Insanely strong wonder tot Giuliano Stroe in Romania continues to beast up.
Click the image below or watch it on YouTube.
Yep. That Cross was WAY LOW. … Cheater. 
(via – All Things Gym)
His wimpy little brother Claudio is only doing Straddle L Sit 1 Arm Press series.
_____
Coach Sommer of GymnasticBodies.com responds:
… … “The iron cross is quite damaging for physically immature prepubescent athletes to train seriously.
Allan Bower’s younger brother Alex was also capable of holding an iron cross at 8 years old. However he was only allowed to “play” with it occasionally. Yes, he was talented enough that he could have competed both an iron cross and a maltese, however this short term glory would have been at the expense of the rest of his career.
Premature exposure to iron cross training will significantly damage growth plates in the elbow and greatly decrease the mobility of the ligaments in the shoulder girdle. Especially problematic here is that the damage to the elbow will often not manifest itself as pain until the athlete begins their adolescent growth spurt. The shoulder girdle mobility problem will also be further exacerbated during the athlete’s pubescent growth spurt resulting in a substantial loss of ROM.
The solution? While prepubescent, the athlete should focus on flexibility, mastering the basic FBEs (fundamental bodyweight exercises) and then increasing strength endurance. In terms of ring specific strength, the primary focus should be on ring handstands, lock arm press handstands and planche development until the athlete has either completed puberty or is approximately 16 years old.” …
That’s from a thread on the Gymnastic Bodies forum.
This is a father pushing kids harder for strength than I’ve ever seen before. Seems inevitable that something will go wrong, sooner or later.
11 comments ↓
The following is an excerpt from a discussion on the GymnasticBodies.com forum regarding this very video
http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7415#p66172
… “The iron cross is quite damaging for physically immature prepubescent athletes to train seriously.
Allan Bower’s younger brother Alex was also capable of holding an iron cross at 8 years old. However he was only allowed to “play” with it occasionally. Yes, he was talented enough that he could have competed both an iron cross and a maltese, however this short term glory would have been at the expense of the rest of his career.
Premature exposure to iron cross training will significantly damage growth plates in the elbow and greatly decrease the mobility of the ligaments in the shoulder girdle. Especially problematic here is that the damage to the elbow will often not manifest itself as pain until the athlete begins their adolescent growth spurt. The shoulder girdle mobility problem will also be further exacerbated during the athlete’s pubescent growth spurt resulting in a substantial loss of ROM.
The solution? While prepubescent, the athlete should focus on flexibility, mastering the basic FBEs (fundamental bodyweight exercises) and then increasing strength endurance. In terms of ring specific strength, the primary focus should be on ring handstands, lock arm press handstands and planche development until the athlete has either completed puberty or is approximately 16 years old.” …
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
Thanks Coach.
I’ve appended your comment and linked to that thread.
Look up Richard Sandrak who was apparently able to bench 210 at age 8 and was dubbed the Word’s strongest boy. Another story of a kid being pushed way past the limits of what was thought possible and of course everybody with an opinion how damaged he would be from it. Don’t know, but from recent videos and interviews looks like he did ok despite all the doomsday critics. Not saying I’m either condoning or opposed but at least for now I’m reserving my judgement as to the long term effects, especially since no real studies have been (and probably will never be due to etchical concerns) conducted.
I have to agree with George, i think it is prudent to make assumptions that injury will result, or that if he does get injured it was as a result of to much. When a professional athlete gets injured doing something they have been doing for a long time, is that a sign of they got pushed to hard? No, not really (Eg Blain Wilson, bicep tendon tear at words during a maltese i think), simply put shit happens at times.
Before you jump on that this kid is not a professional athlete, i ask you, to consider his clear level of commitment, level of training, and clear commitment to results. Only difference is he is to young to be allowed to participate against older athletes, and also not sure the is a competitive avenue for what he is doing. Accept for maybe crossfit meets (i think i saw there was such a thing)
Overall i think its important to be cautious (and i for one most certainly tend agree with Coach Sommer to air on that side, as opposed to the lets push and see how far we can get), however this does not mean that one cannot or should not achieve the results earlier on. I would like to see studies that actually show that any kind of such work is damaging to the growth. No disrespect to Coach Sommer, but in all seriousness his evidence is at best anecdotal, and observational. His conclusions could be drawn from what very well may be limitations, and errors in his methods, given that it sounds like he is speaking from experience of having gymnasts as young as this boy training crosses (previously).
