Why Some People Stop at 14 and Others Grow Until 20

By Editorial Team
Some people stop growing at 13, others don't even stop at 19

The short answer to when you stop growing is simply "when your growth plates close." Think of your long bones, like the ones in your legs and arms, as having a little factory at each end. These factories are made of cartilage and are officially called epiphyseal plates.

As long as these factories remain open, they produce new bone tissue. This pushes the ends of the bone further apart and makes you taller. However, at the end of puberty, a flood of hormones tells these factories to shut down. The cartilage turns into solid bone and fuses completely. Once that fusion happens, your height is locked in permanently.

The Normal Timeline for Females

Girls generally hit their growth spurt earlier than boys. This typically happens between the ages of 10 and 14. If you remember middle school, this is why the girls were often taller than the boys in the sixth and seventh grades.

The biggest signal that growth is slowing down is the start of menstruation. Most girls grow very fast before their first period. Once that milestone is hit, growth slows down significantly. A girl will typically grow only another one to two inches after that point. Consequently, most females reach their full adult height by age 14 or 15.

The Normal Timeline for Males

Boys are late to the party. Their growth spurt usually kicks into high gear between the ages of 12 and 15, hitting their peak velocity around age 14. This delay allows them to start their growth spurt from a taller baseline height than girls.

Most boys have finished their significant bone growth by age 16 or 17. While the major growing is done by then, males can continue to creep up slightly until age 18 or 20. This is rarely massive bone growth and is usually just the spine settling and muscles developing, adding a fraction of an inch here or there.

When Growth Cuts Short

Sometimes the growth plates close too early. This is often seen in cases of Precocious Puberty. If a child hits puberty way too early, such as age 7 or 8, they will shoot up fast and become the tallest kid in their class for a few years.

Unfortunately, their growth plates also fuse too early because of this early hormonal rush. As a result, they often end up being shorter-than-average adults because they lost several valuable years of childhood growing time. Other issues, like hypothyroidism, can also stall the process if not treated.

The Late Bloomer Phenomenon

A late bloomer is someone with a condition called Constitutional Delay of Growth and Puberty. Basically, these kids have a biological clock that runs slow. They enter puberty later than their peers. While everyone else is shooting up in eighth grade, the late bloomer might still look like a fifth grader.

The good news for them is that because they start puberty later, they keep their childhood growth window open longer. When they finally hit their spurt, perhaps at 16 or 17, they often catch up to or even surpass their peers. They might not stop growing until age 19, 20, or rarely 21.

Famous Exceptions to the Rule

While most late bloomers just catch up to normal, there are famous anomalies where people grew massive amounts well into young adulthood. Dennis Rodman is the most famous example. When he graduated high school, he was roughly 5'9" and worked as a janitor. remarkably, at age 19 and 20, he experienced a massive surge that took him to 6'7".

Scottie Pippen is another NBA icon who grew late. He entered college as a generic 6'1" player without a scholarship. Over his college years, he grew to 6'8", transforming from a small guard into a dominant forward. Similarly, David Robinson entered the Naval Academy at 6'6" but grew to 7'1" during his college years, actually growing past the height limit for serving on certain naval ships.

Predicting Height with Math

One common method to predict height is the Mid-Parental Method. This is essentially "napkin math" that gives a genetic estimation. For boys, you add the mother's height and father's height, add 5 inches, and divide by two. For girls, you add the parents' heights, subtract 5 inches, and divide by two.

Predicting Height with Charts

Pediatricians also use Growth Charts. They plot a child's height on a standardized curve of percentiles. If a child has consistently been in the 75th percentile since age two, it is highly likely they will end up in the 75th percentile as an adult. Children rarely jump lines unless they are late bloomers catching up.

Predicting Height with X-Rays

The gold standard for prediction is a Bone Age Study. A doctor takes a simple X-ray of the child's left hand and wrist. By looking at the spacing between the small bones in the hand and the growth plates, a radiologist can tell the "bone age."

