does weightlifting shorten me?

[Alawadhi]

Hello guys
I want to enter weightlifting gym but I’m curies if lifting weight shortens me or no. I'm already 172CM and I don't want to loose height as I’m already short.

[Sean Hatley]

dont worry you wont get short

[Paul Neuhaus]

Hello guys
I want to enter weightlifting gym but I’m curies if lifting weight shortens me or no. I'm already 172CM and I don't want to loose height as I’m already short.
Where on Earth did you get a silly idea like that?!?!

I'm not trying to be mean but, I think someone's yankin' your chain!

[Luke Paskins]

172cm is only short be the standards set in strength atheltics, it's not short in the normal world...:-)

All excercise will shape your body in a specific way I guess that much is obvious...but weighlifiting for strength and not for the number of lightish reps will give you a very dense,compressed musculature...this is why they tend not to let kids do that stuff in most gyms, because it will mess with their growth. As an adult though the risk is more in terms of body shape and posture...

When I peaked at 230-240lbs when I was 17, I was pretty hunched over and there were problems with neck cricks, hamstring pain etc...


Long story short: yes, but not too much: it's pretty much an accepted loss for the territory. Never do weights to the point that your body loses proportion, that's the best rule!

[davebeers]

i started lifting heavy weights at the age of 15. I was 5'8" at the time.
Now at 21 i'm 6'2" and the tallest person in my family.

[Paul Neuhaus]

People say that you quit growing after you hit your late 20s. I started lifting weights at the age of 27, and at a height of 5'8.5". I'm now 31 years old, and 5'9".

[Brandon Campbell]

see weightlifting made paul GROW!! all the better reason to start lifting! :LOL:

[Jesse Snadden]

I was 8ft tall at one time ... :T:

[Mac Smith]

weightlifting at any age won't shorten you. I have both my sons lifting (ages 11 and 9). Doctors have told me that it actually makes their bones stronger and will assist with common growing pains that some kids get from growing too quickly. Most gyms don't allow kids in the weight room because of safety and liability reasons.

[TEXAS STONEMAN]

No, absolutely not! I have lifted heavy since I was almost 13. I was a little over 5 ft. then and I am 6'4" now. Weightlifting making you short is just an excuse used by all the pissed off high school athletes who were good for their age until everyone else got taller than them.
Look at it this way: as a kid you have probably climbed a tree and jumped out of it from a relatively high branch. The force exerted by the impact of your body on the ground is going to be way more than you could lift. If that doesn't stunt your growth then how will weightlifting? Some people will say that tight muscles will keep you from growing but this isn't true. The growth of the bones is so slow that the muscles have plenty of time to stretch and let the bones grow in. Besides, most of your growth occurs at night when your body is in its most relaxed state.

[Luke Paskins]

well there's two variables: weightlifitng and presumably the food/nutrition/genral health impetus going on behind the weightlifting...


so all excercise will enhance your physique in line with sound nutrition...but yes there is a tendency to I guess compression etc...It's not the same as restrciing bone growth etc..it'll change your body shape is all :-)

[Paul Neuhaus]

I only look short because I'm so freakin' wide!!! :B:

[Bob Weigel]

I only look short because I'm so freakin' wide!!! :B:

Me too. :EL:

[Alawadhi]

thanks guys for the replies :) appreciate it.

I'll lift more now :BP: