Will Lifting Weights Stunt Your Kid's Growth?
By: Tanner Bishop — Physiotherapist, CSCS, MSc PT, BSc Kine, NCCP Coach
You've probably heard that lifting weights will stunt a kid's growth. The picture that comes with the warning is always the same: a heavy barbell damaging the growth plates, and a child who stops growing.
It's one of the most stubborn myths in youth sport. Researchers have been looking for that harm for decades, and it doesn't show up.
Meanwhile, the same kid might be playing soccer or rugby several times a week, and hour for hour those sports carry far more injury risk than a supervised strength session. Here's what the evidence shows, and what safe youth strength training looks like.
Where the Fear Came From
The concern isn't made up. Growth plates are the layers of cartilage near the ends of a child's long bones where new bone forms. They can be three to five times weaker than the surrounding connective tissue, and they don't handle shear and tension forces well [1]. An injury there can disturb growth.
Growth plate fractures in young lifters have also been reported. In one case, a 13-year-old fractured the growth plates in both wrists when he lost control of a 30 kg barbell while pressing it overhead, alone, in a makeshift home gym [1].
Look at what that case describes: no coach, no instruction, and a load he couldn't control. Most growth plate injuries in these reports trace back to poor technique, badly chosen loads, or no qualified supervision [1]. The mistake was turning those accidents into a rule that lifting is dangerous for kids. That's like banning swimming lessons because kids have drowned in unsupervised pools.
What the Research Actually Shows
In their review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Faigenbaum and Myer found that no prospective youth resistance training study with professional guidance and instruction has reported a growth plate injury. They also found no evidence that resistance training negatively affects growth in height during childhood or adolescence [1].
The bigger growth plate risk may actually be on the field. Jumping and landing in competitive sport can drive ground reaction forces of five to seven times body mass through a young athlete's legs [1]. The forces kids absorb in gymnastics, rugby, and running are likely larger, and last longer, than a properly performed maximal strength test [1].
Why this matters: If you're worried about growth plates, a coached squat isn't where the big forces are. Those forces already show up every time your kid lands from a jump.
Lifting vs. the Sports They Already Play
Injury rates are reported per 1000 hours of participation, so sports can be compared hour for hour.
Supervised youth resistance training is low. In the supervised youth training studies that recorded any injury at all, the rate worked out to between about 0.5 and 1.8 injuries per 1000 hours [2]. The injuries themselves were minor: shoulder pain that settled with a week of rest, a shoulder strain that cost one session, and thigh pain that eased after 5 minutes [1].
Competitive powerlifting, with heavy squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, is still only a few injuries per 1000 hours. Adolescent powerlifters came in at about 2.9 [1]. A systematic review of weightlifters and powerlifters found 1.0 to 4.4 injuries per 1000 hours in powerlifting and 2.4 to 3.3 in Olympic weightlifting [3].
Youth soccer is higher. A meta-analysis of 43 studies found 5.7 injuries per 1000 hours in boys and 6.8 in girls. In matches, that climbs to about 14 to 15 per 1000 hours [4]. In professional men's soccer, the match rate is 36 [5].
Youth rugby is higher again, at 40.2 injuries per 1000 match hours in boys and 69.0 in girls [6].
These numbers have limits. Studies define injury differently, much of the weight-training research is retrospective, and match hours are the riskiest hours in any sport [3, 7]. Even counting practice, youth soccer's overall rate is several times higher than supervised youth lifting, and a systematic review of the weight-training sports describes their injury rates as relatively low compared with common team sports [7].
Why this matters: If your kid is cleared to play soccer or rugby, the weight room isn't the risky part of their week.
Where Lifting Injuries Actually Come From
When kids do get hurt with weights, the pattern is consistent: accidents, poor technique, or no qualified supervision [1].
U.S. emergency room data make the point. Among 8- to 13-year-olds, two-thirds of weight-related injuries were to the hands and feet, and the injury descriptions most often mentioned "dropping" and "pinching" [1]. Those are equipment accidents, like a plate landing on a foot or fingers caught between weights. The training itself didn't cause them.
Why this matters: Nearly every bad story about kids and weights is missing the same thing, which is a qualified adult in the room.
What Safe Youth Strength Training Looks Like
Supervised, age-appropriate resistance training is backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and an international consensus statement endorsed by sports medicine, exercise science, and pediatric organizations [8, 9, 10]. The details matter, though.
Start when your child is ready, not at a set age. Kids can begin once they're mature enough to follow instructions and have reasonable balance and postural control, which typically happens around age 6 or 7 [11].
Technique comes before load. Youth programs should focus on learning proper exercise technique, not on how much weight is lifted [1].
Supervision has to be qualified. Faigenbaum and Myer give the NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist as an example of the qualification they mean [1]. It's one of the credentials I hold.
Count the total load. Strength work stacked on a heavy sport schedule adds to the repetitive stress on a developing body [1]. For busy athletes, one review suggests it replace some sport-specific training rather than sit on top of it [11].
