The Little Hercules Boy Is All Grown Up And Unrecognizable

Little Hercules is all grown up now. If you're having trouble remembering exactly who he is, close your eyes and think back to the early 2000s. That's when a small, very strong young bodybuilder named Richard Sandrak seemed to take over the Internet, impressing and terrifying people with his giant muscles… which looked like they belonged to a much older person. He was also known as "The World's Strongest Boy". Not coincidentally, that happens to be the name of a 2004 documentary about Sandrak. According to ABC News, Sandrak weighed 80 pounds at the tender age of 8, but he could already bench press more than twice that. He was, to put it gently, very hardcore indeed. Sandrak reportedly developed an obsessive interest in weightlifting when he was just a toddler. A few years later, his parents hired promoter and celebrity trainer Frank Giardina to help launch their son's professional career. Soon enough, the money was pouring in. Sandrak landed endorsements left and right and ultimately became a bona fide internet sensation and celebrity. Suddenly, this little mountain of muscle was absolutely everywhere! But Sandrak's life wasn't as charmed as it seemed… not by a long shot. According to The Sun, his father Pavel was sent to prison for beating up his wife Lena when Sandrak was 11. Some people suspected that Sandrak was also being abused. In 2007, Lena told The Guardian that she was definitely "concerned" about how Pavel sometimes treated Sandrak, but she emphatically denied that her son was ever pressured to become a bodybuilder. At one point, Sandrak's father reportedly made him sleep on the floor in order to help with his posture. He didn't attend school but was instead tutored at home, and he wasn't allowed to play with other children until he was 10. The Guardian also noted that medical professionals were skeptical that Sandrak could have developed his extraordinary large muscles at such a young age without using steroids — something else that his mom emphatically denied. Considering everything that happened back at home — and the fact that he was never able to have a normal childhood — it's no wonder that Sandrak eventually left bodybuilding behind. In 2015, a 23-year-old Sandrak told Inside Edition that he had simply grown tired of the whole thing. Sandrak still defended the way he was brought up, saying that he didn't think his chiseled muscles were so unusual at the end of the day. Sandrak eventually got a job as a stuntman at the Universal Studios Waterworld show in Los Angeles, which involved setting himself on fire several times a day. Surprisingly, he told Inside Edition that he'd left weights behind, staying in shape with chin ups, skateboarding, and running up stairs. Although he appears to have left his highly unusual past behind, he doesn't seem to have any regrets... at least based on what he told Inside Edition. Hopefully, Sandrak is still out there somewhere, chasing his dreams. Keep watching to see The Little Hercules Boy Is All Grown Up And Unrecognizable! #LittleHercules