If you’ve been scrolling on social media recently and heard the song “Baby Don’t Hurt Me,” there’s a good chance that it was accompanied by the image of Mike O’Hearn. Since 2023, O’Hearn and the song have gone and remained viral, being prominently shared on Instagram and TikTok by many fans. It became such a hit that O’Hearn has been able to produce and sell T-shirts for it.
If you’ve just become aware of him because of this trend, you should know that O’Hearn didn’t just become famous recently for this — he’s been around a while. For the better part of four decades, he has been considered by many to be a pillar of the fitness industry thanks to his efforts as an athlete, in business, on television, and more. Here’s a small look into the long career of Mike O’Hearn.
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Early Life
O’Hearn was one of nine kids raised by their parents in Washington state. He became enamored with fitness and sports at a young age, and he started lifting weights when he was nine years old.
He excelled in football in high school and was also competing in bodybuilding and powerlifting during that time. He would shift his focus to strength sports and fitness modeling after receiving an opportunity to move to California thanks to the legendary Joe Weider.
Bodybuilding
O’Hearn has competed in bodybuilding since the age of 14, and he has maintained that he is a lifelong “natty,” meaning he has never taken or used anabolic steroids. This has been the source of many debates over the years because of the type of physique he has attained.
Among the titles he has spoken about winning are the Natural Mr. America, Natural Mr. World, Natural Mr. International, and he has on his personal bio that he has won four Natural Mr. Universe titles. Muscle Memory has O’Hearn listed as the winner of the 1997 INBA Natural Mr. Universe in both the Overall and Tall categories. No other record of his other victories have been found as of this writing.
O’Hearn has remained active in the sport in a multitude of ways, including writing columns for magazines, working with various brands and platforms, and training with other well-known athletes in the sport. He even makes occasional guest posing appearances.
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Powerlifting
O’Hearn is also no stranger to the platform, having competed in several powerlifting meets over the years. Open Powerlifting has six of his meets in their records, and his biggest total came at the 1993 ADFPA California State Championships, where he won the 110-kilogram category and placed second overall. His lifts in that meet are below.
- Squat — 295 kilograms (650.3 pounds)
- Bench Press — 205 kilograms (451.9 pounds)
- Deadlift — 320 kilograms (705.4 pounds)
- Total — 820 kilograms (1,807.8 pounds)
Other Sports and Feats
O’Hearn was also active in martial arts, competing in various tournaments throughout his career. Among his highlights was winning the California Judo championship twice. He was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame in 2014.
Even though he was successful in three different sports, he may be most famous for his physical presence on television. He was one of the athletes on American Gladiators in the 1990s, competing against contestants under the nickname “Thor.” When the series was revived in 2008, he took on the name “Titan” for that run. He was the only athlete to have been in both editions of the series.
From 1999 to 2001, O’Hearn was one of the Warriors on the show Battle Dome under the name “Michael O’Dell.” He specialized in kickboxing and takedown competitions. Other stars of that show included Terry Crews and model Christian Boeving.
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Mike O’Hearn’s Chest Workout
O’Hearn has shared numerous training systems over the years in magazines and on his own social media platforms. But he may be best known for his “Power Bodybuilding” program, which he has shared on several sites and publications.
His philosophy is to combine bodybuilding and powerlifting by training with heavy weights for lower reps to focus on power while using other movements to help create shape and improve symmetry. A sample chest workout can be seen below.
- Incline Barbell Bench Press: 7 x 3
- Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 x 10
- Incline Dumbbell Flye: 3 x 8-10
O’Hearn offers a full program and coaching services for fees on his website.
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TV and Movie Star
Aside from his work on American Gladiators and Battle Dome, the man known as “Titan” has been on several TV shows and movies. He has made guest appearances on the hit soap opera Days of Our Lives and the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In 2004, he played Clark Kent/Superman in the 2004 Sandy Collora fan film World’s Finest.
His presence in Hollywood has still been felt in recent years as well. In 2023, he was featured in two movies playing at the same time — Divinity, where he played the role of Rip Pierce, and Magazine Dreams as the character Brad Vanderhorn. His IMDB page also lists him for an episode of Blue Ridge in April 2024.
O’Hearn has other unique accomplishments under his belt. In 2011, he made the Guinness Book of World Records for running through the most consecutive panes of glass by breaking 22 in a row. This record has since been broken.
O’Hearn has also been credited for being named Fitness Model of the Year seven times and has been on over 500 magazine covers as well as many romance novel covers.
Business and Social Media
O’Hearn is active on the business side, as well. He has hosted the Mike O’Hearn Show with Generation Iron and provides coaching and training services for his clients, whom he affectionately calls “The Titan Crew.” He also has his own clothing line on his site.
He had previously partnered with BPI Sports, who created and launched O’Hearn’s own line of supplements. As of 2024, those products were still listed on the BPI Sports website.
O’Hearn has become a social media sensation with the “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” memes and posts featuring him, but he was already popular online before that took off. His Instagram page boasts over three million followers, and he has over 860,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. His verified X/Twitter page shows 113,000 followers, and he has 2.1 million more followers on his Facebook page. He was also approaching 600,000 followers on TikTok as of April 2024.
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What’s Next?
The husband of Mona Muresan and father of his son Titan has shown no signs of slowing down and remaining relevant both in and out of the fitness industry. His competitive days may be behind him, but he will likely keep finding ways to continue contributing to the sports he loves and making moves in business.
Featured Image: @mikeohearn / Instagram
