Does Swimming Make You Taller? The Honest Answer for Parents

No, swimming does not make kids taller than their genes allow. There is no good evidence that swimming lengthens bones. Many swimmers are tall because tall kids are good at swimming and stick with it, not because the pool made them grow. Swimming is still a great sport for growing kids. It just works best alongside some activity with impact, like running or jumping.

Look at any swim meet on TV and the athletes are tall, with long arms and big hands. So it is natural to wonder if all that time in the water stretched them out. Here is what is really going on, and what it means for your child.

Does swimming make you taller?

No. Height comes from the long bones growing at the growth plates, the soft areas near the ends of bones. Swimming does not make those plates build more bone than a child's genes allow.

Genes explain roughly 60 to 80 percent of adult height (Cleveland Clinic). Nutrition, sleep and overall health shape the rest during the growing years. Swimming is part of a healthy life. It is not a way to add inches.

Why are so many swimmers tall?

Because height helps in swimming, so tall kids tend to do well and keep going. A longer body and longer arms mean a longer stroke. Coaches notice, kids win races, and they stay in the sport. The short kids often move on to other sports.

Researchers know this is a trap when studying sports and growth. A review in Sports Medicine pointed out that kids are not randomly placed into sports, which makes it hard to tell what a sport itself does to growth (Borer, 1995).

In plain words: swimming did not make them tall. Being tall helped make them swimmers.

Can swimming make you look taller?

A little, for a short time. Floating takes weight off the spine. After a long swim, a person might measure a tiny bit taller. That effect goes away within hours once they are back on their feet. It is not new bone.

Swimming also builds the back, shoulders and core. Strong muscles can improve posture, and a child who stands up straight looks taller than one who slouches. That is real, but it is not growth.

Is swimming good for growing bones?

Swimming is excellent exercise for the heart, lungs and muscles. But it is gentle on bones, because the water carries the body's weight. The CDC lists bone-strengthening activities for kids as things with impact, like running, jumping, jumping rope, hopping and skipping.

That does not make swimming bad. It just means swimmers should add some impact activity. The CDC guidelines say kids 6 to 17 need 60 minutes of activity a day, with bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days a week.

Easy add-ons: a short run, jump rope, a pickup basketball game or a soccer kickabout. We explain why impact helps bones in our guide to whether jumping makes you taller.

Can swimming stunt growth?

Normal swimming does not stunt growth. Kids can swim as much as they enjoy.

The thing to watch is fuel. Competitive swimmers can train for hours a week and burn a lot of energy. The Borer review explains that exercise can briefly hold back growth when it uses up the nutrition a child needs to grow (Borer, 1995). Kids can often catch up, but not always.

So a hard-training swimmer who does not eat enough is the one at risk, not the swimming itself. This is the same lesson from what stunts your growth: under-fueling matters more than any single sport.

What should a young swimmer eat?

Swimmers are often very hungry, and that is a good sign. Feed it with real food, not just snacks.

• Enough total food. Regular meals plus a snack after practice.
• Protein at each meal. Eggs, dairy, meat, fish, beans or tofu. See protein for growing kids.
• Calcium. Kids and teens 9 to 18 need 1,300 mg a day (NIH), and NIH says many get less. See how much calcium kids need.
• Vitamin D. Indoor pools mean less sun. The daily target for kids is 600 IU.
• Water. Swimmers sweat too, even in the pool.

How can you tell if a swimmer is not eating enough?

Kids rarely say they are under-fueled. They just feel it. Watch for these signs, especially in a child who trains most days:

• They are tired all the time, even after a good night's sleep.
• Their race times get slower, not faster, with more training.
• They lose weight, or stop gaining weight while growing.
• They get sick or hurt more often than usual.
• Their height stops moving up on their growth chart.
• In teen girls, periods stop or become irregular.

If you see a few of these, talk to their pediatrician soon. Do not wait for the end of the season. Often the fix is simple: bigger meals, a real snack after practice and an earlier bedtime.

Should young swimmers do strength training?

Many swim teams add dryland work, and that is fine when it is done well. Mayo Clinic says strength training can start as early as age 7 or 8, as long as a child can follow directions and use good form.

Pediatric sports doctors at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies say max lifting, the heaviest weight a child can lift one to three times, should wait until after puberty. Light weights or body weight, done with supervision, are the safe way to start. We cover the research in does lifting weights stunt your growth.

Strength work also gives swimmers some of the bone-building load the pool cannot.

How much sleep does a swimmer need?

Early practices make sleep hard. The CDC says kids 6 to 12 need 9 to 12 hours a night, and teens 13 to 17 need 8 to 10 hours. A 5 a.m. practice means an early bedtime the night before.

If your child has morning practice most days, protect bedtime like you protect the pool schedule. Tired kids recover slowly and get sick more often.

Which sport is best for height?

None of them. No sport makes a child taller. Different sports simply attract different body types. Tall kids drift to basketball, volleyball and swimming. Smaller kids often shine in gymnastics or as wrestlers in lighter weight classes.

The best sport for a growing child is one they love and will keep doing. Mix in some impact for bones, eat enough, sleep enough, and let their genes do the rest. Our guide to whether exercise makes kids taller goes deeper into the research.

Can swimming help you grow after puberty?

No. Once the growth plates close, no exercise can add height. For most girls that happens somewhere between 13 and 16, and for most boys between 15 and 19. Our guide on how to tell if growth plates are closed explains the signs.

Swimming keeps paying off after that, though. It builds fitness and strength for life, and it is easy on the joints.

It is also a life skill. A child who learns to swim well has a sport they can enjoy at any age and any height. That is worth far more than a myth about inches.

Where do supplements fit in for swimmers?

A supplement cannot add height, and neither can swimming. What a supplement can do is help fill gaps if a busy athlete misses certain nutrients, like calcium or vitamin D.

Check the label before you buy. The American Heart Association says kids should have less than 25 grams of added sugar a day, and daily gummies add up. We ranked the main options in our guide to the best growth gummies for kids.

Tallori Growth Gummies are made for active kids ages 5 to 18. They have zero added sugar and are sweetened with monk fruit and xylitol. All 7 vitamin and mineral doses are printed on the label: vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin K2 as MK-7, calcium, magnesium, zinc and algae DHA. The botanicals sit in a 112.4mg Tallori Clean Growth Blend, and those single doses are not printed.

Tallori does not make kids taller and is not a meal or a protein source. For a swimmer who trains indoors and eats on the run, it helps cover the bone nutrients that are easy to miss.

This article is for informational purposes and is not medical advice. Talk to your child's pediatrician about any nutrition, training or growth concerns.