Why will height stop growing by lifting weights?

Answer 1

Whether its weights, calisthenics, or Charles Atlas dynamic tension, excessive strength training during the developmental years can in fact cause an unnatural upsurge in testosterone in children which fools the body into thinking the body is close to full maturation. The body is programmed to stop growing once all hormones are "in place" at their right chemical balance, because strength training causes a testosterone upsurge during the recovery phase, what this will do to children, especially males entering their teens is fool the body into thinking "oh, we have a man/woman's testosterone levels now so, no more bone growth needed, or muscle, or anything else." The high intensity calisthenics done by gymnasts is part of the reason most of them are short.

Many male gymnasts can have fathers who stand at 6'2 or taller, but their sons are only around 5'4 because of the high intensity calisthenics gymnastics puts them through. The reason the Shaolin temple in China does not have this problem, has to do with the fact that high intensity strength training does not begin for the young monks, I believe, until the age of 15. Where a gymnast kid in the U.S. is forced to do up to 100 to 200 push ups in a row, in China the regimentation is only around 20 to 50 for children, and it intensifies to 500 in a row at age 15, by the time a monk is 18, they are expected to do 1,000 pushups in a row. However stunted growth is generally not an issue because they are careful not to put young children through brutal strength training until they are ready. Both prepubescent boys and girls, in fact have the hormones relevant to their gender, albeit on much lower levels than grown adults or teens. High intensity strength training, however, will create an upsurge, and that will stunt growth.

For children, it is generally recommended that no strength training of any kind with weights is done until age 15, and if its calisthenics, it should be restricted to between 10 to 20 repetitions, it may intensify to working their way up to 100 to 200 in a row only in the mid teens. Where weight training is concerned, it starts at 14 but only at moderate intensity; back in high school our own weight training teacher never allowed burnout reps, well, if you were a freshman anyway, he only let Juniors and Seniors do burnouts.