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I can’t think of any entertainer who has had more ups and downs over the course of a career that lasted several decades than David Hasselhoff. The “Hoff’s” career has spanned several industries from television to music, movies to now, the internet!

David Hasselhoff: The Early Years

Born David Michael Hasselhoff in Baltimore, Maryland on July 17th, 1952, little did his parents know they had just created a phenomena that would revolutionize an entire industry! He was born in a family of four sisters so he always had attention thrown upon him so at the age of seven, it seemed natural at the time that he began taking acting, dancing and singing lessons. By the time he got out of his teenager years, he was already standing at six foot four and was beaming to become a huge pop star. He has already stared in a number of school plays and did the rounds of several dinner theater circuits before being discovered in California.

David Hasselhoff: Television Career takes off!

Although he had planned on doing musicals on Broadway at first, he soon caught the attention of an “The Young and the Restless” scout while in California in 1973 and, in 1975 began his first role portraying Dr. William “Snapper” Foster, Jr. till 1982. He then struck gold when he got the role of Michael Knight in “Knight Rider” which shot him into cult status, he would play this role for four years till 1986 when the series ended. Although still in heavy syndication, this was the first show for “The Hoff” to be seen abroad, it played in over 80 countries and set the state for his success abroad.

David Hasselhoff: Musical Career takes off!

Not wanting to rest on his previous success, he was eager to transform his career into the pop world and, in in 1989 launched his “Looking for Freedom” song which stayed at the number one spot on the German charts for eight weeks! He toured extensively around Europe hundreds of concerts attended by millions of dedicated fans. He would later release 8 records which involved extensive touring and promotional events. He never let his extreme success get to his head, often capable of making fun of his image along the way.

David Hasselhoff: The Worldwide Phenomena that is Baywatch!

David Hasselhoff was approached by NBC on the heels of reviving his television career after extensive success with both his previous “Knight Rider” show and his developing his pop-icon status abroad. The name of the show was “Baywatch” and it changed his life forever in 1989. The show had a simple premise, he played “Mitch Buchannon” and the show chronicled the beach life full of beautiful woman and men running around with nothing but bathing suits. Although the show was canceled after the first year it was on television, he had a stroke of pure genius and acquired the rights to “Baywatch” to continue developing the show with a few partners. The show became an instant worldwide phenomena that lasted over a decade, had almost a billion weekly viewers and continues to be syndicated around the world even to this day through its various spin-offs. One of the huge breakout stars of the “Baywatch” show was Pamela Anderson who, herself, has been incredibly successful in creating a worldwide following of her own since the show ended.

David Hasselhoff: Other Roles

In between his busy television and musical careers, David Hasselhoff has appeared in a number of other television and movie projects. From “Revenge of the Teenagers” in 1976 to Anaconda 3 which is currently in production, he has amassed an extensive and impressive portfolio. (See more here)

David Hasselhoff: Awards and Recognition

David Hasselhoff has achieved incredible success and, as a result, a number of distinctions. In 1983, he won a “Peoples Choice Award” for his role as Michael Knight in “Knight Rider. In 1996, he was awarded his own star on the “Walk of Fame” in Los Angeles, California and in 2005, he won “International Star of the Year” by Bollywood!

David Hasselhoff the Humanitarian

His schedule might be loaded but he still finds ample time to spread good cheer to those less fortunate, especially children who are terminally ill or handicapped around the world. He also runs his own charity called “Race for Life” and has hosted numerous charitable events.

David Hasselhoff: Internet Phenomena

Having conquered the television, theatrical and musical scene, David Hasselhoff has recently began conquering the Internet, producing rather fantastical music videos and selling everything “Hoff”. Here is a glimpse of some of his works!

David Hasselhoff: Trivia

There are a number of very interesting facts about David Hasselhoff that you may not be aware of, here are a few:

• in 1994, his first heavily promoted, pay-per-view concert meant to ignite his popularity in the United States happened to be the same day that O.J. Simpson drove his friends famous white Bronco down the Los Angeles highway
• in 2004, he appeared as himself in SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• he believes that Knight Rider was a larger worldwide hit then Baywatch, though both live on in syndication
• has a listing in Guinness Book of World Records under “Most Watched TV Star in the World” due to his roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch
• has a keen interest in politics, sometimes comparing himself to Tony Blair
• has appeared in South Park
• fought John Tesh in MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch
• 1989, New Years Eve, he performed “Looking for Freedom” on the Berlin Wall
• has a musical in Australia based on his life
• is an avid outdoors and sports fanatic

The Bottom Line

When success came to “The Hoff’s” door… he ANSWERED IT!

