The deadlift is a common and effective workout for building muscles and losing body weight. Amidst all of its benefits, most people desist from performing deadlifts because they believe deadlifts stunt their growth whereas, others are generally unsure whether it does or not.
So, in this article, we’ll review all you need to know about deadlifts and whether they can cause stunted growth or not. However, to clarify questions like this, it’s important to analyze them in bits so it’ll help you draw a bigger picture of it and from logical reasoning, you’ll see and understand that the answer isn’t farfetched.
What’s Deadlift Anyway?
The deadlift is a type of barbell exercise in which the weight is lifted to your hips by alternating between an overhand grip on one hand and an underhand grip on the other.
Deadlift involves beginning in a standing posture, bending over to pick up the bar, and then lifting it to your hips while simultaneously extending your back and returning to its natural curvature.
The deadlift is one of the most basic exercises that can be performed with a barbell and serves as an excellent introduction to the sport of weightlifting for anyone interested in starting out. They are the most important exercise for a lightweight and can help you practice your posture and your grip for more complex uses of dumbbells.
Why Do People Think Deadlift Stunt Growth?
People however have come up with evidence that deadlifting can have an effect on your spine, despite the fact that it does have its benefits.
This is due to the fact that lifting the weight places a significant amount of strain on your back, and more specifically your lower back. A spinal injury is not something you want to play around with, since it can be caused by improper technique and form, and this area can be injured as a result.
This is where the topic of whether or not deadlift stunts growth stems from. It is believed that the spine can become damaged from practicing workouts that put pressure on the back, and this causes the epiphysis, which is the growth plates in your bones, to cease growing.
Can Deadlift Stunt Growth?
Absolutely not! There is no actual proof or anecdotal evidence that has been published and confirmed to suggest that performing a deadlift can cause your growth to be stunted.
In fact, by the time you begin training with deadlifts, your growth has already been slowed down by your own body. As soon as we reach the end of our puberty, for the majority of us, our bones will have already reached their maximum limit for development, and the growth plates will have fused, which means that we will no longer have the opportunity to increase our height.
Can Weighted Squats Stunt Your Growth?
Yes, weighted squats stunt your growth. Your growth will be temporarily stunted by doing weighted squats. So, there isn’t much to be worried about here.
There is proof to indicate that after performing weighted squats for one day, a spinal shrinking of up to 3.59 millimeters can occur. This is the same amount of shrinkage that you would get from walking, and after a day’s rest, it resets to its initial position.
Squats with weights pose no threat to your height over the course of your lifetime, provided you do not perform an excessive number of them. If that is the case, you should not be worried about the 3.59mm as it’s almost negligible and not pronounced.
Can Weight Lifting At a Young Age Cause Stunted Growth?
It is impossible for an adult’s growth to be stunted by the usage of weights because the adult no longer has any growth left to be stunted. But when it comes to someone of a younger age, there is a more justified cause for anxiety.
In particular for a kid who is still in the process of going through puberty, because growth spurts can either occur at the beginning, the end, or as a steady growth throughout the stages of puberty. A study that was published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found that beginning weight training at a young age does not cause a person’s growth to be stunted in any way.
This misperception originates from a well-known fact which is that spinal injuries can cause young children’s growth to be halted.
Lifting weights, which increases the risk of spinal injuries and, as a result, stunts growth, is a practice that should be avoided. However, lifting weights is not the direct cause of stunted growth, nor is it a certainty that an accident will occur when doing so.
What Is The Age To Start Deadlifting?
Now that we know that deadlifting has no effect on young people’s growth, let’s consider the right age to start deadlifting.
It is recommended that children begin strength training at the age of seven and that these children are athletic and should have solid control over their balance and posture. Seven years of age is the very youngest that one can begin doing strength training.
Waiting till children are 9 or 10 years old will make the transition from their previous form of exercise to weightlifting much simpler for those children who are not as enthusiastic about staying healthy.
Do Lifting Weights Make You Taller?
Because the vast bulk of your height is based on your genetics, there is no evidence that has been conducted to indicate that weightlifting will make you taller.
A person’s nutrition, the amount of sleep they get, and the number of hormones their body produces are all important factors that can influence the normal growth of bone and muscle tissue during childhood, teenage years, and adulthood. Genetics are another important factor.
Working out can assist you to strengthen your bone density, optimize your posture, and help you prevent many of the negative side effects of aging.
This can assist you in keeping or achieving your height limits based on your genetic makeup, which can be a positive indirect effect of working out.
