out as a very large baby, at  11 lbs and in the corridors of Shanghai No. 6 Hospital on the evening of Sept. 12, 1980. It was shortly after 7 p.m. (source) Yao weighed more than twice as much as the average Chinese newborn. When we look at the growth rate of Yao, we can see that overall, his growth rate was not really higher than other kids or abnormally higher. it is just that Yao came out a lot bigger than other babies. So, the raw initial amount of mass and cell # was far more to work with. This would be the product of either the fact that his mother’s body and womb is bigger than other Chinese females, or the fact that his mother and father’s height genes are at work, or both.

The next example would be the case of Karan Singh, who we looked at before in the post entitled “Tallest Toddler In the World – Karan Singh“. Karan just “happened” to be born to one of the tallest females in the world. His mother is Shweatlana Singh, who has been billed as Asia’s tallest woman. However that fact comes into contention because on the website The Tallest Man she is listed and measured before at “only” 6’8″. His father is also tall at 6′ 7″. As for Shweatlana, she claims that she is around 7′ 2″. She states about her boy…’He was born big and is already half as tall as me, so I believe he will outgrow me soon,’ said ShweatlanaKaran, who was twice the size of normal babies at birth – 13lb and 2ft – never fitted baby clothes and now wears clothes designed for children three or four times his age. (source)

What we see is that Karan was born to a women who is taller and probably has bigger and wider hips that Yao Ming’s mother. Karan was born at a weight more than Yao Ming and his growth rate is also high. I would guess that Karan would end up taller than Yao in 10 years. His mother who has billed herself as the tallest women in Asia showed us that Karan was born big, and that his growth rate is not from a higher growth rate after birth. It seems to be the same case as Yao Ming.

The last example I can give would be from the Giantess Anna Haining Swan, or Bates, who was around the 7′ 5″ range. Her husband was equally big at maybe around 7′ 3″. They had one baby would was recorded at the highest baby birth weight ever at over 23 lbs and over 30 inches tall but the baby did not survive. If the baby had survived, we would have seen a possible 9 feet tall human being.

There is a rule of thumb in medicine that says that the height of a the baby at the age of 2 would be approximately half the height of its ultimate adult height. Using this rule of thumb, we can say that an individual’s final adult height is a function or dependent on it’s height at age 2 ~ FH=f(H2)~FH=2*H2

This would suggest that overall, every human being goes through an overall normal growing process, with very few people, even true giants being given higher rates of height increase. The fact remains that they just were born bigger, with more cells to replicate. If we then use inverse logic, we can say that the reason the babies were born bigger and had more cells to replicate is because their mother’s had larger wombs and could carry a bigger baby. Since taller women in general have bigger wombs due to proportion, we can make a rather common sense argument that taller females give birth to bigger babies.

However, I feel that the critical step or element is that the final height of an individual is determined at its original cause to be the fact that the mother had wider hips, which allowed for a bigger, wider womb.

Why Are We So Afraid To Reveal Our Identity For This Endeavor?

Recently I have noticed that even with the newly created Frequently Asked Questions sections uploaded which I hope would reduce most of the emails the website email has been getting, the emails still have increased in number. Overall, I would say that creating the FAQs section was still a good idea but one pattern I have noticed a lot in just the last few weeks or so was that as people start to email me multiple times, they start to become really concerned over their identity and state either in the first or last sentence of their message that they wish that I would not divulge to the other readers and visitors of the website who they really are, whether it would be email, country of origin, name, or even comment name.

Now, I could be wrong about this and it could be that some people just don’t want their name posted on the internet or desire any type of fame or notoriety, even for good things like success or high accomplishment. I have known many people and have read many instances where extremely brilliant people are nominated for medals, awards, and honors and when they choose to refuse the prize that they are awarded, it leads to the opposite intended effect, causing them to be even more thrown into the limelight and have people see who they are. However, I could be completely wrong and there is no valid theory behind this reasoning theory.

Here is what I think is the primary reason almost no one wants their name to be published on a height increase research website…

Here is what I am guessing is the real reason why no one wants to be associated with the project or endeavor, or at least have their real names and identity used.

They are afraid to be associated with failure, which would in some way through inference imply that they are also a failure. 

AnonymityI am quite positive that if we somehow came up with something that was shown to consistently give amazing results, most of the people who emailed me would prefer to get their names out. If this website ultimately succeeds in its original intention, it would completely change the way humans will live, behave, and act.

The truth is that in life, most people don’t care about what happens in the rest of the world, and only choose to focus and care about what is going on in their own life. If a person is choosing to take any form of initiative to do some form of action, it is done because they hope to gain something from doing it.

Failure can be described as a psychological “slap in the face” for trying to accomplish a task which would result in a person gaining something they desire.

Most people would not be willing to take the lead in a large group for fear that they would do something wrong, or decide to choice to take a path that leads to ruin or failure. They would instead play the game in a defensive way, waiting for another person who is willing to take the initiave, form a cause or manifestor, and follow them. It is almost automatically assumed that whoeve is the first to take a stance on something, or go down a path, they probably know more or is smarter than the other people who are waiting for a signal from everyone else. This way, even if the endeavor ends in failure, at least they don’t have to feel bad about themselves since they can always rationalize away their wrong choices by saying that everyone else was doing it and that they were just following the crowd.

In most of life, people are very risk averse. In general, females are even more risk averse. They learn better from bad experiences and almost completely stop trying a specific endeavor if the first time they tried the experience it resulted in high levels of pain. For most people in life, they are only willing to do the minimum amount of work and give just enough effort to get by in life and just survive to the next day. It really does take a large amount of mental and emotional energy and effort to be better and further than one’s peers and contemporaries.

Our real reason for not revealing our identity is that we know that our desired out come has a high chance of failure. Success is something which will not come quickly, but can only be found after years and years of dedicated research, testing, and errors.

If instead you were commenting or discussing your idea on a website devoted to weight loss, one would probably be far more comfortable with giving and using one’s real name and usernames. Weight loss is relatively easy, well defined, easy to perform and get results, and is a overall socially promoted and accepted idea. When people decide to write out their New Year’s resolutions, one of the most common resolutions is to loss weight. This means that they probably at one point in time went on a health, fitness, and nutrition website and read a few articles on how to get fit, get strong, and loss weight. Weight loss is possible, since the adipose tissues are malleable, easy to contort and push around. Weight loss is even automatic, if one decided to follow certain diet rules with discipline. A person can quite easily call themselves a fitness and weight loss expert if they can show some results themselves and they would be willing to put their names on their method, system, or technique since weight loss has been consistently shown to work and have results.

Height increase, but especially for people after physical maturity, is an endeavor that is extremely difficult, if not impossible for most people. Whatever stories or results we do find online in those websites or forums are almost never reproducible by other people. The results and successes are also sporatic, random, and unpredictable. The methods and proposed ideas are many but few get any results. What results that are seen are often just temporary. This means that for our desire to grow taller, it is not likely, it is more likely to fail than succeed, and very difficult to achieve, not matter how much we desire for it with our minds and hearts, since some things in world just can’t be changed without insane amounts of power and force to even alter the way things are even a slight bit.

So…Why Are We So Afraid To Reveal Our Identity For This Endeavor?

  • A Personal Answer: Because we are afraid that we would become associated with an endeavor that would not lead to any solution, failure.