Buzvia: David Hasselhoff on The Internet Movie Database, David Hasselhoff’s Official Website, David Hasselhoff on Wikipedia, David Hasselhoff’s Biography on Sing365.com

In the world of strong men where there are is strong and followed by STRONG… Mariusz Pudzianowski is FREAKISHLY “Bill Kazmaier” STRONG. What I find most interesting of all, even with all the advances in drugs, nutrition and lifting techniques, he isn’t leaps and bounds over what Bill Kazmaier was able to achieve decades earlier.

Mariusz Pudzianowski’s early years

Mariusz Pudzianowski was born on February 7th, 1977 in Biala Rawska (Poland) in a family that was not adverse to weight lifting as his father was a famous weight lifter. Mariusz began training to be the strongest man in the world at the age of 13 and with the guidance of his father quickly excelled in developing his incredible strength and abilities to competition levels.

Mariusz Pudzianowski’s brute strength achievements

Mariusz Pudzianowski is incredible, at around six feet tall (depending on the source) and weighting in just under 300 pounds, this guy is HUGE by any definition. He entered his first strongmen competition in Poland and finished a very respectable fourth. He returned in competition in 2002 and won that years events hands down and blew away his competition in 2003. He was then kicked out for a year due to testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2004 but returned to win his third title in 2005. He narrowly missed first place standing in 2006 but took back the first place finish in 2007. He is one of only two other strongmen to have ever achieved first place four times. Mariusz Pudzianowski has a personal best bench press of a little over 600 pounds (275kg), squat of just under 800 pounds (360kg) and is capable of deadlifting 900 pounds (410kg), still not surpassing what Bill Kazmaier was able to do in competition but astonishing never the less.

Mariusz Pudzianowski vs Bill Kazmaier

It’s a very badly kept secret that the world of strongmen, no matter what has done to “clean-up” the sport, that these guys are about as natural as flying elephants, both of these guys will require a lifetime supply of hormone replacement therapy. Bill Kazmaier won the strongmen competition three times while Mariusz Pudzianowski has done this feat four times and he is young enough to achieve this goal a few more times as well! Their strength is super human to begin with, they come from a very gifted genetic pool which they have chosen to supplement in order to become the absolute best at what they do. I have nothing but respect for both of these guys… they screw convention and do whatever is necessary to achieve their goals. What I do find fascinating is that Bill Kazmaier, for all his strength, seems to have a very different body type then Mariusz Pudzianowski. At least to my eyes, Bill Kazmaier is an extreme endomorph with his wide bone structure and higher bodyfat percentage while Mariusz Pudzianowski seems like an extreme mesomorph with his low bodyfat percentage and great defined musculature. I am unsure how much anabolic supplementation plays into this but I do know that reaching over two grams a week changes the body into an extreme fat burning machine while at the same time, extreme mass accumulator. The only caveat is if you can stand hearing your liver frying and the incredibly high blood pressure long enough to feel this benefit. Another thing I find interesting is that the strong men of the previous generation where never shredded during competition… they where big like a fridge. The guys you see in today’s competitions are actually rather well defined in comparison, gone are the bear bellies and beards, replaced with shaved bodies and defined abs. You see this change in bodybuilding as well, compare Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ron Coleman physique wise and it’s astounding the inroads that “supplementation” have achieved. Arnold looked amazing and huge at 220-230 pounds, Ron Coleman dwarfs him by a solid 50 pounds (if not more) in competition. They where both juiced, the techniques where simply not as honed as they are today. Ironically, these inroads haven’t been seen in the world of strongmen competitions regarding enormous advances in strength.

Have strongmen reached the outer limits of strength?

Many decades have come and gone now where records where constantly being broken thanks to supplementation of all types but in the past 20 years, although improvements have been done, I don’t see the monumental leaps that these sports and others use to have. I am willing to state that the Mariusz Pudzianowskis and Ron Colemans of this world are showing us that our bodies do have limits which even they are unable to surpass. Consider this, the heart in an 18 year old, 120 pound man is the same as in a 30 year old man weighting 3 times that gives us a window at how amazing our bodies really are. Our bodies are able to adapt to incredible burdens placed upon them, I can’t helped but be astonished at this. The next step towards increasing our strength? It has to be through genetic manipulation. Steroids improve what is already there and nutrition, although anabolic in itself, has it’s limits as well… only by modifying the messages between cells can we surpass today’s feats of strengths by another huge bound. Where will that lead us? I really hope I live long enough to find out… and possibly benefit from as well. Will there be a day when soldiers are made up of 7ft tall men weighting 450 pounds that dwarf even the top physiques that these guys have achieved? I believe there will but it has to start at the moment of conception before genetically limiting information is passed on through the bodies cells. Morals and ethics may stop some, but not others.

