5-Year-Old with a six-pack. Wait, what?

October 26, 2009 9:22 PM

Meet Giuliano Stroe. At 5 years old, he broke a Guinness World Record for the fastest 10-meter hand walk with a weight ball between his legs. Opinions about weightlifting at an early age are mixed, to say the least. Either way, this kid must be a force to be reckoned with on the playground.
posted by DMan (46 comments total)

Wow, those Asimo robots just keep getting better.
posted by longsleeves at 9:32 PM on October 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

Name an adult you know who was a gymnast when they were a kid that doesn't have lifelong injuries from it. And this kid's 5.

Best of luck, kid. I hope your joints hang in there until you can start making your own decisions.
posted by gurple at 9:34 PM on October 26, 2009 [3 favorites]

The only consoling thing I got from watching that is that it looked like they finally broke down and bought the kid a mat to land on instead of the kitchen floor. Otherwise, what a terrible thing to do to a kid.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:37 PM on October 26, 2009

Marvelous stuff they're doing with steroids these days. The proud parents are crossing their fingers that he may one day grow up to play baseball.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:37 PM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

In other news, there's a Guinness World Record for the fastest 10-meter hand walk with a weight ball between ones legs.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:41 PM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

This story’s big hit on Digg.com and rather appropriately sums up my impression of that website: Immature, unthinking testosterone.
posted by applemeat at 9:44 PM on October 26, 2009

He's a natural for the Lombardi Institute.
posted by Iridic at 9:47 PM on October 26, 2009

Yeah, I'm torn. I'm absolutely impressed by this kid's skills and perseverance. But watching him from Dad's perspective is a little creepy. There's definitely a "Child Beauty Pageant" for fathers vibe. On the other hand, there are moments when Giuliano seems to be really enjoying himself.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:53 PM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, there are moments when Giuliano seems to be really enjoying himself.

A morbidly obese kid enjoys that third cheeseburger as well. Not to knock obese kids, but that seems to be the other extreme of the spectrum as Giuliano. Indulging in many kinds of behaviors can be momentarily pleasing due to the adrenaline and dopamine rushes, but that really doesn't translate into long term well being or a well-rounded development.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:57 PM on October 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

Competitive hand walking is a fine sport and I encourage all parents to coach their children in it. But start with a very light ball. You don't want to start walking around upside down with a heavy ball between your legs until you know you can hold it.
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:59 PM on October 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

An acquaintance of mine was a gymnast, trained for a very, very long time. Olympic team, etc. Six or more hours a day exercising. She moved away and became too old for all of that. In one of her last emails to me, she mentioned that, now that she had finally stopped doing all of that, she grew three inches and was thrilled to finally progress beyond an A cup. Her body had more or less put off finishing puberty because, holy crap, she must be running across the savannah all day and hiding in trees from various large predators. I don't think it was the caloric deficit that did it, although I've never seen humans consume that much food. I wondered, was it the slamming around? Some demand for physical repair that left her body unable to budget completion of growth?

Whatever it was, I'm fairly sure his parents would dismiss it, even if it were backed up by various reputable studies. Here's hoping you have functioning discs in your spine by the time you're sixteen, kid.
posted by adipocere at 10:01 PM on October 26, 2009

My answer to the question of how many 5-year-olds could I take in a fight is still all of them.
posted by vapidave at 10:13 PM on October 26, 2009 [12 favorites]

Here's hoping you have functioning discs in your spine by the time you're sixteen, kid.

that'd be the year 2021
GET READY FOR THE FIRSTCYBORG GYMNAST
posted by maus at 10:14 PM on October 26, 2009

Consider the interesting case of Richard Sandrak, known in his childhood as "Little Hercules", another boy body builder:
Sandrak said he still works out, but due to growing up the world had lost interest in him... the world was fascinated to see a 12-year-old with a ripped body but not a 16-year-old.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:17 PM on October 26, 2009

You don't want to start walking around upside down with a heavy ball between your legs until you know you can hold it.

Or right side up. Wait until puberty, I say.
posted by bwg at 10:33 PM on October 26, 2009

The kid seems unusually ripped for a kid. My concern with body fat that low is that he's not getting enough dietary fat which will lead to issues with brain development i.e. Myelination of brain cells. Fat isn't just cute on kids, it's essential to proper cognitive and hormonal development.

