A video of 7-year-old fitness sensation Brodie Bowen dead-lifting a 43kg barbell with impressive determination has sparked a heated debate on social media, with some praising her dedication and other expressing worries about her health.

Brodie, who is the daughter of fitness instructor and Instagram influencer Jes Bowen, has been following in her mother’s footsteps from a very young age, and has been showing remarkable progress lately. In of the recent videos her mother posted on social media, Brodie can be seen dead-lifting a 94-pound (43kg) barbell under the watchful eye of her father, Jordan. The impressive video was picked up by the popular House of Highlights Instagram page which shared it with its 17.7 million followers, causing it to go viral. While some declared their admiration for the young fitness enthusiast, others expressed concern for her health.

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Lyza Brooks Mosier, a 10-year-old girl from Georgia, has been getting a lot of attention for toned physique, especially her chiseled six-pack abs.

Having started gymnastic training when she was just 4-years-old, Lyza Brooks Mosier has always been in great physical shape, but she managed to tone up her physique to an impressive level over the past year, after falling in love with strength workouts last summer. She has been waking up at 5:30 to train ever since, and works out for about 30 hours a week, five days a week.

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A Japanese man who goes by the online handle “Hiiragi Sensei” (Teacher Hiiragi), has been getting a lot of attention on Asian social media for his dramatic physical transformation which he claims was possible with just 4 minutes of high-intensity training per day.

The intriguing story of Hiiragi Sensei began back in March, when he posted a photo of himself and his unflattering pot belly on Twitter, along with the promise to completely change his look by losing fat and gaining muscle mass. Five months later, he posted another photo alongside the old one to showcase just how dramatically his body had changed. His flabby pot belly was replaced by a clearly-defined six-pack, his arms were visibly more muscular, as was his chest. And it was all thanks to the Tabata regimen – a 4-minute high-intensity workout that he repeated every day over the course of five months.

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Yeon-woo Jhi is an IFBB Pro female bodybuilder with multiple major titles under her belt. The contrast between her cute, feminine face and impressively muscular body have also made her somewhat of an internet celebrity and earned her the nickname “Muscle Barbie”.

Looking at 34-year old Yeon-woo Jhi, it’s hard to imagine that she was once a skinny, frail girl suffering from panic disorder and struggling to overcome social phobia. But everything changed 14 years ago when she started going to a gym near her house, hoping to get stronger. She just wanted to stop feeling weak and never imagined that she would one day compete in major bodybuilding competitions, but as her strength and stamina increased, she got more passionate about fitness and eventually decided to show off her toned up physique on stage. Jhi won the first bodybuilding competition she ever entered, and that only inspired her to work harder. She went on to win the Arnold Classic Europe Amateur in 2013, and became a pro in 2015.

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Nhon Ly, a 55-year-old Vietnamese-born professional bodybuilder from California has been dubbed the “real-life Master Roshi” for his uncanny resemblance to the popular Dragon Ball Z anime character.

Ly certainly doesn’t look like your typical 55-year-old man. In fact, he looks a lot better than most guys in their 20s, with his lean, toned muscles and youthful attitude. But he’s definitely not the only ripped 50-something man in the world. What really sets Nhon Ly apart from all the rest is his uncanny resemblance to Dragon Ball Z character Master Roshi, aka the Turtle Hermit, in his “final form”. And he apparently liked the comparison so much that he even set his Instagram handle as @master_roshi_real_life.

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Mi Youren, a 68-year-old pensioner from Jinan, China, loves nothing more than to put on a tight leopard costume complete with tail and pointy ears, and practice a fitness routine based on he created himself based on the movements of the athletic feline.

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Most octogenarians would consider themselves lucky to be able to not have a hip or back problem, but this 81-year-old Japanese bodybuilder is not only in perfect physical condition, he also looks better than a lot of men a quarter his age.

Toshisuke Kanazawa is living proof that you’re never too old to hit the gym and achieve the body you’ve always dreamed of. A multiple-time champion bodybuilder in his youth, Kanazawa retired at the age of 34 and really let himself go. He stopped exercising completely, started drinking, smoking and eating whatever he craved, when he craved it. He would often look at himself in the mirror and wondered if that was the body of a national bodybuilding champion, but it wasn’t until he was about to turn 50 that he got his motivation to get back on the horse and regain the ripped body of his younger years.

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Robert Förstemann’s massive thighs first broke the internet during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, when a photo of them next to those of fellow Olympic cyclist Andre Greipel made the other guy’s quads look ordinary, despite being incredibly muscular compared to those of the average man. Since then, the man aptly nicknamed “Quadzilla” has become famous for his humongous quads.

Despite having won the World Championship in team sprint cycling in 2010 and getting numerous podium placements throughout his career, it’s safe to say that Robert Förstemann is known more for his massive thighs than his athletic achievements. It may not seem fair but that’s just how the world works. You may not care much about cycling, but when you see this guy’s quads, you just can’t ignore them. I mean, just look at the size of those things!

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Zhang Shuai, a 22-year-old senior at the Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, in Harbin, recently made news headlines in China for his six month transformation from overweight and out of shape to regional bodybuilding champion.

