Does Weightlifting Reduce Or Stunt Height And Stop Growth?

Weightlifting is a common and popular part of a workout regime aimed to work on building muscles and significantly bring changes to your body. It helps you to get stronger muscles and bones and helps you to reveal an amazing body. Though cardio workouts also form a major part of a fitness regime, weight training has been a key part of many people who are on a fitness goal.

However, one question which most people opting for weight training comes across is - "Does weightlifting reduce or stunt height and stop growth?" While this question comes mostly from young fitness enthusiasts trying to explore weight training, it is also a question troubling parents who are conscious about their child's health.

Does weightlifting really impact height and growth in an individual? What is this concern all about? Where did such a concern come from? Does this have any scientific backing?

Well, this is an age-old and global debate that people have been coming across. This debate concerns the fact that the human growth plates are mostly active during puberty and weightlifting can damage this which might impede the growth.

However, the finding of a lot of studies says 'no', that there is actually no negative impact of weightlifting related to the height and growth factors. And this has been concluded as a myth that weightlifting impedes growth and stunts height. There is no scientific backup to this and this is completely negated by all medical and scientific studies and it holds no credibility.

Nevertheless, this misconception has been ruling the minds of people since ages and fitness coaches and physical training mentors often tackle this question. To authenticate this as a myth we can just hold on to our common sense before exploring more about it, that we have not come across any famous weightlifter or fitness enthusiast facing such health concerns who have been exposed to weight training.

So the truth of the matter concerning this debate is, in fact, the vice versa. Weightlifting has been related to the production of testosterone in the body which actually helps the muscles to grow. Weightlifting by teenagers can actually lead to an accelerated or improved height, contradicting the myth that it stunts your height.

However, care should be taken that weightlifting does not cause an accidental injury or damage to the body. This caution is not just pertaining to weight training but also in the case of any other sport. Therefore, weightlifting should be done under supervision to avoid the risk of injury to the body.

In case of an injury to the growth plate, the healing often depends on the severity of the injury and the age of the child and even the type of fracture. But normal fractures to the growth plate do heal without any negative or lasting effects.

The thought of accident and injury, however, does give some weight to the weightlifting myth that it stunts or inhibits growth. Instead of giving an ear to such myths adequate measures should be taken to prevent injury by choosing guided workouts.

While welcoming fitness through weight training, you might have started with such concerns, but once you educate yourself and others about such common gym-myths, you can be clear and follow the right workouts for yourself or your children. You just need to figure out the right way of doing any workout to reap optimal results. Burn down the myths by hitting the gym hard!