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Man who broke his own legs to add 9 inches to his height speaks out on his experience
Home>News>Health
Published 14:22 24 Feb 2025 GMT

Man who broke his own legs to add 9 inches to his height speaks out on his experience

Having already added five inches to his height through a cosmetic procedure, Leon wants to keep 'growing'

Joe Yates

Joe Yates

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Featured Image Credit: TikTok/le_tremba

Topics: Health, Mental Health

Joe Yates
Joe Yates

Joe is a journalist for UNILAD, who particularly enjoys writing about crime. He has worked in journalism for five years, and has covered everything from murder trials to celeb news.

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@JMYjourno

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A man put himself through excruciating pain in order to 'grow' five inches but is still a few inches from achieving his 'dream' height.

In 2023, Leon, 23, began his agonizing journey to become a six-foot four inches tall - and has since spoken out about his experience.

In order for Leon, who previously stood at five-foot six inches, to add up to nine inches to his height, he must endure a 'leg-lengthening' cosmetic procedure which involves a number of different steps and can take a long time to complete.

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And he's not alone, with the divisive surgery seemingly becoming more popular in recent years.

The gruelling surgery itself is just the beginning, with it requiring a long time to stretch the legs, before then working with a physiotherapist to get the best results.

At the beginning of the procedure, your thigh bones are broken and a series of metal pins and braces are then implanted to the area around the break with a little screw sticking out.

Over the next few weeks, the patient has to turn the screw a set amount each day - this gradually stretches out the leg as the bone is healing. If you ever had braces, think of it as having your braces tightened... but on your legs.

Then, once you have reached the desired length, you allow the leg to fully heal and begin rehabilitation with a physiotherapist so you can learn to get around with your new height.

Leon running on the treadmill after adding 10.5cm to his height (TikTok/le_tremba)
Leon running on the treadmill after adding 10.5cm to his height (TikTok/le_tremba)

"I’ve always dreamed of being taller," Leon said to followers on his TikTok account @le_tremba.

"My journey began in 2023 when I underwent my first leg lengthening surgery on my femur, increasing my height from 171.5cm to 182cm using the LON method with an external fixator."

Just yesterday (February 23), he shared a video of him struggling to walk, captioning it: "Current height: 184cm Goal: 192-195cm."

Text overlaying the footage read: "50 days after leg lengthening, my walking during the process of getting taller."

In another post, he sat down with a 'height surgeon' to discuss how many centimeters people can add to their height.

"Well, the maximum capacity of the Betzbone [leg-lengthening system] on the femur side is 12.3 centimeters, and on the tibia side is 10 centimeters," the man told Leon.

"From a medical point of view or from biomechanics, we have to be cautious if you extend the femur, for example, beyond 10 centimeters, or the tibia beyond eight centimeters.

"The nail itself can do 10 on tibias and 12.3 on femurs."

The medic continued: "On the femurs, the average of my clients is all around eight and 10 centimeters. Well, it's not exactly eight and it's not exactly nine or something like that.

"Usually that's what I kind of recommend to my clients is watch yourself in the mirror, and once you feel fine, once you feel fine with your height, once you feel fine with your proportion, with your esthetic outcome, then you slow down the click rate, and you can stop whenever you like."

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