does weight lifting stunt your growth

seipel · Newbie Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Posts: 23

I can guess that you get this question all the time, but it’s just that I don’t know whom to believe. Anyway, I'm in my teens and I want to start weight lifting. All of my friends seem to be better then I am so I want to change it. But someone recently told me that weightlifting could stunt my growth, so I want to know if that is this true?

sally · Silver Member Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 269

It's seems this myth will never die, but I will try again to kill it. The whole notion of growth being stunted by weight lifting is pure myth. It didn't stunt the growth of David Robinson, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Vick, etc. They all started lifting in their early teens, and all have gone on to be well over 6' tall and star in some professional sports. Dave Draper and Arnold Schwarzenegger started lifting very young and both are 6'1" or even taller. So the answer is no, weightlifting does not stunt height growth, or any other kind of growth. There is no scientific evidence to support such ideas and, in fact, books such as the Russian, School of Height, suggest that weight training may even stimulate growth. The latest weight training studies done on teens showed only positive effects without any doubt. You should also know that some activities, such as running and jumping create forces on the body that are six to eight times one's body weight. Not only that proper weight training not stunt growth, it allows teens to grow up with stronger muscles and bones.

Ready_Lube · Silver Member Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 227 Location: AZ

If someone were to start lifting weights at a young age, say around 13/14, I would think that it will do something that you would not to happen. Your body is not done growing at this stage of the game. I would stay away from lifting weights until the age of 16-18 if I were you.

wrestlemania59 · Newbie Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 3

Its a myth . i started weight lifting at 11 now im 15 and im 6'2"

araeiq · Newbie Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 2

Generally weightlifting does not affect growth, but sometimes care has to be taken especially if your growth plates have not yet fused.

Also it all depends on the sort of weights you do. The heavier they are the more likely it will affect your growth. Also the sort of exercises you do can affect your growth. Also the age you start and the level you start when weightlifting can also affect your growth. Now lets deal with them one at a time.

Generally you shouldn't start weightlifting when you are still growing as you are now I'm sure. After about the age 17 years it reasonable to do weightlifting starting slow and gradually building up muscular strenght but more importantly bone strength. Remember that you do not stop growing until the age of about 21. This is when the growth plates you have as kid fuse together in your arms and legs (thats why you stop growing because once they fuse there is no space for the ends of the bone to grow).

Secondly if you do exercises which put stress on your bones so that it is acting along the bone, then that will act to compress the bones resulting in less growth in the bone than normal. If you do it for a long time at a young age that compression can be permanent. Doing exercises which put strain on your spine like military press, squats, dumbell curls while standing, overhead press etc, will also affect your height if you start at a to early age. I suggest you do exercises where you are lying down, or at least sitting in a chair. And even then don't go to more than half your body weight. Sometimes people have defect in the major artery that leads from the heart, the aorta. The problem is that in some people part of this artery is genitically weak and due to blood flowing through it (ie: blood pressure) this overtime balloons outwards. Now under normal conditions this is usually not fatal and is undetected. But doing weights which are more than half your body weight, can cause instant death, because the aorta will rupture. This has killed more people in America in the past year than AIDS has. Most of the time people didnt even know or their doctors that they had this condition.

So generally if you are in year 8 stick to running , pushups, situps, shadow boxing and squats (all without weights). Do these things until you drop, to get a good workout. This way you get the maximum growth and strength out of your body while you are growing. So when u do stop growing then your bones are strong and your muscles conditioned. This way when u start weightlifting u can have great progress, but even then u build up slowly.

I am a medical student myself, and also a weightlifter. I am 19 years olds. I started when I was 17.5 yrs. I do 300 pound bench, 120 pound biceps, 360 pound squats and 1100 pound leg press when i am on form and having a reasonable day at the gym. Also that heart condition is called aortic aneurysms. When u do start weightlifting check yourself out for this condition, before you start heavy weights. Because if it happens it will kill u so fast , it is not funny.

I hope this has been useful dude. By the way i am from australia, so we use kilos. and the weights i do seem alot less to me when you convert. Wink

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Guest · Guest

Sally, instead of stealing someone elses writing, you might think of putting it in quotes and giving the author the proper credit.

Here is the article in which she stole from:

trulyhuge.com/news/tips63iq.htm

Guest · Guest

hey yall im 14 bout to be 15.im 5,5" and am a powerlifter, i weigh arounf 120 and 114 at competition. i wanna know if doing 350 on squat and 360 on deadlift every meet will affect me

ag23 · Newbie Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 1

Nice information araeiq...I couldn’t stop reading your article...

I have been always scared of stunning my growth because of weight lifting...especially since I play allot of basketball, and thinking of joining a college team. I am 15 years old, and I lift 135 max on bench press (pds), I never use weights for my legs and I use my own weight for leg workouts, such as calf raisers. So I was wondering if this will effect my growth…because all I am working out and trying to build is chest, triceps, shoulders and biceps.

Oh yea and I have been lifting weights for about a year now.

Guest · Guest

when i was 11 and 12 i started doing bicep curls because i was really small like 5 2 100 pounds now im like 5 9 5 10 175 pound sit doesent stunt my growth i just not going ot be more then 6 1 haha

Guest · Guest

hey people well am in wrestling for my first year and they got me doing sqauts and its so confusing telling no it don't affect ur growth or yes it does and i don't know wut to do am so scared cuz the last thing i wanna be is smaller than 5'6 which i am now n am 15 just turned in april n i see evryone else in wrestling thats been there before n they small so it scares me man cuz u know i don't want to stay short but i also want to bulid up muscle but i think that anything that strains ur back makes u short i think like squats ect.

does weight lifting stunt your growth

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