00:00I'm the world's strongest 11-year-old.
00:01The feeling of getting a PB in powerlifting is amazing.
00:04When people have criticised parenting,
00:06it tends to be someone says something like,
00:08I've pushed Rowan to do this.
00:10I know a lot of people think that they are pushy.
00:12First guy in the world of champions.
00:13It might sound pushy, but I've always told Rowan,
00:15if you want to be special, you have to do unusual things.
00:19I do two to three hours a day of training.
00:22Do you think training thereafter could be seen as too much?
00:25As soon as I get in from school, I'm out the door straight to training.
00:33My name's Rowan Amali. I'm the world's strongest 11-year-old.
00:37Okay, mate. Squat in.
00:43Yeah, keep the pauses when you're warming up, mate.
00:46Keep that shelf a little lower.
00:48Get your feet under the bar.
00:50Yeah, put some tempo in.
00:52My name is Gemma.
00:53And my name's Ben.
00:54We have two children, Rowan, who's 11, and Hetty, who's three.
00:58I would describe our parenting style as very proactive.
01:01I would say our parenting style is we're very loving.
01:03We're very supportive of the children.
01:05How old was Rowan when he first took an interest in strength training?
01:10So Rowan, probably about one and a half.
01:13We used to use his garage for my client's rehab.
01:15And we'd just find him grabbing an object.
01:18So even before he was two, he's been interested in training.
01:21How did you nurture this interest?
01:23We didn't really bring weights in until he was a little bit older,
01:26about five to six years old.
01:28We don't necessarily have a background in athletic performance or competition,
01:32but my background is in rehab for people with more complex needs.
01:36So that's where Rowan has found the gym, through that angle.
01:40But we also used to run fitness events.
01:42Yeah, we did run fitness events, yeah.
01:43Yeah.
01:43How does it get? I ran a gym for three years.
01:46My first proper memory in the gym was when I was about five or six years old,
01:49and I was hanging off a pull-up bar doing pull-ups,
01:52and everyone was clapping me.
01:53My training now is a lot harder than it was when I was younger.
01:56But now I have to lift heavy, or else I'm going to lose my strength easily.
02:02I hold seven world records, four from last year, three from this year.
02:05My squat is 115 kilos.
02:08My deadlift is 135 kilos.
02:11And my total is 310 kilos.
02:13And that is the heaviest total of all time for an under-12.
02:16The feeling of getting a PB in powerlifting is amazing.
02:19Was it Rowan's idea to enter powerlifting competitions?
02:22Rowan had asked me if he was able to compete in a novice competition in our old gym.
02:26So I asked the owner if he was able to compete, and he allowed him to at nine years old.
02:29It sounds bonkers, but you have to realise that that was the environment that he was in a lot.
02:35I wanted Rowan to get some recognition for how good he was.
02:38I mean, the bottom line is, we could see kids from all over the world
02:41on social media and YouTube and things like this,
02:43saying that they were the best this and that.
02:45And we always felt a little bit of grief, because Rowan would see that and think,
02:49I'm a year younger than that child, but I'm lifting much heavier.
02:52But in the UK, we didn't have the chance to compete at that age.
02:59I'm preparing an omelette with peppers, onion, cheese and bacon.
03:03It's very important for me to eat the right food,
03:05because if I want to, let's say, hit a new world record,
03:08and if I don't eat the right food,
03:10then I'm not going to see the progress that I want to see.
03:12From an early age, he's kind of shown an interest in cooking.
03:16He's not very fast.
03:16He's not very fast.
03:18But he's good.
03:23Good girl, Hetty.
03:24What are you saying?
03:27Cheesy omelette makes me feel very good.
03:33Hetty, she's just a dream.
03:35She is.
03:35She's very different to Rowan,
03:37in that she's not really into fitness in the way that he was at that age.
03:41Omelette.
03:43Good.
03:45What would you score Rowan's dish today out of 10?
03:47I'll give it a solid 8.
03:49Bad kabo.
03:516 out of 10 for presentation.
03:538 out of 10 for taste.
03:55Which number?
03:5710.
03:59I do roughly about two hours of training a day,
04:01and I train four times a week.
04:03But in rugby training, I don't train as much.
04:05I don't train as much.
