I was the world’s strongest boy Little Hercules – I now look unrecognizable

Only eight years old ricardo sandrak he was nicknamed the strongest boy in the world after wowing the world with his bodybuilding physique.

The young man became known as little hercules after pictures of her pint-sized frame with an eight-pack abs went viral.

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But two decades later, Sandrak is completely unrecognizable from his child-celebrity image.

and he said inside edition in 2015 that he has now turned his back on weightlifting entirely.

Instead, Sandrak had, by this time, moved on to performing stunts at Universal Studios in California.

Videos show him setting himself on fire and falling 50 feet to the ground as part of his job.

Speaking in 2015, he said that he no longer lifts weights, calling it “boring.”

But he added: “I’m very proud of my past. It’s not something I don’t want people to know, it’s just that I’m not going to get stuck living in it.”

Growing up, he was able to bench press three times his own body weight.

He also used his incredible flexibility to master karate and bend his body into impossible contorted positions.

At one point, he was reported to have one percent body fat, which is potentially fatally low.

Sandrak, now in his early 30s, added: “People seemed to try to make me look like a freak of nature, but there were plenty of kids who had similar physiques.”

But his fame also came at a cost.

He highlighted his troubled relationship with his father Pavel, who was a world champion martial artist from Ukraine and took over his son’s fitness regimen.

Richard earned thousands of dollars a month, but later confessed to having an isolated childhood in which he was controlled by his abusive father. ABC reports.

When he was 11 years old, Pavel was sent to prison for domestic abuse against Richard’s mother.

At that time, he cut all ties with his father and left body-building.

Richard started with light exercises, but soon began intensive training with his father, including 600 push-ups and sit-ups a day, as well as 300 sit-ups.

He reportedly trained six or seven hours a day, and it was revealed that he did not attend school, but was home-schooled instead.

His parents took him to famed trainer and fitness promoter Frank Giardina and his wife, Sherry, a former Ms. Fitness America, in hopes of launching a career for their son.

Richard was featured in a bodybuilding competition as Little Hercules and became an instant celebrity, appearing on television and in magazines.

He endorsed a line of supplements and became the main attraction at bodybuilding events.

His fame resulted in him being the subject of a documentary called The World’s Strongest Boy in 2004.

Richard is now six feet tall, and although he does not have his previous physique, he still exercises regularly.

He has also revealed that his dream job is a “quantum scientist” or “maybe specifically maybe even an engineer for NASA.”

The US Sun has contacted Sandrak for comment.

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