A 13-year-old Chinese boy was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening condition, after being asked to do 1,000 squats as punishment during summer camp.

Ms. Lu, a mother-of-one from Jining, in China’s Shandong Province, recently revealed the tragic story of how her teenage son suffered a corporeal punishment that threatened to leave him disabled for life. It all happened last summer when the boy was enrolled in a 7-day camp where he could interact with other kids and engage in physical activities. Everything was fine until graduation day when the parents received pictures from the ceremony in which their son had visibly red eyes and a sad expression. His father noticed that one of the boy’s legs appeared limp, but when they asked the camp organizers about him, they were told everything was alright. It was only when they went to pick him up that they realized the seriousness of the situation. Their 13-year-old boy was waiting for them on a stool because he could barely stand up.

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We’re always told that exercise is good for our health, but as two Chinese girls recently learned the hard way, overdoing it can have life-threatening consequences.

On July 10, Tang, a 19-year-old girl from Chongqing, China, decided to challenge her best friend to a squatting competition to see which one of them had more stamina. They set up a video call and started doing one squat at a time to see which would give up first. The problem was that both of them took it very seriously and refuse to stop despite pushing their leg muscles to the limit. Tang told doctors that they both must have done around 1,000 squats before they decided to call it quits, but by that time their leg muscles had begun to break down.

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