Is working out harmful for kids and adolescents

I read a lot about weighttraining/bodybuilding etc cause it interest me since I was a kid. Originating from martial arts into bodybuilding and powerlifting I have a broad vision on muscular development. That’s why this really bothers me. I read an article in the Dailymail from the United Kingdom. This article is from 2014, but 4 years ago a similar article about the same twins was also published by The Dailymail. Its rather negative story, as mostly when it concerns bodybuilding.

The scope of the stories where on a dad that wanted to exploit his sons. The family lives in Romania. Romania is a poor country and most people are unable to find a job to make a decent living. I just made a blog post on Calisthenics. Calisthenics are mostly still incorporated in strength training regimes in Eastern Europe. On the pictures made of the family Stroe for the articles, you can see the boys performing calisthenics, thus a safe and healthy life style. The media should concentrate on things that really matter. . I also recently posted a blogpost called “Performance-enhancing Drugs and Teen Athletes” picturing Richard Sandrak. Richard can’t be missed in an article on teen to adolescent training. But more on that later in this blogpost

Strength Training For Children

Parents and coaches continue to express concern about the suitability of strength training for children and adolescents despite mounting evidence that it is both safe and beneficial.

I have become aware of concerns expressed by young team players and their parents about whether it is appropriate for adolescent athletes (aged 12-16) to train with weights.

The benefits of youth resistance training are well documented and almost universally accepted among health professionals, particularly in the United States. However, public recognition of these benefits has tended to lag behind and misunderstanding and misconceptions abound. Historically, concerns about youth resistance training stem from a perceived risk of potential damage to growth plates and consequent interference with normal growth. Mostly referred to as stunted growth. In fact, such damage has never been documented in connection with youth strength training programmes administered and supervised by qualified professionals, while studies using appropriate youth resistance training report a very low incidence of any type of injuries. And, far from stunting growth, it now appears that resistance training, in combination with proper nutrition, has the potential to enhance growth within genetic bounds at all stages of development.

The most frequent causes of injuries to young people working out with weights include incorrect lifting technique, attempts to lift excessive loads, inappropriate use of equipment and absence of qualified supervision. But these factors should not apply with properly administered training.

Naturally, young players, like any inexperienced lifters, should only take part in strength training programmes prepared by qualified coaches, using safe equipment and supervised by qualified instructors. If these conditions are met, there are no grounds at all to restrict their participation.

The reality is that children are exposed to far greater forces (and for longer periods of time) during sports and recreational physical activity than with strength training – even if that training were to include a maximum lift! Of all resistance training exercises, the Olympic lifts probably impose the greatest forces on the growing musculoskeletal system. Even so, research suggests that competitive weightlifting is one of the safer activities engaged in by young athletes.

It is now becoming recognised that young people can derive the same benefits from strength training as adults. Previously, the presumption had been that strength training before puberty was not viable or effective. But now it is known that pre-pubescents exhibit scope for strength gains far beyond those attributable to normal growth and maturation.

Relative strength gains from resistance training in prepubescent subjects are of similar magnitude to those seen in adolescents, although the latter seem to exhibit greater absolute strength gains.

Improvements in various motor performance have been observed following resistance training in children. These include vertical jump, standing long jump, sprint times and agility run times.

Resistance training has also been recommended as a preconditioning aid for youngsters. Habitual levels of physical activity in children are declining, reflecting changes in modern lifestyles. As a result, the physical condition of many children leaves them ill prepared for competitive sport. Resistance training offers a means to prepare them for participation in other sports and recreational activities, thereby also preventing overuse injuries.

This injury prevention aspect of youth resistance training is an important consideration for young athletes – particularly rugby and football players. Strengthening muscles via resistance training will increase the forces they are capable of sustaining, making them more resistant to injury, while improved motor control and coordination will also improve balance and joint stability.

For adolescent athletes in particular, structural adaptations to resistance training are key to injury prevention. These effects include increased strength of supporting connective tissues and passive joint stability, as well as increased bone density and tensile strength, which are particularly useful in collision sports like rugby, football, ice hockey and some include basketball).

