Weight Lifting Essay

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Weight Training Stunt Growth Myth Physical activities are one of the essential keys to live the well-rounded health and overall fitness. Weight lifting is a common type of strength training utilizing the force of gravity by moving the weight oppose to the gravity. Although weight lifting benefits many people, a person may be concerned about the effects of weight lifting for young teenagers. One of the biggest myths about weight lifting is that it stunts growth, in other words, injury or discomfort in the epiphyseal plate, often known as growth plate. Numerous articles and researches about weight lifting effect on fully developed adults have been written but often times, weightlifting article for teenagers is neglected. The purpose of this paper …show more content…

According to WebMD, any kinds of activity boost bone mass and keep muscles strong ("8 biggest benefits of exercise for teenagers", n.d.). Since bones are living tissue, physical activities that keep on your feet allow new bone tissues and muscle tissues to form ("How does physical activity help build healthy bones?", n.d). Despite the health benefits of physical training, one of the greatest concerns correlated with teenager training is the potential injury in growth plate while weight lifting. Growth plate in a young teenager’s body can be three to five times weaker than surrounding connective tissues and it may be less resistant to shear and tension forces (Faigenbaum, & Myer, 2009). When there is a significant amount of stress on the growth plate, it could result in growth disturbance ("8 biggest benefits of exercise for teenagers", …show more content…

When a youth is well-supervised during the process of strength training, it has no greater risk than any other youth sports or activities (Dahab, & McCambridge, 2009). There have been several cases of injury to the growth plate during the process of weight lifting but the injuries were caused by improper techniques or pushing themselves with heavy weights without proper adult supervision. For example, as seen below in Figure 1, 13-year-old boy used heavy weight barbell attempting overhead press but as he lost control, it resulted in injury in distal radius where growth cartilage is present (Faigenbaum, & Myer,

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