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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Gymnastic trainings stunts physical growth. How many tall men gymnasts do you see? and ladies? That 5'6 gymnasts is consider tall! [/quote]

Here's a good summary of a 2004 study of growth and skeletal maturity of elite male and female gymnasts age 13-23 published in a respected, peer-reviewed journal.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/467605-the-effects-of-gymnastics-on-childrens-growth/

And a link to the journal article: http://press.endocrine.org/doi/full/10.1210/jc.2003-031864

The important take-aways:

--Both male and female artistic gymnasts were shorter and slimmer than their non-gymnast counterparts.
--Both male and female artistic gymnasts exhibited a significant delay in skeletal maturation; this growth delay was also more pronounced in males than in females.
--Both male and female gymnasts exhibited catch-up growth once their gymnastics careers ended.
--[b]For both sexes, genetic predisposition to final height, although altered, was not disrupted. However, for both sexes, final height falls short of genetic predisposition.[/b]
--No definite conclusion on growth characteristics of both sexes can be made without considering the possibility of a preselection bias.[b] Female gymnast's target height score (based on genetic predisposition) was well below the 50th percentile.[/b]

IOW, overall, elite female gymnasts have a genetic predisposition to be short; their training does appear to delay skeletal maturation (although less in female gymnasts than in males); when they stop training so much they tend to "catch up" in their growth, but sometimes not all the way.[/quote]

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