As well as protecting against injury, youth resistance training also seems to accelerate rehabilitation after injury, with evidence that resistance-trained young athletes recover more rapidly and return to training sooner than those who do not use this kind of training.

Participation in resistance training at an early age also carries health-related benefits similar to those observed in adults. These include a reduction in risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, both of which are becoming increasingly common in young people. In addition, initiating good health- promoting behaviours during childhood and adolescence increases the likelihood that these good habits will carry over into adulthood.

In view of the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, the potential of resistance training to favourably alter body composition should also be taken into account. At any age, appropriate resistance training, in conjunction with aerobic exercise, appears to be the best strategy for losing body fat and maintaining weight.

Finally, psychosocial benefits associated with resistance training have been identified in youngsters as well as adults, particularly enhanced self-esteem and improved self-image.

Before puberty, low levels of circulating anabolic hormones limit the contribution of hypertrophy (lean tissue growth) to strength gains, and the changes to muscles that do occur appear to be qualitative rather than quantitative. Neural effects thus appear to underlie the benefits of resistance training in these younger boys and girls.

Such neural adaptations are thought to include improved recruitment and activation of the muscles mobilised during the relevant training movements. Enhanced motor coordination, both within and between muscle groups, is also thought to contribute to strength gains following training.

By their very nature, such training adaptations would appear impermanent. And, indeed, prepubescent athletes do seem particularly susceptible to detraining effects if resistance training is discontinued. However, modest maintenance programmes (1-2 days per week) should be sufficient to sustain strength gains.

The greater hormonal response to resistance training in adolescents leads to structural changes to the muscles and associated connective tissues. As a result, marked changes in terms of muscle hypertrophy and gains in fat free mass are seen in this older age group.

In collision sports, physical size is a determining factor for participation at higher levels. Young players are naturally predisposed to – and selected for – particular playing positions on the basis of their anthropometric (height and body mass) characteristics and strength capabilities.

As with other collision sports, such as American football and rugby players’ body mass and muscularity has risen at a disproportionate rate over the past 25 years, particularly with the advent of professionalism. These days, the physical characteristics of professional players in these sports place them increasingly at the margins of the populations they are taken from.

The importance of lean body mass in rugby union is illustrated by the observation that it differentiates between playing grades in the sport, with players at higher levels of competition exhibiting a greater proportion of lean body mass than those participating in lower leagues. Body mass was also shown to correlate with the respective performance of national teams in the World Cup competition, with the heavier playing squads progressing further in the competition. Another reason for young boyz to look lean and mean are girlz.

As a consequence, for young players who aspire to play at the highest level participation in strength training is no longer optional. Without experience of systematic strength training, young players are unlikely to have developed the physical characteristics that will recommend them to scouts and coaches in the regional academy system.

Strength training recommendations

Guidelines vary according to chronological age and, more importantly, biological age. Any resistance training programme should be geared to the physical and emotional maturity of individuals in the group.

In general, if a child is ready for participation in organised sports, he or she is probably ready to undergo instruction in resistance training. However, for children with known or suspected medical conditions, medical clearance should be sought in advance.

When young athletes are first introduced to resistance training, light loads and high repetition schemes (12-15 reps) are most appropriate. At early stages of training, progression should be achieved by increasing the number of sets performed and the number of exercises in the workout. The number of training days can then be increased at a later stage.

Adequate rest and recovery is a key component of successful youth resistance training. And because young athletes may need more recovery time between sessions in order to maximise the effectiveness of training and reduce the risk of injury, training on non-consecutive days is recommended for younger individuals.

Given that many of the benefits of strength training in this population stem from improved coordination, balance and proprioception, exercise modes that favor the development of these qualities should be emphasised. Thus calisthenic exercises and free weights may be better than resistance machines, although users are likely to require closer supervision.

In this context, it is worth noting that resistance machines need to be tailored to the dimensions of their users, and that some apparatus cannot be adjusted sufficiently for use by children.

