14-year-old Tyler Parker went viral last week after he posted a photo flexing in the mirror showing off a physique that looked more like a veteran NFL defensive tackle than a high school sophomore.
When he took the photo at a YMCA after a workout, Parker knew he looked big, but he had no idea what sort of attention and online traction he would receive once he posted it on social media.
“I was at the YMCA and my niece was doing a swim meet and I felt like going to get some extra work in by myself. I felt like I looked big and I just took a photo and from there I just posted it on Twitter and it did it itself,” Parker told Rivals.
It’s probably not a stretch to say that the photo changed his life. As a rising sophomore in high school, he now already has a scholarship offer from Arizona and has now been in contact with several other Division I programs like Georgia, Oklahoma, NC State, Oregon, Ole Miss, Tennesse, Texas A&M, and Colorado, he told Rivals.
The response has been mostly positive and has led to some very positive attention, but like most viral content, Parker said the response hasn’t all been good. Though he’s remaining upbeat.
“It’s a lot because there were a lot of hate comments and there were a lot of love comments,” Parker said. “A lot of people, random people to family members, saw it. It was a blessing for me to be as young as I am, 14 years old, for that to happen just from a half-naked photo is crazy.”
As for how he got that big in the first place, one key secret to Parker’s success is simple: an incredible number of pushups.
“Really just constantly grinding,” Parker said. “Doing 100 pushups, 200 pushups every night by myself. Wake up in the morning and do the same thing.”
[Rivals]
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