Does working out hard and lift weights stun a child's growth?

Here's a question that has been on my mind lately. YOu know after every tournament, I get to chat with some of the boys that compete against Cora and they told me the things that they put their son through to make them stronger and faster and all the cardio work. This leave me thinking, am I the only one wrong about this subject? Due to personal experience, I always thought that if a kid work out too hard at a young age, that that will stun their growth. My friends and I work out hard since we were about 14 years old due to the amount of violence in our area, just to protect ourselves. I was 16 years old and in my senior year I was benching 230 lb, deadlift almost 500 lbs, and squating more than 500 lbs and I was only 128 lbs. I never grew since then. So from that day on, I always believe that lifting weights and working out too hard when you are a child is a bad thing. I alway advise younger athletes to keep it at a moderate so that they can grow to their fullest potential before they hit the weights hard. What do yall think???

I would definitely say moderation is key here for the kids. I’ve heard that from a lot of other people as well…

No medical proof. Bodyweight strength training is still best. Personal opinion.

I've always heard working out young stunts your growth, but I haven't done any research to be able to give a solid opinion. I agree with Bobby, I find body weight stuff and also core workouts have improved my strength a lot more than bench pressing.

Weights will, so will weight cuts where you cut out carbs.

Get a DVD called convict conditioning by paul wade they are all body weight and when you master it you will be able to do one hand push ups, 1 leg squats, 1 arm pull ups, standing to standing back bridge and straight leg raises.

They work you up to the hardest exercises by showing 10 progressively harder variations f the move.

Thanks guys. I think we will stick with the body weight strength training. I will weld up some monkey bars and hang them in the garage along with other crazy contraptions that I will think of. Maybe even put up rock climbing wall like I see in the gym in the MTS. Just trying to get Cora to keep pace with those wrestler boys. For a girl, she is very strong already, but when she competes against high level boys, she's quite weak.

for dudes it's always better to wait until your nuts drop and you reach puberty before hitting the weights I'd say it's probobly the same for girls

Well the flipside is like the paleo diet. When we were cavemen and not agricultural farmers, we ate a paleo diet. Same goes for kids. They didn't just sit around and play with legos, they were helping gather and carry wood, rocks, animals, whatever they needed. Everyone worked together, males did men's work and females did women's work. (for lack of better terms)

My girls don't lift weights but they are doing body weight stuff, and the full warmups from our JiuJitsu club which are intense. They also do kettlebell work anytime we do, with a lighter weight. (15lbs)

It's not stunting growth that doctors worry about, it's affecting skeletal structure they worry about. Kids shouldn't be lifting heavy weights in the hopes to build a huge frame, but they should be pushing their limits so their body will grow and adjust to work.
That doesn't equate to training full time as a 10 year old, doing Olympic Clean and Jerk, or Snatch, but it can equate to bodyweight exercises and kettlebells, etc.

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Originally Posted by Brian Debes

I would definitely say moderation is key here for the kids. I’ve heard that from a lot of other people as well…

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Take it from Arnold over here.

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Originally Posted by Kurzy

:eek:WORDS WORDS WORDS

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What this man said is generally considered to be the most accurate. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence thrown around on both sides, claiming that they 'know' based on personal experience, but I've yet to actually find a study published in any sort of peer-reviewed journal that can confirm this.

Lol wtf kind of a quote was that?? Hahahaha

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Originally Posted by Cora Sek

Thanks guys. I think we will stick with the body weight strength training. I will weld up some monkey bars and hang them in the garage along with other crazy contraptions that I will think of. Maybe even put up rock climbing wall like I see in the gym in the MTS. Just trying to get Cora to keep pace with those wrestler boys. For a girl, she is very strong already, but when she competes against high level boys, she's quite weak.

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I worked in the Rock climbing industry for 10 years. You can put up a sick 45 degree training wall in a garage. Or even just get a training board to hang up. The training wall works full body and flexability. check out Nicros.com. Also check out the training center on their site. Eric Horst is the premier rock climbing training expert, you can e-mail him, he would be happy to help, just ell him Greg sent you. He has a 14 year old boy that climbs 5.14 now. he is sick strong and healthy.

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Originally Posted by Cora Sek

Here's a question that has been on my mind lately. YOu know after every tournament, I get to chat with some of the boys that compete against Cora and they told me the things that they put their son through to make them stronger and faster and all the cardio work. This leave me thinking, am I the only one wrong about this subject? Due to personal experience, I always thought that if a kid work out too hard at a young age, that that will stun their growth. My friends and I work out hard since we were about 14 years old due to the amount of violence in our area, just to protect ourselves. I was 16 years old and in my senior year I was benching 230 lb, deadlift almost 500 lbs, and squating more than 500 lbs and I was only 128 lbs. I never grew since then. So from that day on, I always believe that lifting weights and working out too hard when you are a child is a bad thing. I alway advise younger athletes to keep it at a moderate so that they can grow to their fullest potential before they hit the weights hard. What do yall think???

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I had to do a piece on this for some college work. Basically lifting weights will not stunt a child's growth in any way shape or form, so long as you do it sensibly. The only way it can stunt growth is if the growth plates in the long bones are fractured or damaged. This, at a young age, is reasonably easy to do. So either do weight training which is sensible and monitored to ensure no bone damage is done or, as i better advise, do body weight training. For Cora i would keep her doing body weight training and either calisthenics or plyo-metrics until 14 when the bone density is quite near to full adult maturity for women and so is maximum height. Then you can start to lift weights more freely with less moderation. The reason why you seemed to stop growing is, unless you where on gear, from the sounds of it you hit full maturity at 16 to be able to hit those numbers and most men hardly grow after 16 anyway if they hit puberty at an average age. My personal advice is for her to train calisthenic type exercise until 14 and then change to weights if you feel the need to. Remember however that women will not particularly gain muscular size because they don’t have the testosterone men do. Anymore questions let me know.