The competitors range in age from 5 to 11.
A group of pint-sized bodybuilders are flexing their way to muscular stardom as they compete in national competitions.
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The children, ranging in age from 5 to 11, work hard toward getting chiseled muscles just like adult competitors. Like grown-up bodybuilders who compete professionally, the kids are also sprayed and oiled, giving their skin a golden glow.
The mother of one boy, Dillon, says bodybuilding is helping her son get in shape, adding that he had dropped 12 pounds in six weeks.
Elyce, 10, says the bodybuilding program helps in other ways too.
“When I’m stressed out about a test I’ll go to bodybuilding and forget about the test until I get home,” she told Inside Edition.
Her father, Joe, trains her and her younger brother, Clayton. The dad told Inside Edition, “I much rather my child be toned. They don’t need to be huge.”
The kids are too young for actual weightlifting so they instead do push-ups and sit-ups.
Joe said that “in a weeks’ time they do anywhere from 500 to even a 1,000 [pushups and sit-ups]. I push them hard and they like it.”
Bryan Eidem has coached his 11-year-old son, Joey, through 20 competitions. “I push Joey as hard as he will do,” he said.
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The bodybuilding event they train for is sanctioned by the professional Natural Bodybuilding Association, founded by Denny and Diana Kakos.
"The kids are doing resistance training. They are not doing heavy lifting or anything like that," she said.
At the end of the competition, which was held in September, 9-year-old Jeremiah Camacho was announced as the winner of the boys, while his 8-year-old sister, Skylar, took the title for the girls.
Their mom, who is also a bodybuilder, told Inside Edition, “I’m so proud of them.”
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