With advances in training experience, exercises like structural multi-joint lifts (bench press, variations of the barbell squat and deadlift) can be introduced, although the focus throughout should be on proper lifting form, with loading limited until the athlete has mastered the appropriate technique.

Experienced young lifters can integrate Olympic-style lifts into their strength training programmes. These should be taught initially using a broomstick or empty barbell. For prepubescent athletes, in particular, the loads used for these lifts should be kept light, with the emphasis on the quality of the lifting movement.

As with adults, exercise specificity influences young athletes’ responses to strength training, with greatest transfer of training effects observed with performance measures that are similar to the movements featured in training. Exercises should therefore be selected with their sport specific benefits in mind, taking account of the skill levels and training experience of the young athletes concerned.

 Hercules twins

First the article from 2010: On the picture you can see the father with his two boys working out

Tensing their muscles and snarling into the camera, brothers Giuliano, six, and four-year-old Claudiu are training to be the world's strongest boys.

The tiny muscle 'men' have been performing amazing acrobatic feats and lifting weights since they were toddlers.

Their father, 35-year-old Iulian Stroe, is determined to make them famous and puts them through a gruelling two-hour regime each morning.

Little monsters: Brothers Giuliano (right) and Claudiu Stroe flex their muscles for the camera

Allowing us exclusive access to his home in Romania for the first time, Iulian says he can make the boys even more 'pumped up' in three weeks in return for money.

The builder says Giuliano has already broken two world records for 90-degree vertical pushups and another holding on to a pole like a human flag.

Now he is training up little Claudiu to follow suit and he is already performing handstand push-ups on a bar and learning the same terrifying flag trick.

Working out: Dad Iulian Stroe puts his sons through their paces in their home gym

In the human flag, athletes hold onto a vertical object and, with arms straight, hold their body horizontal to the ground. While most fully-grown men would struggle with these tricks, Giuliano is expected to hold his position for as long as his dad tells him. Six year old Giuliano demonstrates the 'flag' pose that few adults could hold for more than a second or two.

Both boys are also lifting 4kg dumbbells and heavy weights to work on their biceps and build up their chest muscles. Claudiu started training at a younger age than Giuliano and was copying his older brother at just 18 months old. Now he can do the splits between metal rings and can turn backflips along the ground.

Iulian refused to let us take photographs of his sons lifting weights but evidence is available in his own You Tube videos.

'Cladiu does nearly everything like his brother, but not as many times,' he said. 'He hasn't caught up yet.''It will be hard for him, because Giuliano has two years of practice of actual gym training, and he's only got one.'

The boys are undeniably capable of extraordinary feats - but it has been suggested that it's cruel to expect children of this age to train so hard

Proud parents: Dad Iulian and Mum Ileana with body-building sons Giuliano, aged six and Claudiu, aged 4.

Claudiu, who celebrated his fourth birthday a few weeks ago, has been began training in the gym since he was two and a half. It takes Claudiu only three days to get used to a new exercise, according to his dad. 'They do handstands on bars, Giuliano uses a curved bar, which is tougher, but Claudio uses a square one,' said Iulian.

'I stand by him while he does it because he's too small to be there on his own.' Iulian promises he can have the boys "more pumped up" for shows within three weeks - if people are willing to pay him thousands of Euros to do it. Former boxer Iulian and his devoted wife Ileana, who admits privately to being scared of her husband, want their children to become the strongest in the world. Ileana, 32, remembers: 'One day I found him trying to do the spilts between two chairs, because he'd seen it on a cartoon on TV.' 'My husband gave him two packets of nappies, then he did the splits on the packets of nappies.' 'That's when we realised what a great ability.'

Isolated on their family farm, the boys are fed on a diet of healthy pasta and protein rich foods, supplemented by a 'vitamin powder' diluted in water.

Pumping Iron: Giuliano Stroe working out at his father's home gym in Romania. 'Not many children have these abilities,' said Iulian. 'They are enthusiastic, they like a lot of training.' 'In the last 18 months, Giuliano has improved very much physically.'

