Can Some Exercises Stop Height Growth? Find The Truth

Are you curious about which exercises stop height growth? Or how you can prevent height growth with exercise?

In this blog, we’ll explore the science behind height growth and dispel all myths related to exercise and height growth.

Which exercises stop height growth?

Wondering which exercises stop height growth? The answer is there are no effective exercises to stop height growth.

There is absolutely no shred of scientific evidence to prove that any exercise stops height growth.

Factors affecting height

Several factors determine your height including…

1. Genetics

Your genes largely determine how tall you’ll grow. So if the tall gene runs in your family, chances are you’ll be tall as well and vice versa.

2. Hormones

Your pituitary gland secretes different growth hormones including human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) that stimulate growth and promote the elongation and maturation of bones, leading to height growth.

3. Diet

Children who don’t get enough nutritious food to eat in their growing years tend to be shorter than children who eat foods rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

4. Environment

Improper access to quality healthcare, nutrition, and sanitation facilities, exposure to hazardous pollutants, and poor social and emotional background can all influence the height growth of children. Research suggests that children brought up in poor environmental conditions are not likely to be very tall.

The science behind height growth

So, how does one grow tall?

All the long bones in your body (think femur, humerus, tibia, etc.) have growth plates (a.k.a. epiphyseal plates) made of cartilage near their ends. Inside these plates are cells called chondrocytes that keep multiplying and forming new cartilage tissue. As this happens, your bones elongate and all the old cartilage tissue is calcified into bone tissue.

This multiplication of cells and growth continues until the growth plates close at the end of puberty, signifying the end of longitudinal bone growth. After closure, bones continue to change, but further increases in height are no longer possible.

You might like: The Ultimate Guide To Get Toned And Strong Arms At Home

Can weightlifting exercises halt height growth?

There seems to be this common misconception that weight-lifting exercises stop height growth. This isn’t true as there isn’t a single piece of research that points to that.

So, why do people think that weightlifting exercises are height-stopping workouts?            

One reason could be that many high-profile Olympic weightlifters and powerlifters are short in stature. But the truth is that powerlifters aren’t short because they lift weights, rather they are amazing at lifting weights because they are short!

Take the bench press, for instance. For a tall person with long arms, the distance traveled in a bench press would be greater as compared to a shorter person with short arms – meaning a shorter person wouldn’t require much effort to lift.

Another reason why people think that weightlifting exercises stop height growth is because they believe that lifting weights before puberty can place undue stress on your growth plates and damage them thus leading to a halt in height growth.

This is far from the truth because not a single weightlifting exercise can ever produce the type of forces and stresses that can ultimately cause growth plate injuries. These types of asymmetrical distorted forces typically occur during accidents and falls or even contact sports such as football and basketball.

If anything, science shows that resistance training has a ton of benefits for children including:

• increased strength
• reduced rates of sports-related injury
• improved bone strength index
• lower risk of fracture
• improved self-esteem and interest in fitness.

Weight lifting exercises could damage your growth plates and stop height growth only if one trains with poor form, or lifts too heavy. So, if your teens are lifting weights, ensure that they do so under a qualified trainer’s guidance.

Is there any way other than exercises to stop height growth?

Not really!

You just can’t stop height growth that naturally occurs during childhood and adolescence. Height growth will continue to take place until you reach puberty and then it’ll stop on its own.

But if you really want to get shorter, you’re gonna have to wait until you’re a grandpa or grandma!

You see, as you age, due to various factors such as compression of the discs between your vertebrae, poor posture, and bone density changes, you will experience a small loss in height.

Now, are you wondering whether there are any medical interventions to stop height growth? There are a few treatments such as growth hormone suppression (used to treat gigantism), androgen or estrogen therapy, and even surgery (such as ones performed to rectify unevenly long bones).

But none of these procedures are used to stop height growth in healthy individuals with normal growth patterns.

P.S. If you want to know about the best exercises for height growth, go check out our post here.

Conclusion

If the question “Which exercise stops height growth?” has been on your mind lately, you can rest assured that there are no exercises to stop height growth.

No matter if you’re tall or short, just embrace your uniqueness and be confident and comfortable in your own body!