Once known as the “world’s strongest boy,” Richard Sandrak’s childhood was an endless routine of grueling training sessions, strict diets, and emotional abuse from his father.
As a four-year-old, he was doing 600 sit-ups and push-ups a day and bench-pressing over three times his body weight. But for all his accomplishments in the gym, Sandrak grew up knowing only a life of intense training and discipline.
“I didn’t really have a childhood,” said Sandrak. “All that was taken from me.” “I finally get to make my own choices, and some of them might just surprise you.”
Check out These Humble Beginnings…
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Back in 1992, in a rural village in Ukraine, Pavel and Lena Sandrak welcomed their first child into the world. “There was a lot of expectation with Richard, having Pavel and Lena as parents,” remembered family friend, Nadiya Petrov. “They were both very talented in their own ways.”
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Pavel and Lena both came from competitive, athletic backgrounds. Pavel was a world champion martial artist and Lena competed in aerobics. “Fitness was always really important to us as a family,” Lena Sandrak said. “Pavel and I both came from that world. Our attitudes were shaped by it.”
And it seemed only natural for Richard to eventually head in that direction. But as it turned out, that happened quicker than anyone could have anticipated…
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
When Richard Sandrak turned two, his mother and father decided to move the family to Pennsylvania. “We wanted a better life for Richard,” said Lena Sandrak.
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It was in Philadelphia, at just the tender age of two, that Richard was introduced to weightlifting.
Pavel built a home gym where Richard would totter around while his father worked out and trained. “Other fathers would have just let their child watch, but not Pavel,” said Nadiya Petrov. “He had other ideas in mind.”
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Starting as a Toddler
Pavel started giving little Richard light weights to hold. He also began teaching him some basic stretching and martial arts techniques.
“Even at two, Richard was something special,” said Petrov. “Everyone could see it. Pavel encouraged that and it made him feel very proud. We all were.” Pavel had high hopes for Richard and he commenced upon a plan to turn his dreams into a reality, no matter what the cost…
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Custom-sized Dumbbells
Pavel and Lena eventually made their son his own set of custom-sized small dumbbells weighing only half a pound. Lena Sandrak recalled how her son’s fitness career began all those years ago. “He was about three and a half or four and we had a huge barbell. He was trying to lift it and hold it. Pavel noticed this and said, ‘You know what? Let’s try something lighter.’”
To work on his balance, Pavel would have Richard do things like balance on a basketball. The child was an impressive learner and his aptitude for all things physical was surprising, even for Pavel and Lena…
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California Dreaming
Pavel Sandrak decided to uproot the family and move to California when Richard was nine-years-old. “Pavel knew it was the place to network and make connections,” said Nadiya Petrov. “He really wanted to get Richard in show business.”
Pavel, Lena, and Richard all moved to the Golden State in search of stardom. But it wouldn’t be long before people in “The Biz” started noticing the small, iron-pumping child prodigy…
Meeting Frank Giardina
Pavel continued to train his son and prepare him for the career he envisioned. “Everyday I would see this kid at the gym,” said Frank Giardina. The fitness trainer noticed what looked like a “miniature version of Arnold Schwarzenegger” gallivanting around the gym, lifting weights, and blowing people away with his impressive form.
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Giardina and his wife Sherry Goggin had once been stars of the American Galdiators television show and knew how to combine fitness and fame. “Frank Giardina was exactly what Pavel was looking for,” said Nadiya Petrov. “He was an excellent trainer and he had connections.”
No More Child’s Play
When Pavel asked the former gladiator to train his son Richard, Giardina enthusiastically agreed and a partnership was born. Since the goal was securing stardom for Richard, the duo began training him and choreographing an extravagant show.
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Giardina began Richard on an intense fitness regimen of 90 minute sessions, at least five times a week. By the time he was four-years-old, Richard had basically spent his entire childhood in the gym. “I would do about 600 sit-ups and push-ups,” said Richard. “As well as 300 squats daily. This was normal for me. This was just my routine.”
The Strictest Routine
“Pavel made sure that Richard stuck to a strict bodybuilding diet with no junk food or sweets,” said Petrov. “It was really sad. Meals consisted of a mysterious powdered drink that Pavel would feed to Richard three times a day.”
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And there was no negotiating his daily routine with Pavel. Richard’s father insisted that Richard worked out with his trainer every day with no exceptions. “It didn’t seem like abuse early on,” said mother Lena Sandrak. “It was more like Pavel and Richard were dedicated to their goal. Richard was going to be the best little bodybuilder around.”
