Does Weight Training Stunt Growth In Young Adolescent Kids?

14 yo Miles with Dad Ving Henson at The Pit

I remember clearly being told by my teammates as a young runner at twelve that I should never do weights as it would stop me from growing taller.

This misconception about weight training often comes from fellow teammates, well meaning parents, physical education teachers and even some coaches. Actually, the sport your child participates in (sprinting, jumping or contact sports) will generate greater forces than training in the weight room.

This widely held belief that weight training especially when performed during puberty/ adolescence stunts growth still persist in the present day. Due to this, young athletes and children should only perform body weight exercises and not do any training with barbells, kettlebells or even dumbbells.

Fret not if you're a parent or teacher of a young athlete. There is simply no evidence to support this belief at all. Many studies have looked into this topic and found that weight training has no negative impact on skeletal growth. It will not stunt growth.

Actually, studies show consistent findings that young subjects have increased strength, speed and power, while losing weight, gaining muscle and stronger bones. There is also a reduction in injury rates. Good news for parents if your child keeps getting injured. This is especially true even when the young subjects have not reached puberty.

So it makes very little sense from a bone stress point of view if you stop your child from going to the gym but allow them to participate in sports.

So how soon can your child start weight training? We do not have any suggestions from any local authority but the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association suggest that a child can start weight training at six years old. As long as he/she can follow clear instructions and understand the dangers when training.

If you do send your child/ athlete for weight training, make sure the learn the correct techniques by a good strength coach who has experience working with young athletes. Remember, don't force the young athletes if they are not keen.


References

Barbieri D and Zaccagni L (2013). Strength Training For Children And Adolescents: Benefits And Risks. Collegium Antropologicum. 37(2): 219-225.

Faigenbaum AD and Meyer GD (2010). Resistance Training Among Young Athletes: Safety, Efficacy And Injury Prevention Effects. BJSM. 44(1): 56-63.

Falk D and Dotard R (2019). Strength Training In Children. Harefuah. 158(8): 515-519.

After seeing 14 yo Miles training above, my 9 yo was inspired to do the same

Young Athletes Are Not Small Adults

I've had a few worried parents message or call me on the past two weekends saying that their child has had sharp pain suddenly without any falls or accident. A common area of complaint is in the knee or heel.

After a few short questions and answers I am usually able to reassure the parent that their child is fine and nothing is really serious about the painful episode.

Often these young children/ athletes have growing pain. The long bones grow quite quickly (especially if they are having a growth spurt) and the muscles don't lengthen quite as quickly. When the child is active, this shorter muscle(s) often pull on the bony attachments and cause pain.

Their muscles usually will not have developed enough strength to compensate for the sudden increase in lever lengths.

My older boy who is eight plays football once a week. Other days he's at the playground running, jumping and climbing etc. He's growing taller and  his muscles are not always strong enough to generate the forces required to move his longer and now heavier legs. As a result, he often has this "growing pain" in the night especially after he'e been particularly active.

I just taped my older boy's leg last night

From treating all the young and teenage athletes in our clinics, we observe that it may take up to about nine months for the muscles to develop length and strength after a growth spurt in their bones.
This form the basis of injuries that these young athletes get. If the bones grow longer and the muscles don't quite catch up in length, the muscle will be relatively shorter and hence tighter.

The area most prone to overload is where the muscle attaches via the tendons to the bones. Hence these pain and injuries we see are growth related.  Common areas are where the Achilles tendon inserts in the heel bone (usually known as Severs disease, although it is definitely not a disease), and the patella tendon on the shin bone (Osgood Schlatters disease).

Other areas include the quadriceps tendon into the knee cap (Sindling Larsen disease) and the attachment of the hip flexors onto the pelvis.

It is usually due to overload of the tendon attachment to the bone from doing too much too soon (without rest) that causes these pain or injuries.

Majority of the time, most of these cases get better when the muscles "catch up" with the bone growth by lengthening and getting stronger.

Stretching the muscle may be worse sometimes as static stretching can place more traction forces on the tendon insertion on the bone. We tend to teach our young patients and their parents to use the trigger ball instead.

Correct strength training that is pain free often helps the muscle take load off the tendon attachment. Don't use a load that is too heavy.

Come see us in our clinics if your young or teenage child athlete needs help.