Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Endopasmicreticulum on 06/11/2013 12:53:30
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Um, hi. This affternoon i watched a science show, my local science show. The topic is about Push up. They said we can get taller by push up, but just for a number of minutes.
Does it true? If it so, why does it happen.
Thanks.
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If you are talking about push-ups, which are performed when lying horizontally and lifting oneself off of the floor with the hands, then my answer is "maybe". We know that people can becoming taller over night because lying down for hours takes pressure off of the spinal column. This lets the cartilage disks decompress. During the day, they are recompressed as you stand up and walk around. The amount of change is small, probably no more than an inch (if that much). If this is the same mechanism as proposed in the push-up concept you mention, then the act of doing push-ups would not even be necessary. Just lie down for a while.
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One might expect a bit of stretching while hanging on a bar doing a pull-up.
However, to properly perform a push-up, one must contract all of the stomach muscles to compensate for the natural tendency for the spine & tummy to droop, and also contract the cervical spine muscles to keep the head from drooping. This may in fact put more compression force on the spine than one would have simply with gravity when standing up. Does one overcompensate and reduce spinal curvature?
Anyway, I find it doubtful that the act of doing push-ups actually stretches the body.
Now, if you're telling a joke, isn't the point of doing push-ups to make your body go up & down? [???]