Myostatin Deficiency: Abnormal Muscle Tone and Strength

Myostatin is a growth factor that inhibits the growth of muscles, preventing them from growing too large. When Mysostatin is inactivated, muscles can grow larger. This is called Myostatin deficiency. Liam, a 3-year-old little boy , was discovered to have mutation of a gene called MSTN. This gene deactivated myostatin within his body causing his muscles to develop larger than normal. Also, this deficiency caused Liam 's body to not be able to store fat.

Liam is thought to be the worlds strongest toddler although, some have their disbeliefs. Liam who was adopted could do thing that no other toddlers his age could do. At the age of four months Liam could lay on the floor, hold his head up and hold his upper body up with his arms.

At The age of five months Liam was already walking and Liam could also walk upright up the stairs. At the age of six months Liam could walk up and down the stairs on his own. Liam had unbelievable strength for a toddler. Liam did not have any body fat and others started to notice his strength.

At the age of one, Liam could already do chin ups, something no other one year-old could possible do.
At the age of eighteen months Liam was always moving the family furniture around in the living room at their home. Liam's parents noticed all these different things Liam could do and decided to ask a doctor about this to find out why this may occur. Doctors could not conduct a strength test on Liam until Liam was 3-years-old. When Liam turned three they were able to start the strength test on Liam.

First they were able to prove that Liam had 40% more muscle than others his age. Being so active and always burning calories made Liam eat more often than other toddlers his age. During the strength test they performed strength test on Liam with another toddler the same age as Liam. The first test conducted was to see how many sit-ups each toddler could do in one minute. Liam did seventeen sit-ups in one minutes, this was the equivalent of a six year-old. The next test was done with Liam and the other toddler that was the same age as Liam. This is a hand held device the toddler had to pull to show how many pounds of pressure they could pull. Liam had 13.2 pounds of pressure while the other toddler only had 4.4 pounds of pressure. The strength of Liam on this test was compared to a 7-year-olds strength. The next test was to see how long each boy could hold their own body weight up by hanging on a bar. Liam held all his body weight up for 13 seconds, the other toddler was only able to hold for 7 seconds. Liam seemed bored with this test so it was believed he let go due to being bored and may have been able to hold himself up longer. The conclusion was that Liam was stronger than 85% of 6-year-olds.

Sources: mlive.com: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/01/liam_hoekstra_3_is_all_muscle.html

TLC: http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48027
June 10th 2009