04:07I do roughly about two hours of training a day,
04:09and I train four times a week.
04:11But in rugby training, I train one hour twice a week.
04:13The main thing I love about powerlifting
04:15is it gives me a good strong foundation.
04:17It's just going to help me if I want to go professional in rugby,
04:19which I do.
04:21None of my friends compete like I do,
04:23but some of my friends do train with me.
04:25Do you think training that often,
04:27five to six times a week,
04:29could be seen as too much?
04:31I think lots of people would see
04:33Rowan's schedule as too much,
04:35but they don't know Rowan.
04:37When Rowan has a day off,
04:39or he has a day where there's just two things going on,
04:41he will complain that he's bored,
04:43and he's asking us to do other things.
04:45He'll still do the drums.
04:47He'll have rugby training.
04:49He has boxing.
04:51He does see his friends, though.
04:53He does do nice things.
04:55It's not all relentless.
04:57So we have experienced some judgment,
04:59but I think on the whole,
05:01it's been quite positive.
05:03One of the things when people have criticised parenting,
05:05it tends to be someone says something like,
05:07I've pushed Rowan to do this
05:09because maybe I was a powerlifter,
05:11or whatever, but they don't understand
05:13that I wasn't a powerlifter.
05:15We've had a few that have said,
05:17oh, he needs to have a proper childhood,
05:19and that really upsets us,
05:21because Rowan is so busy.
05:23He does loads of amazing things.
05:25Are you pushy parents?
05:27I don't think we're pushy parents.
05:29I think that what we do
05:31is give Rowan an opportunity
05:33to excel in anything he wants to excel in.
05:35If Rowan said to me tomorrow he wants to be a painter,
05:37we'd be painting every day.
05:39I just feel like we're giving our son and our daughter
05:41the best opportunities that we can,
05:43and it's not the sort of thing
05:45that you can push a child to do.
05:47You have to want to do it.
05:49You can't force somebody to lift heavy weights.
05:51It's a very, very difficult world,
05:53and if you haven't got a work ethic
05:55and you haven't got a will to achieve,
05:57then you're going to struggle in life.
05:59If you want to be special,
06:01you have to do unusual things.
06:03You have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
06:05My parents are not pushy at all.
06:07They don't push me to go to the gym.
06:09They don't push me to eat my protein.
06:11I want to do that myself.
06:13I know a lot of people think that they are pushy,
06:15but they're not.
06:17I push myself to do my best.
06:19They don't push me to do anything.
06:21So we've asked our audience these questions,
06:23and we would like for you to have a look at the responses.
06:25So the first question is,
06:28Top one says,
06:38I think it's a bizarre comment.
06:40I mean, what's regular lifting?
06:42The comment is total nonsense on many levels.
06:45It's completely against anything
06:47that you would find in modern research.
06:52No, I would not, because it's too dangerous
06:54for a little child.
06:56And no, their skeleton isn't fully grown and fused.
07:02Well, I think when people comment
07:04about a skeleton being fused,
07:06I think we don't need to reply to them.
07:08Bones develop from resistance,
07:10from running, jumping, pushing, pulling.
07:12And what we've done with Rowan is an example of that.
07:14You know, he is strong.
07:16He has strong, stable joints.
07:18He has strong bones. He's never been injured.
07:20And that's a testament to the lifting
07:22that we've done with him.
07:25Congratulations.
07:27There you go.
07:28There you go, Rowan.
07:33Thank you very much.
07:34So we have chosen to feature Rowan on the wall
07:36as the first person to be on the wall of champions
07:38because of the achievements which he has achieved.
07:41He's an 11-year-old boy.
07:42As humble as they come, Rowan is amazing.
07:45It's an honour.
07:46Out of everyone in this gym, I'm the first.
07:48It just feels amazing.
07:50Intense.
07:53What do you hope the future holds for your family?
07:55I just want our kids to have a really good opportunity,
07:57a good start in life.
07:58Making Rowan strong is just the baseline
08:01for him to do other things.
08:02That was it.
08:03I hope the future holds a lot of happiness for our family.
08:07I hope that Rowan fulfils his dreams.
08:09It's amazing to see him achieving all of this.
08:11We're really, really proud of him.
08:22For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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