Why I'm Confident Saying This
Two findings carry most of the weight here.
The first is Malina's evidence-based review of 22 experimental resistance training programs in children and young adolescents. Training with machines and free weights, mostly 2 to 3 days per week for 8 to 12 weeks, produced significant strength gains and did not affect growth in height or weight. Only 10 of those studies systematically tracked injuries, and they recorded three injuries in total [2].
The second is about what strength training prevents. In a meta-analysis of injury prevention trials in female soccer players, most of them on adolescent teams, multicomponent exercise programs combining things like strength, plyometric, and balance work reduced overall injuries by 27% and ACL injuries by 45% [12]. The authors rate that evidence as low level, so I hold the exact numbers loosely, but the direction matches Faigenbaum and Myer's review of adolescent athletes [1].
The Bottom Line
Resistance training doesn't stunt growth. Supervised and coached properly, it's safer hour for hour than the field and contact sports most young athletes already play. The injuries that do happen come mostly from accidents and unsupervised lifting. That's a supervision problem, and it has a straightforward fix.
If your child or the athletes you coach are ready to start lifting, or you want their current program checked, book a youth training session or a physio assessment with me. We'll start with technique, build load gradually, and fit the work around their sport.
References
1. Faigenbaum, Avery D., and Gregory D. Myer. "Resistance Training among Young Athletes: Safety, Efficacy and Injury Prevention Effects." British Journal of Sports Medicine 44, no. 1 (2010): 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2009.068098
2. Malina, Robert M. "Weight Training in Youth: Growth, Maturation, and Safety: An Evidence-Based Review." Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 16, no. 6 (2006): 478–487. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.jsm.0000248843.31874.be
3. Aasa, Ulrika, Ivar Svartholm, Fredrik Andersson, and Lars Berglund. "Injuries among Weightlifters and Powerlifters: A Systematic Review." British Journal of Sports Medicine 51, no. 4 (2017): 211–219. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096037
4. Robles-Palazón, Francisco Javier, Alejandro López-Valenciano, Mark De Ste Croix, Jon L. Oliver, Alberto García-Gómez, Pilar Sainz de Baranda, and Francisco Ayala. "Epidemiology of Injuries in Male and Female Youth Football Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Journal of Sport and Health Science 11, no. 6 (2022): 681–695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2021.10.002
5. López-Valenciano, Alejandro, Iñaki Ruiz-Pérez, Alberto Garcia-Gómez, Francisco J. Vera-Garcia, Mark De Ste Croix, Gregory D. Myer, and Francisco Ayala. "Epidemiology of Injuries in Professional Football: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." British Journal of Sports Medicine 54, no. 12 (2020): 711–718. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-099577
6. West, Stephen W., Isla J. Shill, Stuart Bailey, Reid A. Syrydiuk, K. Alix Hayden, Debbie Palmer, Amanda M. Black, Brent E. Hagel, Keith A. Stokes, and Carolyn A. Emery. "Injury Rates, Mechanisms, Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies in Youth Rugby Union: What's All the Ruck-Us About? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis." Sports Medicine 53, no. 7 (2023): 1375–1393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01826-z
7. Keogh, Justin W. L., and Paul W. Winwood. "The Epidemiology of Injuries Across the Weight-Training Sports." Sports Medicine 47, no. 3 (2017): 479–501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0575-0
8. Stricker, Paul R., Avery D. Faigenbaum, and Teri M. McCambridge. "Resistance Training for Children and Adolescents." Pediatrics 145, no. 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-1011
9. Faigenbaum, Avery D., William J. Kraemer, Cameron J. R. Blimkie, Ian Jeffreys, Lyle J. Micheli, Mike Nitka, and Thomas W. Rowland. "Youth Resistance Training: Updated Position Statement Paper from the National Strength and Conditioning Association." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 23, no. 5 Suppl (2009): S60–S79. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31819df407
10. Lloyd, Rhodri S., Avery D. Faigenbaum, Michael H. Stone, Jon L. Oliver, Ian Jeffreys, Jeremy A. Moody, Clive Brewer, et al. "Position Statement on Youth Resistance Training: The 2014 International Consensus." British Journal of Sports Medicine 48, no. 7 (2014): 498–505. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2013-092952
11. Zwolski, Christin, Catherine Quatman-Yates, and Mark V. Paterno. "Resistance Training in Youth: Laying the Foundation for Injury Prevention and Physical Literacy." Sports Health 9, no. 5 (2017): 436–443. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738117704153
12. Crossley, Kay M., Brooke E. Patterson, Adam G. Culvenor, Andrea M. Bruder, Andrea B. Mosler, and Benjamin F. Mentiplay. "Making Football Safer for Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Injury Prevention Programmes in 11 773 Female Football (Soccer) Players." British Journal of Sports Medicine 54, no. 18 (2020): 1089–1098. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101587
This article is educational content and general information. It is not individual medical advice. For assessment and treatment specific to you, consult a qualified health professional.
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