Many doctors believe (how many - which ones – believe or know from studies? – highly sugestive and untrue RT) that weight training regimes have little positive effect before children reach puberty, and can even be harmful but Iulian angrily rejects criticism that he could be damaging the boys' health.

'Someone once told me that the boys won't grow properly, but there's no proof,' he said. 'Even a flower will still grow if you put something on it. It's a natural growth.'

The article from 2014

Giuliano Stroe, 9, and his brother Claudiu, 7, want to be bodybuilders. They lift weights for two hours every day to build up arm and chest strength. Father Iulian, 35, moved them to Florence to find their fame and fortune. The plan failed so they had to return to scrap metal dealing in Romania. Now they hope to move to Britain to bring their act to a new audience. Lifting 4kg dumb bells and heavy weights for two hours a day would be an impressive fitness regime for an adult.

But the gruelling sessions are in actual fact exercises for a pair of Romanian brothers who part of a family dubbed 'The Hercules'. Giuliano Stroe, aged nine, and his seven-year-old brother Claudiu hit the headlines as they trained to be the world's strongest boys in a family of bodybuilders. Now the family could be on their way to Britain after falling on hard times in their homeland and struggling to find the fame and fortune they hoped would await them while living in Florence, Italy Iulian Stroe, 35, was determined to make his sons famous and put them through a gruelling two-hour regime each morning while the family lived in Florence.

The tiny muscle 'men' have been performing acrobatic feats and lifting weights since they were toddlers. Giuliano has already broken two world records for 90-degree vertical pushups and another holding on to a pole like a human flag. Claudiu followed suit and he is already performing handstand push-ups on a bar and learning the same terrifying flag trick. Both boys routinely lift 4kg dumbbells and heavy weights to work on their biceps and build up their chest muscles.    

Claudiu started training at a younger age than Giuliano and was copying his older brother at just 18 months old. Now he can do the splits between metal rings and can turn backflips along the ground.

The boys are undeniably capable of extraordinary feats - but it has been suggested that it's cruel to expect children of this age to train so hard.

Unable to forge a living for themselves in Italy, Mr Stroe and his sons were forced to return to Romania, where they now make a living from scrap metal trading in the village of Icoana.

Mr Stroe now plans to travel to the UK in the hope of finding either work for himself, or a financial sponsor for his sons as he hopes to bring the family's novel weightlifting act to a new audience. Last week nine-year-old Giuliano posted on his Facebook page that his dad was planning a move to the UK so he could work - but he didn't want him to go. 

'Who will take care of us? Alone here is sad and dangerous. Help him to get a job near to us. Thank you,' he said.

While some people posted positive replies, others were critical of the family's actions.

Mr Stroe says he has no choice but to travel to the UK, where he hopes to find other Romanians who will help him find work so he can continue to pay for his sons' training regime.

Both Mr Stroe and his wife Ileana defend their training regimen for their boys.

'They have a natural ability for this, nothing is forced, it is what God intended for them,' Mrs Stroe said.

'My husband will go abroad to earn money, as a builder or labourer, and we will use it all for our sons,' she added

Most top athletes start young - tennis, swimming, gymnastics, you name it, those at the top started young.

Just think of Serena and Venus Williams. And all the parents that hope and pray that their kid will be a star in football, baseball , tennis etc. And who push their children. It’s not uncommon et al. And many little kids have a dream. See all the kid bodybuilders like Lee Priest on the pictures. Dorian Yates and a younger example Alexey Lesukov.

Lee priest on the pics with 12 – 15 and 17 years of age. He started to compete at 13.