Chiseled Like a Little Statue
By the age of six, Richard could bench press 180 pounds. His little chiseled body had less than one percent body fat. “When Richard was eight, he was up to 210 pounds on the benchpress,” said Lena Sandrak. “That’s a lot of weight for a small kid.”
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All the hard training and discipline was paying off, but the question was, could Richard keep up with the intense schedule and diets?
Little Hercules
“Pavel put together a traveling show for Richard where he would do impressive feats of strength,” said Nadiya Petrov. “They would do malls or small venues, but they were a big hit right away.” After months and months of training and preparation, the “Little Hercules” show was garnering substantial media attention..
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Richard would perform a number of his feats of strength and balance, as well as some martial arts stunts. “And he was doing all this while surrounded by an entire team of backup dancers,” said mom Lena. “And he wasn’t even 10 years old yet!”
The Strongest Boy in the World
With his six-pack abs and bulging biceps, the boy was sensational television at it’s best. It didn’t take long for the media to dub Richard the “strongest boy in the world.” “That made my dad really proud,” Richard remembered. “That was his goal. That’s what he wanted them to call me.”
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As a small bodybuilder, Richard was also shockingly flexible. “He could contort his body and do the splits with ease,” said Lena Sandrak. “Around this time, he was about ten, his trainer Frank started entering him into nationwide weightlifting events.” But this was just the beginning for Richard…
A Star is Born
It seemed like a camera crew and a couple of reporters followed Richard Sandrak everywhere he went. “I was doing all kinds of modeling gigs and selling different things on television,” said Richard. “Then I started doing TV and radio shows. Howard Stern was probably my favorite. People don’t realize this, but he’s a really great guy and not anything like his on-air personality.”
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Richard continued to land contract after contract with nutrition and fitness companies. He traveled across the country for competitions and reaped the financial rewards of his first-place trophies and ribbons. But it wasn’t all as glamorous as it seemed…
Peter Pan Syndrome
With such a grueling routine and lifestyle, the public began to question his parent’s motives and Richard’s well-being. “The backlash was pretty sudden,” said Nadiya Petrov. “One day Richard was on all the cable news shows and the next, it was like his mother and father were evil.”
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Richard’s non-stop workout routine and strict diet seemed unrealistic for a child. And in reality, it kept him away from friends and the classroom. “He couldn’t even enjoy a piece of pizza with his parents,” said Nadiya Petrov. “Pavel would pass him a bowl of lettuce instead.”
Giardina’s Doubts
As Richard’s personal trainer, Frank Giardina had to implement strict exercise and bodybuilding routines. But the former American Gladiator was careful to balance discipline and Richard’s need to have fun. But he also began to notice Pavel Sandrak’s harsh words and work ethic. “When he forced his son to repeat exercises over and over, that was when I started to get fed up,” said Giardina. “He would make Richard train throughout the night.”
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Frank Giardina recalled the conditions at Richard’s home in a 2003 interview. “He had no bicycle. He had no skateboard. He was never allowed to go outside. He never went to the park," he said. “He was like a caged animal.”
Training by Choice?
Giardina knew how physically and mentally taxing the lifestyle was, but Richard never once complained. In fact, Richard once told Inside Edition that it was “his own choice.” “I’ve never been forced to train or do anything against my will," he said.
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“My parents used to train all the time and I wanted to join in,” he added. “It’s just what I grew up doing. I was never forced. It was never an issue,” he said. However, there was one issue that did bother Richard…
Behind-the-Scenes Drama
As his personal trainer grew more and more frustrated with Richard’s strict regimen, disagreements between Pavel and Giardina became an almost daily occurrence. Giardina eventually suggested to Pavel that Richard should have some “down time” to just be a kid, but this fell on deaf ears.
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Both Frank and his wife Sherry also began to worry that Pavel was keeping Richard too thin. “He wanted to make his muscles protrude,” recalled Sherry. “Richard had never even had pizza. He had never seen it and his father wouldn’t let him have it.”
The Strange Powder
The only food that Frank Giardina and Sherry Goggin remember Richard Sandrak eating during his pre-teen years was a mysterious powdered drink. His father would mix up the concoction and provide it to Richard three times a day. “We always wondered if he put steroids in it,” said Sherry Giardina. “I asked him about it once and he just shook his head.”
