A ten-year-old Vietnamese boy named Nguyen Hoang Nam already has the build of a professional bodybuilder, due to a condition that ca-uses muscle overgrowth.
The Herculean youth was found flexing his muscles and playing with friends in Trang Bom, a small township on the outskirts of Bien Hoa, on Wednesday.
‘Since he was born, he’s always been really gentle. He gets on well with his friends,’ said Nam’s father.
‘When he saw me training, he often imi-tated me. When he was younger, most kids borrowed phones to play games, but he borrowed mine to watch bodybuilders.’
Doctors d!agnosed Nam with Myostatin-related muscle hyp-ertrophy – dubbed ‘superman syndr-ome’ by Vietnamese media.’My dream is to become a bodybuilder in the future, because I saw the bodybuilders on YouTube, and they looked really nice and professional,’ Nam said. ‘I admire them a lot.’
A video of Nam with his family and a friend see him showing off his muscles. Standing next to his friend, it is clear how much more developed his muscles are compared to those of a similar age without superman syndr-ome. The video also shows him arm-wre-stling with his father and later dem*nstrating his ability to do headstands.
The condition is rare and is also characterized by reduced body f-at, and while it increases the ske-letal mu-scle mass by up two twice the amount, it does always equate to increased strength. Myostatin-related muscle hyp-ertrophy is a rare ge-netic condition that is ca-used by a mu-tation in the MSTN gene.
The MSTN ge-ne tells the body how much myost-atin to create, which is active in ske-letal muscles for movement, and also restr-ains muscle growth so they do not grow too large. However, mu-tations in this gene that reduce the production of functional myos-tatin lead to an overgrowth in muscle ti-ssues, as seen in Nam’s case.
While the condition report does not aff-ect the boy’s overall health, ‘superman syndro-me’ does make him su-ffer from muscle sti-ffness and a lack of flexibility. His parents encourage him to do martial arts and yoga in order to relax his muscles so they do not get too st-iff.
This Article First Published On DAILYMAIL