Mariusz Pudzianowski training video

The Bottom Line

Pioneers come in all shapes and sizes but regardless of the methods chosen, you can’t help but be inspired by their achievements.

Buzvia: Mariusz Pudzianowski on Wikipedia, Mariusz Pudzianowski’s Official Website, Mariusz Pudzianowski’s on MySpace

See also LegendaryLife Profile: Bill Kazmaier

In the world of strongmen, the legend of Bill Kazmaier lives on due to his incredible super human strength and his ability to get a crowd hyped up as he impressed them with his raw power.

Bill Kazmaier’s early years

Bill Kazmaier was born in Burlington, Wisconsin on December 30th, 1953. He played football for the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the 1973 season but then left for the pursuit of powerlifting.

Bill Kazmaier’s brute strength achievements

To say that he was a powerful man is an understatement, he was known to have dumbbell curled 100 pounds 41 times in a row with one arm, curling 315 pounds 15 times and even became the first man to ever do all of MacGlashen stones! Here are more impressive numbers, he was able to do a 925 pound squat with an injury and performed a 907 pound deadlift! He also performed regularly as part of his training 900 pound triple squats and 633 pound triple bench presses! At this time, there where no bench shirts or suits that are used by many powerlifters today, this was just raw power.

A few years later, in 1979, he won both the American Powerlifting Championship and IPF (International Powerlifting Federation) championship. Bill Kazmaier’s incredible strength blew away the competition when he was the first person to ever bench press over 300kg (661 pounds) in competition and achieved an incredible career best of 1 100kg (2 425 pounds) in raw powerlifting without the use of a powerlifting shirt.

Following this success, Bill Kazmaier was invited to compete in the Worlds Strongest Man competition, which he won 3 times in a row (1980, 1981, 1982). He so much dominated the field that he wasn’t invited back until several years later where he placed a respectable 2nd (1988) and 4rd (1989). He had suffered a major pectoral tear that required him to retire away from strength based competition for a few years.

Bill Kazmaier: later in life

Bill Kazmaier later dabbed in the world of wrestling who, like Andre the Giant, could have easily torn his competitors to shreds but decided instead to play the game, never winning a championship and loosing several times. This is a testament to his ability to not take himself too seriously. He even played briefly for the Green Bay Packers and opened a gym which closed in 2005.

Bill Kazmaier Trivia

He was known for his varacious apetite, at over 300 pounds, he could eat just about anybody under the table, nowhere was this more impressive then his ability to consume a thousand goldfish in one shot in which he would simply drink out an aquarium.

Bill Kazmaier Multimedia Tribute

The Bottom Line

Bill Kazmaier was to powerlifting what Arnold Schwarzenegger was to bodybuilding, both giants in their respective fields.

Buzvia: Bill Kazmaier profile on bodybuildingdotcom and Bill Kazmaier on Wikipedia

See also: LegendaryLife Profile: Mariusz Pudzianowski 

If you are unlucky enough to require the use of an artificial limb, I hope this gives you hope that the functionality desire may not be that far away.

Dr. Goldfarbs Background

Dr. Goldfarbs is a professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University who has been fascinated by prosthetic limbs since childhood, and did his masters degree into designing a robotic artificial leg. He later did his doctorate in developing a computer controlled brace that would allow paraplegics to walk with the use of electrical stimulation on their muscles! He’s currently doing research into dramatically improving the usability and functionality of artificial limbs.

Power requirements are the next hurdle

Dr. Goldfarbs realized while doing robotic research that the achiles heel of any powered prosthetics is the inability to function for extended periods of time without having to have the power supplies refreshed (plugged in). As a result, he exchanged motors for special materials that expand and contract based on varying voltage, functioning very much like normal muscle tissue. In 2000, while doing research for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency), he developed a fuel source that simply used hydrogen peroxide instead of conventional motors and batteries.

Military needs artificial limbs!

With impressive advances in body armor, the number of casualties that the military suffers from was sharply down but as limbs are still exposed, a record number of limbs where being amputated. Having impressed other researchers, he then set his sights in 2005 towards developing an advanced prosthetic arm ever with 30 million dollar in funds from DARPA.

DARPA Results

The artificial arm developed by Dr. Goldfarbs was radically different then anything currently in the marketplace and has almost the same functionality of a real one! The artificial arm has more dexterity, freedom of movement and power then what is currently available with the added benefit of using a liquid fuel power system which can be refreshed when ever the user desires. Other researchers are also studying implantation of electrodes directly within the central nervous system to control artificial limb movement instead of using current methods.