The handstand push-ups are pretty boss though. I mean, if you're going to have a psycho dad there are worse psycho dads out there.
posted by GuyZero at 10:48 PM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's one clip in there where he just looks exhausted, staring up at the camera like, "Am I done yet? Can I stop now, Dad?"

Put me on the "Ick, no, please," side. (Mind you, I used to do one-kid sit-in protests of gym class and got C's through middle school because I refused to wear the shorts and kept my sweatpants on [and they were sweatpants because other kids wore jeans and all the adults kept telling me to wear jeans so like hell was I going to] so I may have some lingering masculinity/exercise/conformity/iconoclast issues that bias me.)

(But jeez does he look tired.)
posted by Scattercat at 11:00 PM on October 26, 2009

Meh. Young kids exercising doesn't bother me. Kids will do all kinds of weight bearing exercises all day, some not far removed from what this kid is doing. It's not uncommon for rural working class families to have their kids working ( in other words lifting heavy things and moving them around) as soon as they can. The part that hits the "somethings off" alarm is the reason he's doing it. If you saw a young kid playing a ballgame or practicing gymnastics, you really wouldn't think much of it. But this is kid doing it for Papa and to be muscular like the Hulk. Both of those reasons are probably unhealthy if carried to an extreme. Which is what is happening here.
I watched an expose on the Little Hercules kid a while ago, and all the working out he did was pretty much the father's doing. So when the father was pushed out of the picture, all of a sudden that kid worked out maybe a third as much as he was previously doing and unsurprisingly he really wasn't that into it.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:01 PM on October 26, 2009

As soon as my girl comes home, I'm gonna go *bbrrrrrrffftttttt* on her cute 4 year old belly fat.
posted by dabitch at 1:13 AM on October 27, 2009 [5 favorites]

adipocere: "I don't think it was the caloric deficit that did it"

It's the lack of body fat (in girls) that delays the onset of puberty, and it's especially common among gymnasts.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:18 AM on October 27, 2009

Why is it some fathers can get their kids to go to unbelievable extremes to please them, yet I couldn't even get mine to take out the garbage?
posted by digsrus at 4:49 AM on October 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

For some reason, this brings Jimmy Piersall to mind. Maybe it was the way Karl Malden played Piersall's dad in Fear Strikes Out.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:04 AM on October 27, 2009

I bet his dad is really short.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:05 AM on October 27, 2009

All you naysayers will be licking this kid's karate boots when he saves the planet from enslavement to the Saiyans.
posted by Liver at 6:28 AM on October 27, 2009

Get the kid some cybernetic armor, and say hello to Master Chief!
posted by Salvor Hardin at 6:30 AM on October 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

In other news, a five-year old girl identified only as "Adrienne" becomes the first kindergartner hospitalized as a victim of "roid rage." Reports indicate that Adrienne checked "no" in response to a playmate's "do you like me" note.
posted by jefficator at 6:53 AM on October 27, 2009

I bet his dad is really short.

Parts of him, anyway.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:39 AM on October 27, 2009

Opinions about weightlifting at an early age are mixed, to say the least.

Not among anybody who knows anything, I don't think. The first link rightly dismisses the "lifting will stunt your growth" business as a myth, but then it comes out with "I wouldn't recommend that he lift any weight that he can't do in a controlled fashion and with perfect form for at least 10 repetitions until he's 18 or so," which is completely ridiculous, but the author is ostensibly talking about bodybuilding, so ridiculousness is to be expected. And the 2nd link, to a message board thread? Really? Anyhow I can't tell what his training routine really involves from watching that video.

Anyhow, I think this is incredibly awesome and people in this thread are saying some really bizarre shit. If a young kid worked really hard to be good at baseball, or soccer, or tennis, would people think that was so strange? We've got tons of kids growing up obese and incapable of doing anything physical. This kid is being set up for a lifetime of much healthier habits. I don't see any reason to believe he's developing serious injuries. His strength makes him much more resistant to injury than his peers.

Anyway I'm going to go do some chinups.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:51 AM on October 27, 2009

And why is "bodybuilder" a tag here and not, you know, "gymnast?"
posted by ludwig_van at 8:52 AM on October 27, 2009

I don't know, I detected some weakness in the calves.
posted by archibald barisol at 9:26 AM on October 27, 2009

I think this is incredibly awesome and people in this thread are saying some really bizarre shit. ...We've got tons of kids growing up obese and incapable of doing anything physical.

