Doing Gymnastics While Still Growing In Height

[Joshua Slocum]

Gymnastics training will not prevent you from growing in height. Poor nutrition and insufficient caloric intake will prevent you from growing in height. High-level gymnasts tend to be short not because the gymnastics makes them short, but because the tall gymnasts rarely make it to a very high level because their height is a disadvantage. 

[Daniel Burnham]

Yea the argument that gymnastics makes you shorter is kind of ridiculous to me. Gymnastics will benefit you more than weights while growing because it will increase body awareness and keep the joints conditioned.

[DauntlessGrok16]

Hi, I'm 5'7 and 14years old. I want to get to 6ft+ in height. I play basketball, and started weight lifting a year and a half ago.

I don't want to limit my growth by doing and focusing gymnastics training. I know that I can't grow really tall while training gymnastics, because when you grow taller, the leverage of the gymnastic exercises will be harder, therefore your body won't allow you to grow, because you're training for a low leverage exercises, and growing in height will be REALLY counterproductive.

So, I decided to just do weight training programs, but would love still do Bridges and Handstand variations. After my weight training, I'll do two sets of Handstands and Bridges (static). I'd like to be able to do a Freestanding Handstand and Stand to stand Bridges while doing this. I'll do this for 3x a week. I love it, because it makes me feel VERY VERY great and healthy. Maybe because of the blood flow to the head?

But, do you think this training routine will not limit my gowth (height wise) while playing basketball consistently as my main sport? So, the routine above will be like my conditiong.

*NOTE*: If anyone here has grown in height while doing gymnastics training consistently, PLEASE give me details of it!

Any replies are greatly appreciated

[Matthew Barrett]

Just keep playing basketball.  Basketball makes you taller because most basketball players are tall.  

 

Back to reality....

 

....Gymnastics does not limit your height.  Your height will always be determined by genetics and hormones.

[Joshua Naterman]

Contrary to popular mythology and belief, anything that exerts pressure on your body (assuming you have access to decent nutrition) actually makes you grow.

 

Exercise, of any kind, is a growth stimulus.

 

The absolute best part of childhood gymnastics, in my opinion, is that you develop bone density from the fingertips down to the toes. There is no better protection from osteoporosis than building bone density during childhood and adolescence.

 

If you want to grow to your fullest height, you need to be very physically active, sleep well, eat a ton of food, and make sure you get tons and tons of vegetables.

 

Gymnastics is an excellent, excellent way to accomplish the physical activity and will make you an absolutely incredible all-around athlete.

 

Lifting weights is still fine as well.

[Coach Sommer]

Urban myth.  

 

Gymnastics does not make you shorter anymore than playing basketball makes you taller.  This misconception arises from the simple fact that people tend to gravitate towards sporting activities that are best suited for their personal phenotype.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[DauntlessGrok16]

Thanks for all the replies! I appreciate really really appreciate them! So, gymnastics doesn't make you short, but the people who do gymnastics consistently are the ones who feel they adapt and are really right for them because of thier "genes", and are short also because of their genes? 

 

So, if I'm not really meant to be short because of my genes, when I do gymnastics it will not limit my growth?

 

Thanks guys! So, I'll just maybe continue doing GST, playing basketball, and eating TONS of food to achieve my goal to grow on height?

[Joshua Slocum]

  On 1/24/2013 at 7:55 PM, DauntlessGrok16 said:

So, if I'm not really meant to be short because of my genes, when I do gymnastics it will not limit my growth?

 

Correct! 

 

  On 1/24/2013 at 7:55 PM, DauntlessGrok16 said:

Thanks guys! So, I'll just maybe continue doing GST, playing basketball, and eating TONS of food to achieve my goal to grow on height?

 

Make sure to be eating *good* food, in large but reasonable quantities. You are what you eat, so don't eat junk. And too much of any kind of food will make you fat. 

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Of course gymnastics makes you short; the same way basketball makes you tall, sumo makes you heavy or horse riding light!

Just look at all the short guys in gymnastics, the tall ones in basketball, the heavy ones in sumo or the light jockeys... you really think it happened by chance?

 

  

  On 1/24/2013 at 2:02 PM, Joshua Naterman said:

(...) If you want to grow to your fullest height, you need to (...) get tons and tons of vegetables. (...)

 

hehehe... I can hear my Grandmother saying something like that...

Eat your veggies so you can grow big Fred! 

[DauntlessGrok16]

Now, I don't know what to believe!     

[Riku Calderón]

Hey man, FredInChina is a jokester. It was a joke 

 

Just believe what Joshua and coach Sommer told you.

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

  On 1/25/2013 at 6:56 PM, DauntlessGrok16 said:

Now, I don't know what to believe!     

Sorry, that was a joke... 

Apparently I should have underlined it

 

Your genes were given to you by your parents; there is no way any activity you pursue, no matter how dedicated you are can change that!

[DauntlessGrok16]

LOL! Thanks guys for helping me out! 

[Randeep Walia]

As a child I was not allowed to lift weights, play football, and countless other activities because it would "keep me from growing". I didn't pick up weightlifting until I was in college and I absolutely loved it (I was relegated to doing endurance sports in middle school/high school which I loathed). I find it amazing how big a piece of urban fiction can change a person's life as I didn't know enough as a child to argue the point.

[Arto Ratilainen]

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