can yoga make you taller?

one of my yoga students' favorite sequences involves laying on the back and deeply stretching one leg at a time with a yoga strap. The sensation immediately following the stretch is that the leg is lengthened. Lengthening and extending through the spine is also a common theme in classes. Certainly I've walked out of many classes, as a teacher and as a student, walking taller and feeling lighter in my body.

can yoga make you taller? In subtle ways, yes. What makes up a person's height is largely the length of bones. And yoga cannot lengthen the bones (although weight-bearing poses may prevent bone loss). But, certain yoga positions help stretch and elongate your spine. This in turn creates space in the spine and with continued practice, you develop muscle memory and lengthened alignment, and you will most likely appear taller.

Perhaps more importantly, yoga also creates body awareness, and you'll notice how to carry yourself, how you stand and sit naturally and this factor alone will increase your awareness of your own posture. With continued yoga practice and more body awareness, you feel how you can breathe more deeply, more easily with strong, tall, posture. The difference between slouching and caving in around the lungs and heart, contrasting to positively opening the chest and extending in the torso are great to a practicing yogi. It becomes natural to have good posture and walk taller.