Healthy or harmful? The two boys who started weight training aged TWO

Tensing their muscles and snarling into the camera, brothers Giuliano, six, and four-year-old Claudiu are training to be the world's strongest boys.



The tiny muscle 'men' have been performing amazing acrobatic feats and lifting weights since they were toddlers.



Their father, 35-year-old Iulian Stroe, is determined to make them famous and puts them through a gruelling two-hour regime each morning.

Little monsters: Brothers Giuliano (right) and Claudiu Stroe flex their muscles for the camera

Allowing us exclusive access to his home in Romania for the first time, Iulian says he can make the boys even more 'pumped up' in three weeks in return for money.



The builder says Giuliano has already broken two world records for 90-degree vertical pushups and another holding on to a pole like a human flag.



Now he is training up little Claudiu to follow suit and he is already performing handstand push-ups on a bar and learning the same terrifying flag trick.

Working out: Dad Iulian Stroe puts his sons through their paces in their home gym

In the human flag, athletes hold onto a vertical object and, with arms straight, hold their body horizontal to the ground.



While most fully-grown men would struggle with these tricks, Giuliano is expected to hold his position for as long as his dad tells him.



Both boys are also lifting 4kg dumbbells and heavy weights to work on their biceps and build up their chest muscles.

Pole dancer: Six year old Giuliano demonstrates the 'flag' pose that few adults could hold for more than a second or two

Claudiu started training at a younger age than Giuliano and was copying his older brother at just 18 months old.



Now he can do the splits between metal rings and can turn backflips along the ground.



Iulian refused to let us take photographs of his sons lifting weights but evidence is available in his own You Tube videos.



'Cladiu does nearly everything like his brother, but not as many times,' he said.

'He hasn't caught up yet.'



'It will be hard for him, because Giuliano has two years of practice of actual gym training, and he's only got one.'

The boys are undeniably capable of extraordinary feats - but it has been suggested that it's cruel to expect children of this age to train so hard

Proud parents: Dad Iulian and Mum Ileana with body-building sons Giuliano, aged six and Claudiu, aged 4.

Claudiu, who celebrated his fourth birthday a few weeks ago, has been began training in the gym since he was two and a half.



It takes Claudiu only three days to get used to a new exercise, according to his dad.



'They do handstands on bars, Giuliano uses a curved bar, which is tougher, but Claudio uses a square one,' said Iulian.

'I stand by him while he does it because he's too small to be there on his own.' Iulian promises he can have the boys "more pumped up" for shows within three weeks - if people are willing to pay him thousands of Euros to do it.



Former boxer Iulian and his devoted wife Ileana, who admits privately to being scared of her husband, want their children to become the strongest in the world.



Ileana, 32, remembers: 'One day I found him trying to do the spilts between two chairs, because he'd seen it on a cartoon on TV.'



'My husband gave him two packets of nappies, then he did the splits on the packets of nappies.'



'That's when we realised what a great ability.'

Isolated on their family farm, the boys are fed on a diet of healthy pasta and protein rich foods, supplemented by a 'vitamin powder' diluted in water.

Pumping Iron: Giuliano Stroe working out at his father's home gym in Romania.

'Not many children have these abilities,' said Iulian. 'They are enthusiastic, they like a lot of training.'



'In the last 18 months, Giuliano has improved very much physically.'



Many doctors believe that weight training regimes have little positive effect before children reach puberty, and can even be harmful but Iulian angrily rejects criticism that he could be damaging the boys' health.



'Someone once told me that the boys won't grow properly, but there's no proof,' he said.

