Sometimes we might be taller than we really are and we don’t realize it. One of the easiest ways to make the mistake in thinking one is shorter than what we really are is because we have not been standing or using the right posture when we are getting our heights measured. I personally know that from a quick shift in posture or positioning of one’s standing or feet, ones height can deviate by as much as 0.5 of an inch.

When you are getting measured for height, most of you want the nurse, (or your mother) to make as accurate of a measurement as they possibly can. Especially when you are on some program or routine where you are trying to increase your height, you want to be very accurate and exact in your methodology for measuring your height. What you might have thought was a slight height increase was really from a different standing position. If you are one of those types of people who had a perfectionist attitude, you might want your height down to the nearest millimeter.

The thing I wanted to say in this post was that with different positions and postures, your measured height will change. If you are just a few millimeters below 5′ 10″ which is supposed to be the US male average, you might not want to claim you are 5′ 10″. For most people who you meet in life, they won’t care what your height is. For some people their height is a very personal thing, which they don’t want to reveal or share with others. Just the same things is true for many women about their weight. Some women are absolutely scared to death to step on a scale in their bathroom for fear that their boyfriend or husband might come by and see how much they really weigh. Women have been known to even develop panic attacks before and after stepping on the bathroom scale and seeing the number that pops up. Their entire mood or state for the day can be determined and dependent on the number they see on the scale.

Weight is something that is very variable so if one has a rather erratic and volatile emotions, one’s emotions can actually fluctuate along with one’s weight. If your self-esteem is attached or dependent on your weight, then your self-esteem will fluctuate and change a lot as your weight changes though out time.

With height, that is something far more concrete which changes very little. Your height is sort of set. If your self-esteem is dependent on your height, your self-esteem is a more constant thing.

So can we help you slightly better about yourself from given you a little extra height from better standing postures? Yes.

Note: For you to really notice the results, you would have to shave your head to notice the changes, which is not something I would suggest to most females. 

For most people, when they are getting their height measured, they puff out their chest, arch their back forward, pull their head backwards slightly, and make their neck taut trying to elongate their spine in the upwards axis direction. However, one thing that many people forget is that their feet and leg positioning affects they measured height as well. Here are a few tips for you the next time you measure yourself to gain another 0.25-0.5 extra inches.

1. In general, the human legs and feet are no supposed to be pushed together. One way to lose 0.25 of an inch in measurement is when you push your legs together for the measurement. When you keep your legs apart, approximately 8-10 inches apart from each other, that is when you get the tallest measurements. From my own, old obsessive testing,

2. I realized that one’s height can also be boosted with the feet are slightly tilted away from each other, not completely parallel to each other.

3. It is slightly advantage to raise one’s shoulder a little. the human body’s bones are connected by ligaments and cartilage. The raising of the arms do help keep the neck straighter and cervical vertebrate more aligned and less curved.

4. Don’t tilt the head backwards, but use the muscle in the back of your neck to extend up and puff out a little

5. From a previous posts, tilt the head slightly down, so your eye gaze is downwards by around 30-45%. The back of one’s head is usually more pronounced that one’s forehead. That means that the tip of the measured height is that of the slightly bigger back of the skull cap than the front.

6. Most people try to suck in their stomach/gut for the measurement. The better idea is to just breath in air from both the chest and stomach. Most people only breathe from their chest, not their stomach. People who do yoga learn the technique of breathing from their lower stomach as well. Don’t suck in air, but Keep the stomach expanded with air inside, not keep the stomach flattened. The expanded stomach means a slight decompression of the middle thoracic vertebrates, but that may only be 1-2 extra millimeters

7. Move around your buttocks area around a little and test your real height by tilting the hips a little. The femur proximal ends in the hip sockets are often not completely straight down from the joints.

8. Try not to push the shoulder backwards or forwards. That means try less to puff out the chest. Puffing out the chest too much automatically results in the shoulder being pushed back. the shoulder being pushing back means the neck vertebrate has less movement or degree of freedom. The shoulder pushed forward just leads to more cervical vertebrate curvature.

9. If you are truly breathing in air and expanding our your torso through your diaphragm too, then your chest will be automatically puffed out a little. That is what is supposed to be done.

10 The legs are expected to be parallel, but the feet don’t have to be. If you find that the parallel feet position is more comfortable do that one instead of allow your feet to be tilted outwards slightly.

This post was the result of a stage years ago when I went through some height measurement testing from watching my own height deviations from postures and body positioning. Maybe it can help you get bumped from “slightly less than 5′ 10” to “a little over 5′ 10” if another person ever asks you how tall you are .