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[FutureLengthener]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum. I've lurked for a while and learned quite a bit from you guys. I probably won't become a regular user here--just wanting to ask a few questions.

I'm a white 21 year old, I fluctuate between 5'7 in morning to 5'6 at night (168-170cm.) Honestly, my height isn't a HUGE hindrance to my enjoying of life--being around so many hispanics and Asians, I actually feel average most of the time. Most women are shorter than me. However, compared to the average male of my ethnicity, and the occasional women I want who is off limits because of height, I feel frustrated about my height and want to be taller. I believe if something is bothering someone, they need to either make themselves stop caring, or go about fixing it. Living life hating something about yourself but doing nothing about it is no way to live.

I have an enormous wingspan at 5'10 or 5'11. It's hard to get accurate sitting/standing height ratios, but I think mine is in normal limits. When I wear 30 inseam pants they bunch up above my shoe. With longer legs, I could of course continue wearing my pants at my hips and wearing my size medium shirts in order to keep the "chesty" look. I've done mockups infront of a full size mirror, with and without clothes where I stand on my toes--essentially the same as giving more inches to your legs--  and see how my proportions still look. They suggest that I could pull off 3 inches of LL and still look very normal.

If I did get LL done, it would be anywhere from 1 to 3 inches done to my femur. It would make me anywhere from short-average to average. I want to ask you about two concerns:

1. Proportions. To be fair, I never really started paying attention to others' leg to torso ratios (and things like arm and hand size for their height) until I started thinking of LL. Of course, there is a large spectrum of proportions for any natural height. Can anyone who has had LL done tell me if they regretted how they turned out? How much did you lengthen, and what was your starting height? Did you anticipate the dis-proportionality and still do it since raw height is more important, or did it surprise you after surgery was done?

2. Athletic ability... I'm an avid runner. I've heard of course that after LL it can be hard to get back into shape and walk (much less run.) The important distinction that needs to be made, however, is the source of this. Is is due to muscle atrophy during LL, which heals itself with time and PT? Or is it a permanent change because your new skeletal system, with elongated tibias and/or femurs makes running mechanically difficult? Surely, some people are naturally born with odd tib/fem ratios and are runners, no?

[Taller]

ShyShy did three inches of femur lengthening and has recovered 100% of his athleticism, only 9 months after surgery. He can sprint and can run 400 meters in around 55 seconds. Check out his diary on this site.

[programdude]

I did 3 inches and my proportions look excellent. I haven't seen anyone here with Paley personally who I thought went too far, and most did at least 2 inches.

As for athletic, shy shy is indeed the go to for documented athletic recovery. I can't personally vouch for recovery but due to PT and exercise I am very strong even though I am still lengthening.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum. I've lurked for a while and learned quite a bit from you guys. I probably won't become a regular user here--just wanting to ask a few questions.

I'm a white 21 year old, I fluctuate between 5'7 in morning to 5'6 at night (168-170cm.) Honestly, my height isn't a HUGE hindrance to my enjoying of life--being around so many hispanics and Asians, I actually feel average most of the time. Most women are shorter than me. However, compared to the average male of my ethnicity, and the occasional women I want who is off limits because of height, I feel frustrated about my height and want to be taller. I believe if something is bothering someone, they need to either make themselves stop caring, or go about fixing it. Living life hating something about yourself but doing nothing about it is no way to live.

I have an enormous wingspan at 5'10 or 5'11. It's hard to get accurate sitting/standing height ratios, but I think mine is in normal limits. When I wear 30 inseam pants they bunch up above my shoe. With longer legs, I could of course continue wearing my pants at my hips and wearing my size medium shirts in order to keep the "chesty" look. I've done mockups infront of a full size mirror, with and without clothes where I stand on my toes--essentially the same as giving more inches to your legs--  and see how my proportions still look. They suggest that I could pull off 3 inches of LL and still look very normal.

If I did get LL done, it would be anywhere from 1 to 3 inches done to my femur. It would make me anywhere from short-average to average. I want to ask you about two concerns:

1. Proportions. To be fair, I never really started paying attention to others' leg to torso ratios (and things like arm and hand size for their height) until I started thinking of LL. Of course, there is a large spectrum of proportions for any natural height. Can anyone who has had LL done tell me if they regretted how they turned out? How much did you lengthen, and what was your starting height? Did you anticipate the dis-proportionality and still do it since raw height is more important, or did it surprise you after surgery was done?

2. Athletic ability... I'm an avid runner. I've heard of course that after LL it can be hard to get back into shape and walk (much less run.) The important distinction that needs to be made, however, is the source of this. Is is due to muscle atrophy during LL, which heals itself with time and PT? Or is it a permanent change because your new skeletal system, with elongated tibias and/or femurs makes running mechanically difficult? Surely, some people are naturally born with odd tib/fem ratios and are runners, no?

You sound a lot like me before I had LL: 5'7 with a 5'10 wingspan and having my legs be too short for 30" inseam pants.  After doing 3" on my tibiae that pants length fits me perfectly now.  I don't look disproportional at all.  Nobody would notice anything odd about my proportions.

My running endurance is worse than it was before LL and I don't think it's due to atrophy.  My calves are actually thicker now.  I think it's because the mechanics of my strides have changed and too much is being asked of muscles that just can't handle the workload.  There's a limit to how big/strong a muscle can get.  I hope since you're doing femurs that this doesn't affect you, but I hope you'll come back anyway when you're done and let all the runners know what effect it had on you.

[Calic]

1. Proportions. To be fair, I never really started paying attention to others' leg to torso ratios (and things like arm and hand size for their height) until I started thinking of LL. Of course, there is a large spectrum of proportions for any natural height. Can anyone who has had LL done tell me if they regretted how they turned out? How much did you lengthen, and what was your starting height? Did you anticipate the dis-proportionality and still do it since raw height is more important, or did it surprise you after surgery was done?

2. Athletic ability... I'm an avid runner. I've heard of course that after LL it can be hard to get back into shape and walk (much less run.) The important distinction that needs to be made, however, is the source of this. Is is due to muscle atrophy during LL, which heals itself with time and PT? Or is it a permanent change because your new skeletal system, with elongated tibias and/or femurs makes running mechanically difficult? Surely, some people are naturally born with odd tib/fem ratios and are runners, no?

I do not regret how I turned out after LL. I lengthened about 6.5 cm with a starting height of 171.5 cm and I would say I do not look ideal but I am passable as normal. I do not look as good as I did in my mock-ups, I may have done them wrong though and had the camera angled. Proportions were actually my #1 concern since my legs looked long to me already. I highly doubt anyone who has not researched LL or proportions would ever think I had LL or look abnormal.

As far as athletic ability goes I would say the more you do to prepare before surgery and the more PT you do during your lengthening the faster you will recover afterwards. From the 20-30 patients I met, those who prepared ahead of time and had excellent ankle flexibility developed much less ballerina and those who did standing and wore their sandals tightly during lengthening kept it to a minimum. Proportions would only be a significant hindrance to your running if you lengthened more than 3 inches on one segment. Do not worry about muscle atrophy, once you start walking again the muscle comes back fast and at least with tibias the calf muscles seem to grow bigger than they previously were to accommodate the greater bone length.

[ReadRothbard]

Most people don't pay attention to proportions in the real world, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. If you are truly that concerned, you can do a leg lengthening mockup using Microsoft paint.

As for athleticism, things should usually be ok as long as you don't go past 7.6 cm on the tibias and/or 8 cm on the femurs. That is, if you follow PT protocols and the such correctly.