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Although Richard fiercely denied his use of steroids as a young boy, it’s impossible to know the truth. “His father could have been giving him all kinds of things and we wouldn’t know,” said Frank Giardina. When Lena was recently asked what was in the drinks, she said she didn’t know because she was too afraid to ask her husband. “He would become violent if we ever questioned him,” she said.
Spinning out of Control
When Frank Giardina finally brought his concerns to Pavel Sandrak, he became enraged. “He told me to stay out of their business,” said Giardina. “And that’s when he fired me. I was pretty upset as Richard had become like a son to me.”
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Things took a turn for the worse at home as Pavel became increasing violent with his young son and wife. In public, Richard continued to enjoy his celebrity as a bodybuilder and supplement spokesperson. But in private, things were absolutely terrible. “I was miserable,” remembered Richard. “I was absolutely miserable.”
Domestic Issues
The turning point for Richard occurred in 2003 when he was just 11-years-old. In Spring of 2003, Richard secretively called the police on his father. “I can remember begging them not to use their sirens,” said Richard. “I didn’t want him to hear them coming and hurt my mom.”
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Pavel’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment would become watershed moments in Richard’s life and the foundation for everything that came next…
Life Is Short
Shortly after Pavel’s arrest, Richard was interviewed about the ordeal. When asked if he missed his father, he quickly replied, “No, not at all. It’s a relief he’s gone.” And Richard was still training, but not as intensely as before. “I was slowly learning to find a balance between being a kid and being a professional,” he said.
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When he was asked how he was able to put his past behind him, Richard explained that it was not easy. “I try not to think about all that because life is short and I want to enjoy it as much as I can,” he said.
Pizza and Rollerblading
When Pavel Sandrak went to jail, Richard’s trainer Frank Giardina came back into his life. With Frank’s help, Richard was able to now enjoy regular things like pizza, junk food, and sports. He even began attending school for the first time and making friends his age.
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Meanwhile, Lena was undergoing divorce proceedings to leave Pavel. “All that was very difficult,” said Lena Sandrak. “My ex-husband made everything just incredibly hard. But eventually, we persevered and a judge granted the divorce.” But that wasn’t the only ruling that would have a profound impact on Richard Sandrak’s life…
A Judge’s Ruling
After his father’s arrest, a social services judge forbade Richard from lifting weights until he turned 16.
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This caused his muscle mass to decrease, but the little bodybuilder was totally fine with the ruling. “I looked like a monster,” Richard Sandrak recalled, referring to his childhood physique. “I had enormous muscles that were way too big. I looked overworked."
The World’s Strongest Boy
About a year later in 2004, Pavel was released from prison, but he was placed under strict psychiatric supervision. He also faced the possibility of deportation. At around the same time, Richard was featured in a documentary called The World’s Strongest Boy.
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The documentary detailed Richard’s life and how it was possible for him to be able to bench-press three times his own body weight at the age of six. The film also garnered some controversy as the producers speculated that Richard had been secretively given steroids by his father…
Post-Pavel Workout Routine
“The World’s Strongest Boy” followed Richard Sandrak for an entire month during his summer vacation. Only 11 at the time, he still had a huge fan base and his mother maintained a fan site for him, featuring news, photos, and videos.
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It featured his new “post-Pavel” workout routine, which still consisted of five days of training a week as he prepared to film a movie trailer. However, the filmmakers noted that however grueling the exercises seemed, they were still nothing compared to what Richard was forced to do by his father.
Enter Marco Garcia
Richard and Lena Sandrak completely cut ties with Pavel, but Lena still encouraged her son to pursue his bodybuilding career. “He was extremely talented and I wanted him to achieve great things,” his mother said.
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This is when Marco Garcia came into the picture. Lena hired him as Richard’s live-in talent manager to ensure that her son’s career didn’t fade into oblivion. “We started really focusing on movies and television spots,” said Garcia. “And because Richard is a natural, the work just came rolling in.”
Traveling the Country
By the time Richard Sandrak turned 15, he was still training five times a week. “But I also ate everything and anything I wanted, just like other kids my age,” he recalled. It was Garcia’s goal to normalize Richard’s everyday life as best he could while maintaining his bodybuilding physique.
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Richard traveled the country and starred in a fitness series for kids on YouTube called Workout Videos for Kids. He wanted to use his talents to encourage children to lead active lives. However, Richard’s biggest break would come in 2009…
What Ever Happened to Little Hercules?
After staying out of the limelight for a number of years, he started gaining attention once again in 2009. More and more people began to wonder, whatever happened to the kid once known as “Little Hercules?"