If a 14-year-old boy has a bone age of 12, he has two extra years of growth left and will likely grow taller than expected. If that same boy has a bone age of 16, his plates are fusing, and he is essentially done growing.

Posted under

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING NOW

How to Stay Safe in Wrestling: A Beginner's Guide

By Editorial Team
Image
Wrestling is actually safer than many other combat sports in specific ways - like boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, etc. Before we get into the scary stuff, it is important to acknowledge that wrestling is actually safer than many other combat sports in specific ways. Unlike boxing or kickboxing, nobody is trying to give you a concussion by punching you in the head repeatedly. You don't have the cumulative brain damage risk that strikers deal with. Unlike Jiu-Jitsu, where the goal is often to snap a joint or choke someone unconscious, wrestling is mostly about control and pinning. However, wrestling is fast and explosive. It is a sport of high impact and sudden twists. While you might not get knocked out, you are at risk for orthopedic injuries—bones, ligaments, and joints. The injury profile here isn't about getting beaten up; it is about your body moving in directions physics didn't intend. To survive, you have to understand how to move correctly. Protecting Your Knees The k...
Read more

Mass vs. Mechanics: Grappling Science for the Smaller Defender

By Editorial Team
Image
To an untrained person, size appears to be everything. But in practice, a smaller, skilled individual can overcome a much larger opponent. It is essential to begin with an unvarnished truth regarding combat sports and self-defense: size is a massive advantage. Mass, density, and reach are natural attributes that act as force multipliers. If two people have equal skill, the larger person will almost always win. For a smaller person—such as a female defender—to control or submit a larger male attacker, the skill gap must be significant. Technique acts as a lever, but mass is the fulcrum. A small grappler cannot afford to make mistakes. A large opponent can muscle out of poor technique, but a small grappler must execute moves with near-perfect precision to succeed. The strategies outlined below rely on the assumption that the smaller individual possesses trained, technical proficiency and the larger individual is relying on instinct and brute strength. The Principle of Misalignment The pr...
Read more

Strength Without Size: A Guide to Relative Strength

By Editorial Team
Image
The simple rule: You become better at what you do For decades, the fitness industry has sold a specific image of strength that is inextricably linked to size. Walk into any commercial gym, and you will see the assumption that to be strong, you must be big. This misconception is particularly pervasive and damaging for women, many of whom avoid heavy resistance training out of a fear of "bulking up" or losing a specific aesthetic. The reality, however, is that size and strength are not the same thing. While a larger muscle has the potential to be a stronger muscle, a smaller muscle can be trained to output incredible force without changing its physical dimensions. True strength is not solely a property of the muscle tissue itself; it is largely a property of the nervous system. When you see a smaller athlete overpower a larger opponent, or a slender woman lift twice her body weight, you are not witnessing magic. You are witnessing a highly tuned central nervous system that know...
Read more

Upper Body vs. Lower Body Mass in MMA

By Editorial Team
Image
Men typically carry a greater proportion of body mass in the upper body, while women tend to carry more body mass in the lower body. In combat sports, weight is not just a number on a scale; it is a distribution of mass that dictates how a fighter moves, strikes, and grapples. While every individual is different, biological dimorphism generally creates two distinct physical archetypes. The first is the Upper Body Heavy physique, often seen in men, characterized by broad shoulders and a high center of gravity. The second is the Lower Body Heavy physique, typical of most women, characterized by a powerful pelvic girdle and a lower center of gravity. These distributions create massive differences in the strategic "meta" of fighting. The Upper Body Heavy Build: The "V-Taper" This build is defined by dense pectorals, a thick neck, and heavy arms. The Center of Gravity is located higher up, typically around the sternum or solar plexus. The Benefit of Kinetic Stiffness Whi...
Read more

The Rise of Online Nutrition Fear-Mongering

By Editorial Team
Image
You should constantly seek better health advice but always double or even triple check it In the modern digital age, the pursuit of health has transformed from a personal journey into a spectator sport. We scroll through social media feeds in search of inspiration, hoping to find the motivation to eat better or move more. Instead, what we often find is a deluge of terrifying warnings that make the simple act of eating dinner feel like navigating a biochemical minefield. The rise of the online health "guru" has created a unique paradox. We have more information at our fingertips than any generation in history, yet we are simultaneously more confused and anxious about what to put on our plates. This confusion is not an accident. It is the product of an attention economy that thrives on extremes, where nuance dies and fear goes viral. Influencers, often lacking relevant accredited credentials, have discovered that measured, evidence-based advice about moderation does not get cli...
Read more

Who Actually Pays for Tariffs?

