Experiment # 4

Warm-up stretching

Method #1: By leaning my right leg on a high platform, I can stretch that leg forward as my head gently bends down & slowly touches my knee.

I was a little boy in Vietnam when I joined a Tae Kwon Do martial arts club. During the 2 year-training, I learned a few stretching techniques.

I think stretching is not too effective since I’ve been stretching for 2 years as a teenager and never seen any obvious growth. Also, most of my fellow fighters and master at the martial arts club were not that tall either. And these guys were training for many years.

Method #2: With my right leg behind my back, I’m bending my back downward as my left leg is stretched out forward.. boy, it feels good!

Method #3a: Although stretching your legs may not be an ideal way to increase height, it’s a great exercise to stretch for 15 minutes before sitting or kicking with ankle weights. By doing so, you will ease the tension between your muscles, ligaments, cartilage, joints, etc. Above, I spread my legs apart as I lean my head downward as much as I can so to touch the knee.

Method #3b: Do the same exercise with the other leg.

Experiment # 5

Warming-up stretching - dipping legs into water

Method #1a: I soak a shirt into a bucket of water.

Method #1b: Next, I wrap that wet shirt around my legs before sitting ankle weights. By doing so, water will help to ease the tension between your muscles, ligaments, cartilage, joints, etc. This 15-minute exercise can be done before sitting or kicking with ankle weights.

Above, I wrap the wet shirt on my left leg and this is for illustrational purpose only; thus, you need to strap wet shirts on both legs.

Method #2: Instead of soaking a wet shirt and strapping around your legs, you can dip your lower legs into a bucket of water for 15 minutes before doing any heavy training such as sitting or kicking with weights.

Ryan’s explanation for method #1 & 2

At one time, I did an experiment with 2 stems of a tree, one was wet, and the other was dry.

Wet stem: I dipped the stem of a tree into a bucket of water. About 5 minutes later, I removed the stem from the bucket and tried to break it in half. Surprisingly, it was so much easier to break the wet stem in half after dipping it into water.

Dry stem: On the other hand, it was difficult to break the dry stem in half because it never touched water. The dry stem was stiff and hard.

As a result, I believed there was something mysterious about water as it may magically ease the tension of cartilage, muscle, joints, and ligaments. So I said to myself, “Wouldn’t it be great if I soak my legs into water for 15 minutes before sitting with ankle weights?”

In conclusion, I am not sure if this experiment works because I do not have enough evidence; however, I can tell you that my legs immediately feel more stretched & relaxed after dipping into water for at least 10 minutes.

After all, water is a mysterious life form that scientists & astronauts want to discover & explore in planets such as Mars & Jupiter.