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Richard did a candid interview with Inside Edition just a few days before he turned 16. He said, “In the past, my father pushed me to maintain my physique. Now, I’m pushing myself.” He also called the rumors that he had ever taken steroids “completely not true." In the interview, Richard insisted he’s taken numerous tests and they all turned out negative…
Hollywood
In 2009, Garcia produced Richard Sandrak’s debut film titled “Little Hercules in 3-D.” Starring Hulk Hogan and Judd Nelson, the movie is about 12-year-old Hercules, called Little Herc, who leaves Mt. Olympus for Earth against his father’s will.
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Richard could never have imagined starring alongside one of his idols, Hulk Hogan, let alone securing himself a career in acting. But thanks to Garcia and the support of his family, a lot of dreams became reality for him during his teenage years…
Career Decisions
In 2012, Richard starred in two more action fantasy movies: The Legends of Nethiah and Assassin Priest. It seemed like having a live-in talent manager was working out for Richard, both professionally and personally.
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However, Richard soon realized that Hollywood just wasn’t for him. “I enjoyed making the movies, but it’s not something that I would want to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “It’s like New York. It’s great to visit, but I don’t think I would want to live there.” What’s more, he would soon make another significant and life-changing decision about his bodybuilding career…
Ready For a Change
It soon became very clear to Richard that he hadn’t led the most normal childhood, or even teenage years for that matter. Most of his life was dedicated to exercise, strict diets, and media attention. Now he was ready for a change.
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Even though Richard was grateful for the way his life had turned out, something in him had shifted. “I was ready to try to a new path,” Richard said. “I wanted to go on an adventure.”
A Lifetime Ago…
It’s literally been years since he first grabbed the the public’s attention with his ripped and chiseled body, so the media wanted to know what Richard Sandrak is up to today. Surely he kept up his bodybuilding ways now that he’s an adult, right?
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Being active was always a part of Richard’s life, so even now as an adult, he’s not completely divorced from fitness and exercise. “But I’m not nearly as fanatical as I used to be,” he said. Richard’s transformation and career choices in adulthood are not anything anyone could have anticipated. So what’s Little Hercules up to after all this time?
Six Feet Tall
Richard Sandrak is now 26 years old; a six-foot-tall man brandishing a beard and a ponytail. He doesn’t quite possess the same ripped physique he used to boast as a child, but that’s not to say he isn’t in good shape.
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He’s still athletic looking, but he ditched his bulging muscles and rippled biceps for a more lean and natural appearance. When Inside Edition find out about Richard’s new career, they were pretty much shocked because it was so unexpected…
Professional Stuntman
When Richard Sandrak isn’t relaxing at the beach or spending time with his mother and sister, he’s actually hurling himself off buildings and setting himself on fire. Yep you heard right, Richard works six days a week as a stuntman for Universal Studios’ Waterworld show in Hollywood!
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“It’s true. I set myself on fire,” he told Inside Edition. His job requires him to jump off platforms and buildings 50 feet high into water while on fire, so it’s safe to say that he didn’t opt for a “mainstream kind of career path.” However, that wasn’t the only thing Richard shocked the audience over…
A Change of Perspective
“I don’t lift weights anymore. If anything, it just got boring to me,” Richard told Inside Edition.
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Many people would think Richard opted for a crazy career choice, but if you consider what he endured during his childhood, anything seems like a piece of cake by comparison.
No Regrets
Looking back on his days as a bodybuilder, Richard doesn’t see anything wrong with it. “People wanted to try to make me out to be a freak of nature, but there were many kids who had similar physiques,” he lamented.
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He doesn’t look like a muscle man anymore, but he has no regrets about his past…
A Remarkable Feat
Richard Sandrak is aware of the scandal that surrounds his childhood, father, and bodybuilding career. After all, The World’s Strongest Boy documentary didn’t exactly paint the brightest picture of his family.
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In spite of all that, Richard certainly doesn’t believe he had a tainted childhood. “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 be stuck living in," he said.
Single and Ready For More Adventures
Today, Richard still abides by a healthy lifestyle and embraces his past and future with open arms. He might not be famous anymore, but he thinks a quiet, private life suits him just fine.
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When he isn’t setting himself on fire or jumping off buildings, Richard lives a simple life with his dog in Los Angeles. He’s single and ready to mingle — and ready for more adventures. Until then, who knows what’s in store for the former Little Hercules?
**What do you think: was Richard deprived of his childhood? **