Shuai had been a star player on his college basketball team, but a couple of years ago, a serious injury forced him off the court and into a state of depression. Due to excessive eating and an almost complete lack of physical exercise, he put on a whopping 40 kilograms in only six months, which caused all kinds of inconveniences for the once athletic teen. However, six months ago, Zhang Shuai decided that enough was enough and it was time to get back into tip top shape. He started exercising again, adhered to a strict diet, and within half a year, he was in the best shape of his life.

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Climbing into a bed and just dozing off for 45 minutes doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you’d expect to be doing in a gym, but one UK fitness club claims that its “napercise” classes can help exhausted parents better deal with their hectic daily lives by regenerating the mind, body and even burning a few calories.

New research recently revealed that there is a dangerous “tiredness epidemic” currently sweeping the UK, with 86% of parents reporting that they suffer from fatigue and 26% saying that they get less than five hours of sleep per night. In an effort to promote the benefits of sleep and boost people’s mental and physical wellbeing, David Lloyd Club, which operates dozens of gyms and fitness clubs throughout Europe, recently launched a “napercise class” that invites people to get 45 minutes of shut-eye instead of instead of burning themselves out even more with traditional fitness exercises.

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Weed and fitness apparently go well together, and the Power Plant Fitness gym, in San Francisco, wants to prove that once and for all by allowing clients to consume cannabis in various forms, while they work out. Power Plant Fitness advertises itself as the world’s first cannabis-friendly gym.

Before you get the wrong idea about this place, it’s important to mention that Power Plant Fitness “won’t be a place to get high and just screw around,” quite the opposite. Co-founders Jim McAlpine and Ricky Williams claim that they are “focused on the athletic side, not the cannabis side,” and that they want to tackle the stereotype that pot users are lazy. The new gym will use cannabis as a tool to improve members’ concentration and speed up their post-workout recovery. McAlpine says he experienced the positive effects of weed while skiing, and that gave him the idea to try it in a gym environment.

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Maid cafes have been a big part of Japanese pop culture for a while now, but the maid phenomenon is transitioning into other areas as well. For example, a new gym near Tokyo’s famous Akihabara district offers patrons the chance to work out while assisted by beautiful trainers wearing maid costumes.

Can you imagine pumping some iron with a cute maid spotting you and cheering you on? Well, apparently a lot of Japanese guys can and they’re loving the idea. So much so that they’ve helped successfully crowdfund the MID GYM project thought up by a couple of young Japanese entrepreneurs. With more than a month to go to the deadline, the campaign to make the unique maid gym a reality has already met its 700,000 yen goal, on Japanese crowdfunding site CampFire. It’s not clear exactly when the Mid Gym will open its gates, but it’s definitely coming soon.

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A formerly-obese man from Arizona managed to shed 300 pounds of excess weight in three years after he challenged himself to walk to the nearest Wallmart every day to collect his food.

31-year-old Pasquale “Pat” Brocco used to weigh a whopping 605 pounds, but after his doctor warned him that his high blood pressure and high cholesterol were putting his life in serious danger, the Avondale man decided it was time to do something about his weight. He went home from his doctor’s appointment and took a photo of himself in the mirror. “My stomach was down to my thighs. My chest was hanging down here,” he told ABC News. “I was disgusted”.

Pat knew he needed to start exercising, but the gym was not an option. “I mean, at 600 pounds, I couldn’t even go to the gym,” he said. “I didn’t fit on the machines.” So instead, he decided that every time he was hungry, he would walk 1 mile to his closest Walmart to buy his food, then back home to eat the meal.

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Patrick Magno, from San Diego, California, recently won the grand prize in a fitness competition after he managed to lose 49 pounds and get into enviable physical shape in just three months.

After a medical exam revealed that he was 30 per cent body fat and at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Patrick Magno decided it was time for a drastic lifestyle change. He was a social worker and had to remove children from broken homes, abusive parents and other harmful situations for a living, a job that he says had a severe effect on his lifestyle and overall health. So he quit, proposed to his girlfriend of six years and set his sights on improving his health so he wouldn’t end up like his father, who had to deal with the terrible symptoms of diabetes.

“I couldn’t even recognize myself,” he said. “I was embarrassed. I was disgusted. I was ashamed that I had let myself get to this point.” So when he learned about Bodybuilding.com’s 250k Challenge, a contest that has entrants transform their bodies with the help of grueling physical workouts, meal-plans and supplements, for the chance to win a substantial sum of money, he decided to go all in. ‘hey said they would give tons of nutritional meal plans, options, workout guides and fitness advice absolutely free of charge, and offer a $250,000 (£190,000) in prize money. It sounded a little too good to be true,” Magno remembers.

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London residents too busy to hit the gym every once in a while will soon get the chance to work out during their commute, thanks to a fleet of ingenious fitness buses packed full of stationary bikes.

“The Wheels on the Bus” children’s song is going to have a whole new meaning once British fitness company 1Rebel launches its new Ride2Rebel buses on the streets of London. The modified public transportation vehicles will feature stationary bikes instead of seats, allowing commuters to spin at their hearts’ content on their way to work. Buses will travel from four pick-up points in north, east, south and west London along the city’s most popular commute routes, all the way to the 1Ride studio where riders can come in for a shower and a smoothie before work.

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