Muscular Development

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Muscular Development is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine first published in 1964. It was founded by Bob Hoffman

1898 - 1985

Bob Hoffman - athlete, nutritionist, weightlifter, coach and philanthropist - was born on a farm in Tifton, Georgia on Nov 9th 1898. His family stock was good. Bob was never the seven stone weakling claimed by other physical culturists. His father was a large strong man who liked to demonstrate the hardness of his tensed muscles. Given this it his easy to see how Bob was influenced in his formative years.

When Bob was 5 years old the family moved to Wilkinsburg near Pittsburgh where his athletic career started from a very young age. He was an exceptional athlete especially in aquatic sports - his favorite being canoeing.

The First World War saw Bob as a hero. He gained 3 Croix de Guerres with two palms and a Silver Star from France. From Belgium he was awarded The Belgian Order of Leopold and from Italy the Italian War Cross and the Purple Heart.

His business started in the 1920s, at first selling oil burners, before developing into the massive York Barbell Company.

Bob Hoffman, never a great coach or great weightlifter, was a man who influenced and guided weightlifting and bodybuilding for half a century. He died on July 18th 1985 suffering heart disease and dementia.

The owner and founder of the York Barbell Company, its editor from 1964 to its sale in 1986 was John Grimek. ^[1] MD, as it's known to many of its readers, was previously owned by Twinlab. In 2001 Twinlab sold Muscular Development to Steve Blechman who then resigned from Twinlab.^[2] Muscular Development is also currently published in Romania.^[1]

Muscular Development focuses on bodybuilding and nutrition science. Among its current or past contributors are Michael Colgan, John Romano, Dan Duchaine, and Mike Mentzer. It was notable for including an ongoing comic strip, Max Rep: Mr. Astrotitan 2206 by illustrator Lyman Dally in the 90's. Max Rep and Quadra Blu were even once featured on the cover. After the sale of the magazine to Blechman it changed to a more "hard-core" bodybuilding magazine and focused less on fitness.^[2]