Even more bizarre is the notion that child fitness should be an all-or-nothing choice of two extremes.
posted by applemeat at 10:12 AM on October 27, 2009

...But then, you see "incredibly awesome" where I see "a child too young to think for himself being made the remote control monkey of his grown, sexually insecure parent."
posted by applemeat at 10:18 AM on October 27, 2009

I don't think it's an all or nothing choice of two extremes. And I don't think the kid in this video is necessarily doing anything "extreme," at least not in any pejorative sense. Is it extreme for a kid to study very hard and get straight As? Is it extreme to practice the violin a lot and become an excellent child musician? What I see here is a very talented and hardworking child, which is an impressive thing, and seemingly all too rare in my experience as a teacher.

On preview:

I see "a child too young to think for himself being made the remote control monkey of his grown, sexually insecure parent."

Huh. Ok. I think that's a super weird thing to say, unless you know more about this kid and his parents than I do. Let's agree to disagree.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:24 AM on October 27, 2009

Is it extreme to practice the violin a lot and become an excellent child musician?

Yes, many of those so-called virtuoso kids who can play an entire repertoire of Mozart and Chopin by age five are also in the extreme and get there from extensive parental pressure. Childhood shouldn't be about specialization, in my opinion. Kids should be allowed to do many different things so they can have an ever expanding circle of interests to draw from as they get older so they can learn to make their own choices.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:29 AM on October 27, 2009

Burhanistan, I don't think I agree about how specialized this child is. The strength, balance, and flexibility (not to mention the mental focus and work ethic) he is developing will carry over immensely to a large number of sports and other pursuits, athletic and non-.

Maybe this kid hates what he's doing, and is doing it solely because he's being forced to by his weirdo parents. But I don't see evidence from this video which supports that conclusion, and I think it's strange that so many folks seem to be making that leap. I think it's at least equally likely that this kid enjoys what he's doing and that his training will prove beneficial to his future health and success.

If a kid spent an unusual amount of time reading books, i.e. training his mind, and received parental encouragement for doing so, and thus became an impressive source of knowledge, I'd find it remarkable and maybe quirky but not bad or wrong. That this kid spends an unsual amount of time training his body and becomes an impressive young athlete I find remarkable and maybe quirky but not bad or wrong. Physical education is an important type of education. Just like other forms (music, math, writing, etc.), some children will show a natural aptitude for it and they should be encouraged.

I think it's best to be well-rounded, to train one's mind and body, but I don't have any reason to believe this child isn't doing so; and even still I wouldn't tend to think less of someone's feats in one field because I felt like they'd neglected a different one.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:44 AM on October 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

It looks like the growth delay in female gymnasts mostly comes from impacts.
posted by adipocere at 11:26 AM on October 27, 2009

Kids should be allowed to do many different things so they can have an ever expanding circle of interests to draw from as they get older so they can learn to make their own choices.

Unless you want to be one of the top concert pianists in the world, in which case you have to make that decision when you're about 5. Or if you want to be the world's best golfer.

If you want to be the third-best golfer, yeah, you have a lot of time to make that decision.
posted by GuyZero at 11:41 AM on October 27, 2009

The kid is five, he's been doing some of this stuff since he was two. It's not a big leap, or strange to presume this kid is pushed by his father. It's actually the most likely assumption to make, and rather odd to think it has nothing to do with it.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:42 PM on October 27, 2009

Name an adult you know who was a gymnast when they were a kid that doesn't have lifelong injuries from it.

Name an adult who was a gymnast as a kid and wishes they had never done it. Yeah, you'll find a few, but those are the exceptions. I have all sorts of injuries from being a kid, but none as a result of actually accomplishing anything. (None of which is a statement on 5-year-old weight lifters.)
posted by coolguymichael at 12:54 PM on October 27, 2009

I disagree that the most likely assumption to make is that this kid is pushed by his father. I know children that are just as hardworking, goal oriented, and driven as this boy and were not pushed by their parents to be that way. I'm also unsure that being "pushed" by your parents to be successful at something is so bad. I wish my parents "pushed" me to be good at something... then maybe today I'd be good at something.
posted by useyourmachinegunarm at 3:01 PM on October 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

Childhood shouldn't be about specialization, in my opinion. Kids should be allowed to do many different things so they can have an ever expanding circle of interests to draw from as they get older so they can learn to make their own choices.