Another well-known example of a young heavily trained boy is Richard Sandrak

By the time he was 8 he could bench press twice his weight. At 11, he could do three times his weight. When he weighed probably only 50 or 60 pounds himself, he could go into the splits with each of his feet on a platform, while holding a 30-pound plate. However, all this was because his father, Pavel, forced him to train non-stop (he had no toys and was not allowed outside) and fed him a special diet of almost nothing but a powder that he himself concocted (and which many have said likely contained steroids). His trainer, who eventually quit because Pavel wouldn't tell him what he was feeding Richard and because he was worried about the child's health, later reported that Richard had barely 1% body fat. Pavel later became more and more physically abusive towards Richard and his mother and was arrested. Richard then decided to do only light training to take time to be a normal kid. The courts even stated that he was not allowed to lift any weights until he was 16. He is now 16, and is still well-built but not nearly to the extent that he was when he was younger. He has been in a movie ("Little Hercules") with Hulk Hogan, and did a workout video for kids. He is also into dancing.So, long story short, he is strong, but not nearly as strong (pound-for-pound) as he was as a little kid).

Now Richard Sandrak says: “For now I just want to go out and make more movies.“ Then, switching to beauty-queen mode, he embarks on an unprompted speech about how he wants to help the world. “What I've noticed a lot,” he says with a solemn smile, “is childhood obesity. It's become such a big problem, especially here in America, that I feel I have to do something. Kids are going to be adults. They're going to be our future. Right now one out of three has a potential of dying before their parents. I want to get them eating right and doing sports one hour a day.”

I nod in sober agreement and then ask him how, as a Californian teenager, he resists peer pressure to drink and take drugs. “I think of it this way: the kids that do that, how do they end up? They don't end up with successful careers in any good business. They end up working at McDonald's, and that's not a life I want for myself.”

And he’s completely right: It's an alarming statistic: 1 out of 3 U.S. kids are considered overweight or obese. The rate of obesity among children and adolescents in the United States has nearly tripled between the early 1980s and 2000.

Richard maintains that his father didn't push him into body building. In an interview with the Guardian, Sandrak acknowledged that his father had him sleep on the floor to perfect his posture, and encouraged him to train long hours, but he doesn't think the body building was abusive. " I've never been forced to train or do anything against my will," he said. "My parents used to train all the time and I wanted to join in. It was mostly my choice. It's just what I grew up doing. I was never forced. It was never an issue."Sandrak still works with long-time trainer Frank Giardina, and though the details of his family life are still murky, he says he has cut contact from his father and now lives with his mother, Lena.

Modern Times

Low levels of physical activity combined with heavy use of electronic media and sedentary behavior are linked to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases already in 6-8 year-old children, a study concludes. The study showed that low levels of physical activity - and unstructured physical activity in particular - are linked to increased risk factors serious health problems. Heavy use of electronic media, and especially watching too much TV and videos, was linked to higher levels of risk factors in children.

The Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children Study, PANIC, carried out by the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Eastern Finland shows that low levels of physical activity combined with heavy use of electronic media and sedentary behavior are linked to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases already in 6-8 year-old children. The study was published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, a journal in the field of exercise and nutrition.

Heavy use of electronic media has adverse health effects also in children who are physically active Carried out at the University of Eastern Finland, the study showed that low levels of physical activity -- and unstructured physical activity in particular -- are linked to increased risk factors for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases in children. Furthermore, heavy use of electronic media, and especially watching too much TV and videos, was linked to higher levels of risk factors in children. The highest levels of risk factors were found in children with lowest levels of physical activity and highest levels of electronic media time. Heavy use of electronic media, and especially watching too much TV and videos, increased the levels of risk factors not only in sedentary children, but also in children who are physically active. Moreover, irregular eating frequency and an unhealthy diet were linked to increased risk factors for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases. These nutrition-related factors partially explain the link between heavy use of electronic media and the risk factors.

Prevention of type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases best begun in childhood The PANIC Study has earlier shown that the cumulation of risk factors for type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases in people who are overweight begins already in childhood. This is a major concern because the cumulation of risk factors in childhood significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, vascular diseases and premature death in adulthood. According to this recently published study, regular exercise and avoiding excessive use of electronic media constitute efficient means of preventing type 2 diabetes and vascular diseases.

The study provides novel information on children's physical activity and sedentary behavior, nutrition, physical condition, body composition, metabolism, vascular system, brain function, oral health, life quality, effects of exercise and nutrition on children's health and well-being, and their effects on health care costs.