By James Corrigan
Friday, 29 February 2008

Sir Steve Redgrave’s somewhat lofty ambition to prove his theory that “if you’re big enough, you’re good enough” took one almighty step forward yesterday with the announcement that his “Sporting Giants” initiative has added 34 rowers, 11 handball players and seven volleyball players to the national squads.

As everything seems to be in British sport nowadays, Redgrave’s project was set up with the 2012 Olympics in mind, although even the five-times gold medallist must have been surprised at the reaction to the nationwide appeal he made at a much-ridiculed launch in Trafalgar Square a year ago.

In all, 3,854 applications were received, which is some response, considering the strict restrictions placed on the candidates. Men had to measure at least 6ft 3in, while the cut-off mark for women was 5ft 11in. Furthermore, they had to be between 16 and 25 and have good, all-round athletic ability. A tall order if ever there was one.

Although perhaps not, if the initial interest and staggering conversion rate are reliable gauges. “This was a mild shake of the tree – we looked under a few rocks and look what we found,” Redgrave said. “This was all about finding tall people who had the right characteristics and some of the hidden talent that has emerged is incredible. I shouldn’t be too shocked, though, because I never thought I would row until my first coach came along and asked me to have a go. Years later I asked him, ‘Why did you pick me?’ He said, ‘Well, you had big hands and big feet’.”

At 6ft 9in, the 17-year-old Chris Gregory can boast two pairs of those and very useful they have proved, too, in propelling him into the British volleyball squad. Like Stuart Campbell, a 25-year-old who was working as a bricklayer when his father heard Redgrave’s call to the skyscrapers on the radio, Gregory knew nothing about the sport for which he is deemed ideal. “I had never seen a handball court before Sporting Giants,” said Campbell, now at the British handball academy in Denmark. “But we’re not just here to make up the numbers – we’re here to win medals.”

Indeed, Redgrave would doubtless claim that is what they were born for, which would be apt as the selection procedures have come straight from an Aldous Huxley novel. There were two stages of testing at six rowing centres, four for would-be handball players and three for volleyball. State-of-the-art equipment instructed the sporting overlords who would be up for it – and who would fall miserably short.

Alas, not all the applicants were totally honest and a few platform-heeled impostors tiptoed through. At least six did not satisfy the height criterion and added the odd inch to their forms. They were still tested, however, and have since graduated to the British canoeing squad. That is not big. But it is clever.

At the meeting, taking place from June 7 to 10, Frits R Rosendaal, hematologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands said that while the overall risk for travellers was still low the risk factors must not be neglected.

“The risk of developing thrombosis when travelling are higher for people with certain common abnormalities in the blood, for women who use birth control pills, or people who use sleeping pills on a flight, as well as people who are very tall, very short or overweight.”

In those cases a 50 to 100-fold increase in risk for people with combinations of those factors was possible, he added. Lack of movement and the cramped seating in economy class are regarded as the main factors for developing traveller’s thrombosis. Low cabin pressure may add to the risks, experts said.

The study surveyed 2,000 persons suffering from thrombosis in addition to 9,000 frequent flyers. One conclusion was that in the eight weeks after a flight of more than four hours, thrombosis risk increased two to threefold, with one in 4,500 travellers developing thrombosis.

THE WORLD WASN’T designed for tall people, or short ones for that matter. It seems that anyone outside the average range of five-foot-four to five-foot-eight is either reaching or slouching to get their tasks done. These demands on our everyday tasks can lead to permanent and habitual patterns through the body, leading to poor posture.

Posture is an integral part of overall well-being. As my chiropractor says: “Posture is a window in to your health.” Postural assessments give clues to the effects of gravity on the body, whether there are bony structural misalignments or muscle imbalance, and what the person’s movement patterns are. Pair the assessment with a lifestyle intake and you begin to paint a picture of how and why the posture is what it Still, some people take the idea of good posture for granted. Standing is a dynamic activity rather than, as some might assume, a static one.

There are several basic postural defaults.A relaxed faulty posture is the least severe, but the most common. You might identify with this category: belly pushed out, shoulders rounded, and essentially you stand an inch or two shorter than you really are. It is a slouch that will lead to future and more severe problems.