Great, so the kid grows up with a thousand interests, and you know what happens? They either end up trying to pursue all of them (or whatever catches their fancy), becoming jack-of-all-traits, master-of-none, which lead them to a life of casual jobs and under-achiever-ism, or they go the other route, scrap it all, deciding all is equally important and thus none is important, and stay at home getting baked all day.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:59 PM on October 27, 2009

Great, so the kid grows up with a thousand interests, and you know what happens?

Huh? Most of the kids I knew growing up weren't pushed to fanatical extremes in one direction but were allowed to do lots of different things and most of them turned out just fine. You're just making up hypothetical scenarios by taking the presumed opposite of my statement to an extreme.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:04 PM on October 27, 2009

“…Myelination of brain cells. Fat isn't just cute on kids, it's essential to proper cognitive and hormonal development.”

Dead on. I keep giving my kids fruit. Nuts, etc. All kinds of naturally sugary snacks. People look at me like I’m nuts because I flip out if someone gives them a diet soda.

“…but the author is ostensibly talking about bodybuilding, so ridiculousness is to be expected.”

Yeah, I’m reading that thinking – 10 reps, careful with the tendons … uh, that’s ‘exercise’ not ‘bodybuilding.’ Far as I can tell the kid isn’t unhealthy. Kind of a weird trick, but that’s good coordination. And for the most part, like intellectual curiosity, diversity, etc. many kids are socialized out of their natural coordination and fitness. I don’t see why a kid his age shouldn’t be that coordinated. My kids are pretty dexterous. And he’s not unreasonably strong for a kid his age. He’s an athlete. Most of the “worlds strongest” stuff is just self-aggrandizing hype. Which, I think is much more harmful for the kid and more a problem with his parents than getting him gym time.

Bodybuilders on the other hand are a specialized breed. Some of the unhealthiest people I’ve met have been completely ripped, free of body fat, etc. Somewhere it parted ways from the whole healthy thing.

I’m easing off my diet restrictions for the winter and people give me crap because I’ve got some pudge (like my father in law who’s sort of like Chiun from Remo Williams “You move like a pregnant yak. I can see the deadly hamburger has done its evil work.”).
So too much vanity, not enough health (my father in law excepted, he seems to think I should constantly be training for the Olympics). I agree with P.o.B. plenty of rural working kids doing day to day lifting that doesn’t harm them a bit.
On the other hand they’re learning the value of hard work and self-reliance as opposed to posturing in a ring and being a circus monkey.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:16 PM on October 27, 2009

I disagree that the most likely assumption to make is that this kid is pushed by his father. I know children that are just as hardworking, goal oriented, and driven as this boy and were not pushed by their parents to be that way. I'm also unsure that being "pushed" by your parents to be successful at something is so bad.

Whether or not he's "pushed" is up for debate, but again the kid is five. Five year olds don't have a fair estimation of action and reward to merit this behavior apart from outside influence. They don't even have a good grasp of time to be able to plot future endeavors. So unless he has some disorder that tends toward the obsessive, the most likely scenario is he is '"pushed". Also, I didn't voice whether or not I felt it was necessarily bad that he is "persuaded" to do these things. I'm more on the fence about these things, but I don't agree with it taken to an extreme. 102 Youtube videos and counting would kind of point in that direction though. Especially when there's two or three other kids.
Like I said before I don't think what he's doing is necessarily damaging, but again I'd probably not be in favor of any kind of extreme regimens at such a young age.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:36 PM on October 27, 2009

I keep giving my kids fruit. Nuts, etc. All kinds of naturally sugary snacks. People look at me like I’m nuts because I flip out if someone gives them a diet soda.

I'm no fan of diet soda either, but you're not getting much dietary fat from sugary snacks. ?? We give the kids whole milk and let them go crazy with the butter. And we give them fish oil/flax oil supplements. And a lot of whole-milk yogurt. Sugar may make you fat but it's not quite the same thing as getting a lot of healthy fat in your diet.
posted by GuyZero at 10:28 AM on October 28, 2009

My son is almost 7, has been in gymnastics classes for a couple of years, mostly with the same group of friends...and not a single one of those kids could do anything like this kid is doing. That requires an insane amount of practice. Also a willingness to let your children climb on the dining room table.
posted by dejah420 at 8:22 PM on October 28, 2009