Tons of later research has shown that there is no relationship between lifting weights and height, at any age.

Myth 2: Lifting weights will make me look bulky or stocky.

Big nope here. Meet Liao Hui, gold medal winning Olympic weightlifter, world record holder, and certified modest man, standing at 5’6”. This is a guy who has dedicated his entire life to strength training.

Since being recruited by the Chinese government at the age of ten, he has spent every waking hour lifting, thinking about lifting, or recovering from lifting.

Does he look stocky to you? Yeah, me neither. And he’s been lifting every day for twenty years. Most of the mass monsters that you see running around who look stocky are on massive amounts of steroids and other drugs.

If you’re not planning to take heroic doses of growth hormone, you’re not going to accidentally get big and bulky.

Ultimately, ‘stocky’ is all about two things: body fat percentage and shoulder-to-waist ratio. If you’re carrying fat around your midsection, then you’re going to look stocky.

Adding muscle to your frame will often have the opposite effect—by widening your shoulders, you can restore some of the ‘v’ shape that is seen as athletic and ‘fit’.

If you’re already a stockier guy, hit the gym and make sure your clothes fit well. You’ll be fine.

Myth 3: Lifting will damage my joints and make me less flexible.

N-O-P-E. This is akin to saying that driving your car is bad for your car. If you drive like a maniac and never change your oil, then yes—driving you car is bad for your car.

But if you drive reasonably and do routine maintenance, driving your car isn’t going to damage it.

This older study looked at 25 experienced lifters and found that only a few of them had any joint damage—and everyone with issues had injured themselves playing sports.