The Future of Artificial Limbs

Dr. Goldfarbs is now researching the development of an artificial leg using the same technology he developed with DARPA funds for the next generation artificial arm.

Video

I found a video by Dean Karmen, I don’t know if the arm is the same as the one developed by Dr. Goldfarbs but the end of the video is interesting regardless.

The Bottom Line

Follow your strengths and success will surely follow.

Buzzvia
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Creating_The_Ultimate_Artificial_Arm_999.html

The power of the human body never ceases to amaze me. The more I learn and study, the more impressed I am by the abilities most of us take completely for granted! Here is a video that clearly shows how talented just our hands are and why, I am sure, they are the envy of living organisms around the world.

This kinda makes me jealous of chimps because they have the equivalent of hands for their feet… imagine what we could do if we had this adaptation as well!

If that wasn’t impressive enough, here is another video showing how fluid (controlled) our bodies can be with proper training.

The Bottom Line

The physical abilities most human have from birth are truly remarkable and should never be taken for granted.

No matter your personal views on how bodybuilders achieve their astonishing physiques, you can’t help but be amazed at how they are able to continually push the outer limits of the human body.

Better Living Through Chemistry

Bodybuilding is one of those few sports where experimentation in drug compounds is a requirement, suffice it to say that you need to take more then your daily multi-vitamin to even touch the top ranks of the sport No matter how hard Joe Weider has tried through the years to turn bodybuilding into an Olympic event, the use of drugs ensure it will never happen. I still consider bodybuilding among the toughest and most grueling physically, mentally and socially sports out there – from the exact nutrient timing to hours spent in the gym – bodybuilding is not a sport but a lifestyle that very few can adhere to, much less excel in.

What can we learn from bodybuilders?

Quite a lot actually, for instance, take a look at 50 year old Vince Taylor who has been living the bodybuilding lifestyle and competing for over two decades (http://www.vincetaylor.com). His skin looks free of wrinkles, the muscle mass and definition are not only beyond belief but put into question the entire concept that we “depreciate” with age. His external physical attributes put most of the young bodybuilders half his age to shame – he also competed directly against 31 year old Jay Cutler (http://www.jaycutler.com/) for the Mr. Universe title on September 30th 2006. The internal imagery we all have of getting older doesn’t need to happen – with an active and closely watched lifestyle you CAN make a very large difference in how you age.

Bodybuilders influence on sport development

I find this the most difficult aspect of bodybuilding, in the past few decades, as sport and chemical knowledge have increased, so has the level of athleticism in just about every sport. Are you a swimmer? A tennis player or even a basketball player – the push of bodybuilders into physique development has played a role in the evolution of your sport (and just about all the others). They are responsible for turning what use to be frown upon such as muscle development with high intensity training and diet into something not only mainstream but a requirement to compete at the higher levels. Just about any sport nowadays where the difference between a medal is sometimes only milliseconds has benefited greatly from their sacrifices.

When to draw the line

I do believe that bodybuilders are beyond the cutting edge at the moment though, they achieve phenomenal results but oddly enough, at the cost of their own health. The human body just isn’t engineered for constant, balls-out punishment year after year, decade after decade… no matter how good the nutrition or training, adaptation is a slow process that requires breaks. Yes, bodybuilders have passed the natural plateau but they pay a very high price for this achievement that won’t begin to be seen later in life. When you consider the heart of a 150lbs teenage boy is the same heart as the one found in a 300+ pound bodybuilder, you begin to realize how much our bodies are able to cope with stress, but like anything, cracks will appear.

Double Standards: Bodybuilders vs Couch Potatoes

What is worse for your body, being a bodybuilder or a couch potato? Well, if you go the drug free (or moderate) route, bodybuilding is fantastic for your body but like anything… you need to go slow and build on past success. What I have yet to understand is why governments around the world are hell bent on keeping steroid use underground (by banning them) and barring certain beneficial supplements (ei: creatine, ephedrine… ) yet have no problem with people smoking, drinking and purchasing incredibly unhealthy fast foods. Banning potentially beneficial products but keeping blatantly detrimental ones legal. This is a double standard which I believe is completely unfair. What bodybuilders are showing us is the potential for a true fountain of youth, if studied further by the scientific community.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I am a great fan of bodybuilding because it’s the extreme opposite of how most North Americans live their lives – don’t get me wrong – you wouldn’t want to be “in” neither of these bodies for any extended period of time – but they are great examples of how little we know about our own body… and how much we can learn if we allow the politics behind our very own health not get in the way. I believe a life of moderation, tough physical activities with proper diet BUT with adequate breaks to allow the body to fully recover is the best route to a long, healthy life.

The Bottom Line

Bodybuilders have a lot to teach all of us… if we allow our biases to pass.