From the video above this boy seems in very good shape. And actually his cross form despite it being low is not to bad really. Not even sure how he is holding that.
Valentin Uzunov
TheGymPress
As a long time US National Team coach and a trainer of National Champions, I believe that it is far more prudent to place trust in my professional judgment and experience over that of an enthusiast amatuer. You are however free to make you own errors.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
My gut feeling is that the problems will become evident during the phase of “peak growth velocity”.
This is a “pushy” Dad.
Will he cut back training when needed? … I’m worried.
@ Coach Sommer
Please do not feel in anyway like this is some just argument for the sake of argument. I am just presenting the alternative view which has just as much backing, that it can be achieved with proper the right training and injury risk prevention and management.
As to how the dad is training the boy/s, i can’t say because he doesn’t discuss that (from what i am aware). Maybe he really know his stuff and is very careful. He just knows something others maybe don’t. Its possible. I personally would like to see the athlete succeed. Its a risk but that is part of sport.
“… I am just presenting the alternative view which has just as much backing, that it can be achieved with proper the right training and injury risk prevention and management …”
If such an alternative view, with suppportive evidence as you claim, does exist then please share it as neither the US, the Chinese, the Japanese, or the Russian Teams are aware of it. While I appreciate your enthusiasm, your alluded to alternative view is mere supposition without your providing data, methodologies and examples of concrete results.
To be clear no one is implying that training high levels of strength is dangerous; please be more exact and thorough in your reading. I am saying that heavy Iron Cross specific training at that young age IS contra-indicated for the reasons I stated above.
In addition, Rick is unfortunately correct when he states, “My gut feeling is that the problems will become evident during the phase of “peak growth velocity”.
The elbow is particularly sensitive during the adolescent growth spurt. Stacey Maloney (who coached the US World and Olympic Team member Hamm twins) personally told me that not respecting this in his early coaching years was his greatest regret with Morgan as one of his elbows was permanently damaged.
Xiao Peng (the former Chinese World/Olympic Champion on vault and parallel bars) was unable to swing pommel horse, and thus unable to compete in the all around, for the very same reason; an elbow damaged in adolescence that never fully recovered.
As still a further example of the care needed when dealing with powerful pre-pubscent athletes, former US Jr National Team member Duane Holland was an amazing 10 year old in the late 80s who performed double layouts and full ins during his floor routine. He was also very impressive on the other events. Many people, myself included, fully anticipated that he would change the face of men’s gymnastics as he matured.
At 14 years old, I saw Duane sitting in the stands at the JO National Championships and asked him why he wasn’t out on the competition floor. He just hung his head and told me that his lower back and knees were killing him and he was unable to train; let along compete. While in the future he did once again compete, his gymnastics career never fully recovered and he never again enjoyed the same high level of success he had achieved prior to his adolescent growth spurt.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
I believe Li Xiaopeng sustained the permanent elbow injury the prevented further pommel horse training/competition after age 16. He did do pommel horse routines in the 1997 World Championships when he was 16. I don’t know of any publicly available info on whether his training at an younger age led to that particularly devastating elbow injury (for those with personal access to the guy, please do share). I will point out that while he could not do pommel horse, he was still good enough to do still rings for team finals all the way to 2004.
My information regarding the initial cause of Xiaopeng’s elbow injury comes directly from a former Chinese World and Olympic Team member.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
Coach
Some people just don’t realize the expertise that you have and the work you have done with you all you athletes being put together with the abosolute most particular detail to physical preperation and joint care which is why I have now doubt in saying I will see the Bowers on an a Worlds or Olympic team in the future! The knowledge and understanding it takes to keep the elite level gymnast or athlete balance in all areas of strength power/flex rom is an science and art and is something that must be planned to the extreme and it is obvious that I feel these boys are trained to the extreme or overtrained with complete disregard for proper flex rom and joint care. I train young athlete like these boys and I have an olympic level trainer and therapist constantly helping me keep this balance along with all of Coach Sommers prehap joint work and appropriate ring strength work and series with apropriate rest and stretching always following this work! Lets give our future talant a future!
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