Hi, this is my first post on these forums. I'm 15 years old, (almost 16) I'm around 5'8'' and 115lbs. I've never really been a strong person, or a tall person for that matter. However or the past few years I've really been growing, and still am. I am hoping to reach 6' in height. I also really want to excercise, but I heard that if I weight train (I use the Total Gym Elite if that matters) and build muscle mass, it will take away from my growth. This worries me, because I hopefully still have 2 yrs of growth left in me to reach my goal, but I also want to stay fit and gain some mass as I'm underweight. I don't want to compromise my height to put on muscle, but I also want to work on building muscle mass as soon as I can. Is this rumour true? Thanks in advance!
Will muscle gain stunt my growth?
- Thread starter Kev191
- Start date
Weight lifting stunts growth? Thats news to me.
I'm 21, and after weight training for 1 year so far I have gotten 2 inches taller taking me to a 6 - 6'1 range.
I'm 21, and after weight training for 1 year so far I have gotten 2 inches taller taking me to a 6 - 6'1 range.
I did grow 1 inch when I was going from around 18-19.....
Generally women stop at 18 and men around 20 years old
LeiYunFat said:
That's fairly vague and unhelpful.
Kev191 - Seems to me like you're going through that stage of growing upright but you probably havn't "filled out" yet. For now, you want to work with light weights doing 15 - 20 reps and NOT to failure. Since you're still growing, it's important to not go to failure. You want to start that once you've naturally filled out - which by the sounds of it is very close.
Here's a basic resistance program:
Supported Row
Leg press
Lat pulldown
Vertical chest press
Core exercises.
On the subject of weight training stunting growth - That issue is still up in the air and anything you hear about that is just opinion. There's no facts about whether or not resistance training stunts growth or not.
still up in the air, yes. Alot of people disscuss it, but that doesnt mean there isent an answer.
How YOUNG to start weight lifting... - JP Fitness Forums
thats a good thread about the subject
also, try to search for Brian Grasso on this forum, i dont think he posts anymore, but he has posted quite alot of threads about young people and weightlifting, he knows what his talking about.
How YOUNG to start weight lifting... - JP Fitness Forums
thats a good thread about the subject
also, try to search for Brian Grasso on this forum, i dont think he posts anymore, but he has posted quite alot of threads about young people and weightlifting, he knows what his talking about.
Yeh so basically you stop growing at 18 years of age, although some may continue to grow slightly for another couple of years.
I think the main factor that this is concerned with is ensuring that any strength exercise you decide to do is to make sure its balanced, which over time might make you hunch for example so then that would have an effect on your height. Some exercises would also be contraidictory i would imagine, you wouldnt want to stress the growth plates or anything.
Ive seen that exercises that use your own body weight eg push ups etc are good, and as someelse mentioned high reps and light mod weights.
I think the main factor that this is concerned with is ensuring that any strength exercise you decide to do is to make sure its balanced, which over time might make you hunch for example so then that would have an effect on your height. Some exercises would also be contraidictory i would imagine, you wouldnt want to stress the growth plates or anything.
Ive seen that exercises that use your own body weight eg push ups etc are good, and as someelse mentioned high reps and light mod weights.
There some intersting reading there, but until someone actually carries out a prooper research and study on this ie. using people for for the study (which they probably won't because it would be rediculous) then i don't believe there will be a certain deffinate answer.
Well, it was a fairly vauge question. He never asked what exercises he could do to circumvent things like spinal compression, as we don't even know that he is loading his spine to begin with. A Total Gym doesn't allow for heavy deads or squats. However helpful your post may be is useless if the user doesn't even have the tools to utilize what you suggest.
yeah, but there is really no reason why it should stunt growth, so i dont see any reason why a relativly young kid shouldnt do weight training. I know sevral people (both IRL and over the internet) who have been weighttraining for quite some time, none of them are short because of it. Im not saying it proves anything, but im yet to talk to anyone who has been short because of it, and i think alot of people will say the same.
However, i do see your point. And i guess the decition of whether or not to do weight training in an early age would fall upon the person in question. And all we really can do is let them know how to do it propperly if they decide to do it.
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Reduced growth through loading and compression sounds plausible theoretically, but then you have to factor things in like diet and rest.
We can see that high durations in low compression environments like swimming pools will help people grow (just look at the trend of swimmers), so therefore, the opposite SOUNDS plausible. However, I believe that IF these effects exist, there are many countermeasures you can take.
And we're just talking about bone length. We know compression will change the density of the bone, but does this indicate anything about length? Maybe. I'm just throwing rhetorical questions out there so I sound like I'm thinking about this. I couldn't really care less.
We can see that high durations in low compression environments like swimming pools will help people grow (just look at the trend of swimmers), so therefore, the opposite SOUNDS plausible. However, I believe that IF these effects exist, there are many countermeasures you can take.
And we're just talking about bone length. We know compression will change the density of the bone, but does this indicate anything about length? Maybe. I'm just throwing rhetorical questions out there so I sound like I'm thinking about this. I couldn't really care less.
Thank you so much for all of the responses! This is exactly what I needed to know. I guess I'll just do the suggested total gym workouts but not to failure. I know this isn't in the right spot but I want to save starting a new thread. For cardio, what is better, the HIIT, beep test, or a machine such as a bike/gazelle?