While the relaxed posture is the most common, battling for second place is either a hyperkyphosis or hyperlordosis. When the natural convex curve (kyphosis) of the upper back, or the concave curve (lordosis) of the neck and the low back, is excessive, you get lovely postural deformity. And the two usually exist together.Hyperkyphosis is common in the elderly. As we age, our spinal discs lose some of their suppleness and thickness, meaning wear and tear on the bones. Also, the muscles tend to weaken, and maintaining correct posture becomes more difficult.People who spend a lot of time in front of a computer without proper ergonomics, or even young students who spend their time between the computer and hunched over books for long hours, can start to develop hyperkyphosis as well.

Ultimately, this is a response to forward head carriage (head starts to jut forward). The body starts to lay down extra bone on the vertebrae of the upper back to help secure the balance.Hyperlordosis is the opposite, where the curve in the low back is exaggerated and the bum sticks out farther than average. Baby got back! Swayback deformity is a more exaggerated kyphosis in the upper back. It is typically associated with a decrease in the lordosis of the lower back while the whole upper body pulls backward.Scoliosis is a condition that is best seen from behind. A curvature of the spine, where the S shape runs side to side rather than front to back, is more often congenital, but can manifest later in life. It, like many postural concerns, can be corrected and/or managed, depending on severity.Huey Lewis and the News was right: it really is “hip to be square.” Round back (get it, round versus square? Yes. I am a geek!) is another case of posture gone wrong. Rounded shoulders with the chest collapsing forward and down with a decrease in the curve in the lower back are features of this posture. Also, the knees tend to be hyperextended (pushed to the back).

So far, all of these have dealt with excessive curvatures, but if a person has a flat back, he is likely experiencing near to total loss of any curvature in the spine, except for an accentuated curve in the neck.But what are these postures deviating from? What is the norm? Well, the spine is its strongest in an S shape than in any other formation. But what, you might ask, does the S shape look like?Hold your head up straight with your chin in, not jutting forward. Keep the head at neutral, not tilting it forward, backward or sideways. Your earlobes should be in line with the middle of your shoulders. Keep your shoulder blades back and chest forward. Knees should be relaxed and straight, not hyperextended.Tuck your stomach in and keep the abdominals engaged (important contributing muscles to postural endurance). Pelvis should be neutral, level left to right, and your hip bones sitting just slightly lower than the rear landmark of your hips (where the dimples form in your lower back).This alignment ensures that you are putting the least amount of strain on the joints, muscles and ligaments. As soon as we deviate from that we lose strength, function and control over our movements, as co-ordination and body awareness changes. Muscles might also fatigue faster when they are not being used most efficiently.

Poor posture also prevents proper functioning of the nervous system, which is housed in the vertebral column. When we start adding pressure, chaffing and strain to the spinal cord and nerves, you interfere with whatever is at the other end of that nerve.Things that can negatively affect posture include obesity, weak or tight muscles or wearing improper footwear, like high-heeled shoes or unsupportive flat shoes.While you cannot will yourself to have better posture, you can take measurable steps to prevent any of the aforementioned afflictions, or to correct existing ones. Manipulative treatments, such chiropractic, osteopathy, et cetera, can help correct structural misalignments. Soft-tissue treatments, like massage therapy, physiotherapy, et cetera, can help restore proper muscle balance if one area is overdeveloped or underdeveloped.And you can further complement those treatments by setting up good ergonomics and doing maintenance by stretching and/or strengthening the appropriate areas. Posture needs your help!

THE FACTS Everyone knows that being tall has its benefits. Greater social and economic prospects are two of the more obvious ones, studies suggest. But can a taller stature also mean a longer life? The answer: It’s debatable. Scientists have known for years, for example, that as the standard of living in a society improves, giving people greater access to nutrition, the average height and life span tend to go up. Widespread malnutrition and hardships, on the other hand, usually have the opposite effect.

As a result, many researchers have argued that greater height is a reflection of better health, and in turn a longer life.

One group of epidemiologists at the University of Bristol in England has published studies showing that taller people, after controlling for various factors, are less likely to die of coronary heart disease, respiratory disease and stomach cancer than shorter people.

But others say shorter is better. One researcher, Thomas T. Samaras, the author of “The Truth About Your Height,” has published a number of studies suggesting that taller people age faster because they consume more calories.

In one study, published in 2003, Mr. Samaras and his co-authors argued that even the well-known tendency for women to live longer than men could be explained because men are on average 8 percent taller.

Which side is right is not known. In the end, only one relationship between size and mortality seems clear: an expanding waistline lowers life expectancy.

THE BOTTOM LINE The effect of height on life span, if any, is unclear.

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