By Editorial Team
Image
It is kind of surprising but a lot of people don't understand tariffs There is a persistent myth about tariffs that sounds very appealing. The story goes like this: The United States imposes a tariff on a foreign country, that country writes a check to the U.S. Treasury, and Americans reap the benefits of the revenue. It sounds like a penalty fee charged to a competitor. That story is false. If you walk away with only one fact, let it be this: A tariff is a tax collected at the American border, paid entirely by American companies. The "Importer of Record" To understand why you are paying the bill, you have to look at the paperwork. When a cargo ship docks in Los Angeles or Savannah, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency does not send an invoice to the government of China, Mexico, or Germany. They do not bill the foreign factory that made the goods. By law, the tariff is charged to the Importer of Record. This is the American company trying to bring the goods into ...
Read more

Mass Moves Mass: When "Dead Weight" Becomes a Power

By Editorial Team
Image
Dead weight isn't that dead after all It is one of those gym paradoxes that keeps skinny guys awake at night. You look at a powerlifter or a strongman, and often they don’t look like the chiseled Greek statues on the cover of fitness magazines. They look like they enjoy a good buffet. Logic dictates that muscle fibers contract to generate force. Fat is adipose tissue; it just sits there, paying no rent, adding weight to the bar you have to lift. So if Person A is a lean machine and Person B is a bit doughy, but they have the exact same amount of muscle mass, Person A should be more efficient, right? But in the real world, Person B—the one carrying the extra "dead weight"—can often out-lift, out-shove, and out-wrestle Person A. This is the phenomenon known in the lifting world as "Mass Moves Mass." Here is the deep dive into why having a "power belly" is actually a biomechanical superweapon. The Physics of Leverage The most significant advantage of body...
Read more

How Movement Rewires the Mind

By Editorial Team
Image
Running is one of the best exercises you can do For generations, society operated under a persistent misconception about the relationship between the body and the mind. We largely viewed them as separate entities, distinct and almost unrelated in their functions. The body was seen merely as a vessel, a biological machine designed to carry the "real" us—the brain—from place to place. In this old way of thinking, intellectual pursuits were the domain of the sedentary scholar. We believed that to cultivate the mind, one had to sit still, read, calculate, and ponder. Conversely, physical exertion was often viewed as a distraction from deep thought, or worse, the domain of those who relied on brawn rather than brains. This "dumb jock" stereotype pervaded our culture, reinforcing the idea that physical prowess and mental acuity were on opposite ends of a spectrum. However, a quiet revolution has taken place in neuroscience over the last two decades. We have discovered tha...
Read more

The Best Type of Body For Fighting

By Editorial Team
Image
The simple truth: some body types are better at fighting than others People love asking what the best body for fighting is, as if there’s one ideal shape that beats all others. Tall, short, thick, lean, explosive, durable—every combat sport quietly rewards different physical traits. The truth is more interesting than a single answer. Each fighting style pulls success toward certain body types, and MMA becomes a fascinating collision of all of them. To understand this properly, it helps to look at each major discipline on its own first, and then see how they blend together in modern mixed martial arts. Wrestling: Where Structure Matters Most If there is one combat sport where body type shows up immediately, it’s wrestling. Wrestling is about leverage, balance, pressure, and control. It’s less forgiving than striking because physics doesn’t care about aesthetics. The ideal wrestling body is compact, dense, and brutally functional. Shorter limbs relative to torso length reduce leverage di...
Read more