Recently there has been a lot of internet buzz around a five-year-old Romanian boy who recently set a Guinness World Record for walking on his hands. In the video, it is revealed that the child participates in resistance training on a daily basis and has since he was two years old. Needless to say, this boy has gotten the attention of many people in both the fitness community and the general population. Many in the general population are state that the child looks “abnormally developed”, and complain that the parents are pushing the child to perform these exercises. To these people I have two points to make; first, how many little boys have you seen that mirror the actions of their father? This is one of the primary ways that children learn socially acceptable behaviors, and it is the best way for our children to learn movement patterns that will benefit them in their future athletic performance. This leads me to my second point, that many in the general population are inferring their feelings regarding health, fitness and exercise onto the child. I have read many comments stating that “this child should be out having fun, not training in the gym”, but who is to say that he’s not having fun? Look at children playing on a playground, they’re having fun, but they’re also participating in interval training, body weight resistance exercise, and plyometric training. As a society, we often infer our feelings about exercise (e.g. it’s boring, time-consuming, and there are other things that I could spend my time on) onto fitness programs that are directed towards kids. The simple fact of the matter is that this child is most likely having fun doing what he’s doing, otherwise he wouldn’t appear so happy in the video! From the fitness population who have seen the video, most of the comments I’ve heard are that the child is being put at risk for injury because of the resistance training. This is simply not true. The most recent scientific research about resistance training and youth has found that resistance training is responsible for 0.7% of 1576 injuries recorded in a one-year period.[1] Compare that to football (19%), basketball (15%) and soccer (2%), and we can clearly see that the old assumptions about resistance training causing injuries in youth populations are just not true. Some argue that development, specifically bone growth through injury of the epiphyseal plates of the long bones, is hindered because of resistance training. To date, there have been no prospective resistance training studies in pre-adolescent youths that have shown any evidence of epiphyseal plate fracture, or delayed/disrupted growth.[2],[3] In fact, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) recently released a new position statement in support of youth resistance training. This document provides clear recommendations youth training, including a discussion of the risks, benefits, and guidelines for including resistance training in exercise prescription for youth populations.In general, we need to get away from the antiquated notion that exercise is not for kids. Exercise is a great way for kids to learn behaviors and movement patterns that will benefit them far into the future. If good exercise habits are established in childhood those habits will carry over into adulthood. If we could get children to start exercising and teach them that exercise can be a fun and fulfilling activity, then we would not have the current childhood obesity crisis that we are currently facing. As a society, we all need to take a step back and examine exactly why we’re criticizing this boy’s exercise habits- is it really because we’re concerned for the child’s welfare. or is he making us all look bad because he’s exercising and enjoying it?
[1] Zaricznyj, B, Shattuck, L, Mast, T, Robertson, R, and D’Elia, G. (1980) Sports-related injuries in school-aged children. American Journal of Sports Medicine 8: 318-324
[2]Falk, B and Eliakim, A. (2003) Resistance training, skeletal muscle and growth. Pediatric Endocrinology Review 1:120-127
[3] Malina, R. (2001) Weight training in youth-growth maturation and safety: An evidence based review. Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine 16: 478-487