5 year old weight lifter sensation?

[MA-Caver]

(note- bold-mine)
Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:57 pm EDT
Video: Five-year-old Romanian weightlifter becomes Internet star

By Chris Chase

Giuliano Stroe has six-pack abs before turning six years old. And he's also in the Guinness Book of World Records before he can probably even read it.
Though it's highly unusual (and possibly unhealthy) for a child to start weight training at such a young age, the pre-schooler entered the record books earlier this year after completing the fastest ever 10-meter walk with a weight ball between the legs, which is both both highly impressive and highly specific. Since then, a four-minute video of Stroe has hit the Internet and made him a viral sensation.

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As cute as it is I think Dad is training his son far too soon for this or training him far too much at his age. Sure it's wow that he's able to do gymnastic and etc. far better than I ever could ... I just think that it is unhealthy to a young growing CHILD to be doing this where he's buffed up. He's going to grow and his bones will stretch out and all of that... It's better IMO to have a child in reasonably good shape (fit) not buff at that age.
What do you all think?

 

[Carol]

Kids don't have anywhere near that much testosterone naturally ocurring in their bodies.

However, some parents know how to buy steroids, and since he's too young for competition, he won't be tested for doping.

 

[prokarateshop]

I cant see anything good as a result of this. I want to see this kid in 12 years..

 

[bluekey88]

Np, this is not good. Probably doping, but if he's jsut an exception to the norm....there will still be consequences.

Peace,
Erik

 

[Nolerama]

It's totally fine!

Entire countries force small children to exceed their assumed physical limits before they hit puberty.

At least the Stroe kid gets to gain some notoriety before he gets older. I mean, college isn't cheap.

 

[KELLYG]

I think that physical activity is good for children. However weight lifting should wait till the children get older. I have heard that weight lifting before puberty can damage the joints due to the growth plates.

From the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. web site

"The growth plate (physis) is an area of developing tissue near the ends of long bones, between the widened part of the shaft of the bone (the metaphysis) and the end of the bone (the epiphysis). The growth plate regulates and helps determine the length and shape of the mature bone.

The long bones of the body do not grow from the center outward. Instead, growth occurs at each end of the bone around the growth plate. The growth plate is the last portion of the bone to harden (ossify), which leaves it vulnerable to fracture. Because muscles and bones develop at different speeds, a child's bones may be weaker than the surrounding connective tissues (ligaments)."

 

[blindsage]

Aside from the weight lifting aspect, which I don't think is good, I don't see how most of this is different from gymanstics or acrobat training that children in this country and all over the world do.

I cant see anything good as a result of this. I want to see this kid in 12 years..

We already can, look up Richard Sandrak (aka Little Hercules). I did a quick search and had a hard time finding the bad stuff, but if you look at the older stuff from when he was a kid, it's amazing and disturbing. I believe he's in his late teens now. He had a major falling out with his father, who he claim was extremely controlling and abusive (and may have been feeding him steroids), and I think his father's in jail now. He was kind of lost for a couple years (I think the courts restricted him from body weight lifting for a few years), from what I remember of some program I saw about him he may have suffered from some depression. But when you look him up now, it looks like he's embraced the fitness/body-building idea as well as martial arts and acting.