Des Moines Register

'I'm 6 years old and I can lift 101 pounds'

By LEE ROOD
Register Staff Writer
11/09/2003

"My instinct was to win, eliminate anyone who was in competition, destroy my enemy, and move on," it read.

Tyanna Madsen came to the Des Moines Strength Institute on Saturday morning to win. Training for months on end, she had waited patiently to show off her strength at the annual Iowa Power Sports Championship.

Tyanna knew many eyes in the room would be on her.

"I'm 6 years old," she said in a soft voice, "and I can lift 101 pounds."

Watching her sing and hop around, though, it was hard to imagine she had any enemies who needed destroying.

As far as anyone at Saturday's event knew, Tyanna, a first-grader who weighs 62 pounds, is the youngest girl nationally to compete in a regional powerlifting competition. Richard Peters, president of the National Athletic Strength Association, the event sponsor, said he has never met a girl so young who could dead lift as much as Tyanna.

"But that's not all she can do," he said. "Have you seen her do push-ups?"

A first-grader at Wright Elementary School in Des Moines, Tyanna has been coming to the Strength Institute, her father's gym, since she was 2 years old. At age 3, the girl told her dad she wanted to start lifting.

Jeff Madsen, a 20-year powerlifting veteran, soon learned his daughter had an affinity for the sport.

"She really chose to do this," he said. "I would have never pushed her into it."

Each week, while her 11- and 12-year-old brothers played and watched television, Tyanna went to the gym with her dad.

"She thinks it's fun," Nicole Mad- sen said of her daughter. "She gets time with her dad. They do their thing, and I don't interfere."

Knowing lifting can be injurious if done incorrectly, Jeff Madsen makes sure his daughter stretches properly and that she learns proper techniques.

"It's really brought us closer because its something we share," he said. "I also wanted to show her early that just because she's a girl, that doesn't mean she can't do everything boys can."

When it came time for the first of Tyanna's four lifts on Saturday, Jeff Madsen ushered his daughter into a small hallway for a bit of coaching, toe touching and jumping jacks.

She spent a long while dangling her hands in a bowl of chalk, resulting in dabs of white powder on the tush of her baggy black wrestler's singlet.

"She's very determined," Mad- sen said. "If she doesn't get something the first time, she wants to try it again."

Approaching the crowd of about 50 people, Tyanna carefully stepped up to the steel bar, never losing her father's stare. After he counted to three, she carefully pulled 77 pounds of dead weight up her legs to her belly, smiling as she lowered it to the mat.

"Way to go, Tyanna!" friends and fellow lifters told her over and over, as bulkier weights began shaking the floor.

"That wasn't even hard," Tyanna whispered to her dad.

On her second try, Tyanna stumbled.

Swept up in the moment, her pudgy fingers, topped with green nail polish, lost hold of a bar carrying a heavier 93 pounds.

As fellow lifters call out, "Nice try," the girl's disappointed eyes shot to her father's. Biting her lower lip, she grabbed onto his hand and headed into the hallway as tears welled in her eyes.

Comfort was found a few minutes later in a chocolate-covered doughnut.

"It wasn't too much," she would explain later. "It just slipped."

Determined, Tyanna did not make the same mistake twice.

Her third attempt was a no-brainer. By the time she was ready for 99 pounds, the crowd clapped louder and began hollering, "C'mon, sweetie! C'mon, baby girl!"

Tyanna stared into her father's eyes, waited for the count, and smiled confidently as she pulled the bar carrying 11/2 times her own weight up to her waist.

Madsen swept her up in his arms.

"Good job," the father whispered, kissing her cheek. "I knew she could do it."

Experts warn against lifting for kids

A word to parents: Many experts discourage powerlifting for young children.

Children undergoing growth spurts are more susceptible to injury, because their bones are weaker, their muscles are changing and their tendons tend to tighten over bones. Repeat stress can cause fractures at the end of long bones like the femur, said Stacey Meardon, a physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist.

Powerlifting also can be hard on the lower back.

"Typically, Olympic-style strength training should be reserved for college and older athletes," said Meardon, a former Wartburg College volleyball player who now works at Iowa Health Des Moines Orthopedic and Sport Medicine Center on Merle Hay Road.

Meardon said more children are getting involved in weightlifting as sports have become more specialized. "It can be a good thing for building healthy habits, increasing bone density and other things," she said. "It's safe for them to do it early if the type of training is appropriate."

Jeff Madsen said he is confident his daughter is not overdoing it and said that she takes breaks from lifting whenever she wants to. He and other powerlifters at the gym said they would not encourage young children to lift unless they were supervised by experienced coaches.

"Another key is that kids choose to do it, not the parents," Madsen said.

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