You know, probably my favorite part of the movie Hercules, besides all of the horridly inaccurate mythology and fun gospel music, is that Hercules was already super strong and didn’t need to work out. Phil just made him work out for the Hero Aesthetic™
Skinny arms don’t cut it, kid.
Only big arms will get you an action figure.
Never mind that you’ve been lifting houses since you were a toddler.
Phil knew hercules needed to be thicc
See, you understand.
Hang on
What if it was actually Phil protecting Hercules?
Like yes he’s strong without having the muscles and everything but that’s only because he’s a god…
What if Phil gave him actual strength? So if his god strength was taken away (i.e. hades taking it away) he would still be able to fight?
He wouldn’t have a weakness like Achillies.
He really would be perfect
But also consider hades reaction to him taking away his god strength and Hercules is just standing there like yeah okay I’m just gonna fight you and hades is like losing his shit cause that was not how this was supposed to go
Phil also taught him and helped him train his hero skills. Hercules was strong, but his strength was aimless and did more harm than good. Phil taught him how to use his abilities to actually help people and not fuck up as much.
respect Phil
Also, we don’t know that he DIDN’T strengthen Hercules? Like maybe without training he could lift a house but WITH training he could lift the Colosseum.
No doubt, the primary thing Hercules gained was skill & self-control, but he might also have built his strength too.