A 12-year-old bodybuilder has been dubbed a “mini hulk” for his intense training routines that would break most adult athletes.
Cauzinho Neto starts his full-on routine at 5.30am sharp with a three-mile run and sit-ups.
The youngster, from Salvador, Brazil, then tucks into breakfast before heading to school.
After getting home and finishing his homework, he then launches into his second workout of the day — completing a two-and-a-half-hour CrossFit weight training session before going to bed at 9pm, The Sun reports.
Cauzinho – who can deadlift almost three times his own weight – got into bodybuilding when his dad Carlos Pitanga Filho took him to his gym in 2021.
Now he has a whopping 265,000 followers on Instagram and is tipped to be on his way to becoming a top-rated weightlifter.
Footage of his training shows Cauzinho doing deadlifts, squats, bench presses and then bicep curls.
Cauzinho’s proud dad said that his son decided to join a class of older teenagers at the Crossfit Oxente gym after giving up his beloved football.
Carlos said: “He used to be crazy about football before, but then he just wanted to know about CrossFit.
“We agreed that he would train during the end of the year holidays until the beginning of the next school year.
“But with 15 days of training, with classes adapted to his age and physical conditioning, Cauzinho was already able to easily execute movements that students who had been training for months couldn’t even do.”
Cauzinho quickly learnt a number of techniques and built up his muscles, even participating in an amateur LPO Olympic weightlifting championship in Salvador, coming in third.
The young boy now only plays football for fun and has his own team made up of a coach, doctor, physiotherapist and nutritionist.
Carlos said: “I’ve been doing sports since I was 10 and it hasn’t hindered my growth, so much so that today I’m 1.91 metres tall.
“But of course, we have this concern and Cauzinho has the follow-up of specialists to anticipate any problems and calibrate his training.
“In the year and four months, since he started training, he has grown about 13 centimetres, which is expected for his age group.”
But his parents insist he spends weekends away from training hanging out with his friends.
His proud dad said that Cauzinho currently weighs 37kg and can deadlift 92kg.
This story originally appeared on thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission
