"I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline." -- Jack LaLanne
Jack LaLanne (born September 26, 1914) is an American fitness, exercise, nutritional expert, and motivational speaker who has been called "the godfather of fitness". He has published numerous books on fitness and hosted a fitness television show between 1951 and 1985. He has 4 children.
LaLanne gained recognition for his success as a bodybuilder, as well as his prodigious feats of strength. He has been inducted to the California Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"By exercise. I'll tell you one thing, you don't always have to be on the go. I sit around a lot, I read a lot, and I do watch television. But I also work out for two hours every day of my life, even when I'm on the road.""Do you know how many calories are in butter and cheese and ice cream? Would you get your dog up in the morning for a cup of coffee and a donut?""Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest. Maybe your chest is flabby or your hips or waist need toning. Also, you should change your program every thirty days. That's the key.""I have spoken to a whole group of millionaires, head executives at Microsoft. Boy did I chew those guys out.""I only eat fish - no chicken, no turkey, just fish. I get all my protein from fish and egg whites.""I'd rather see you drink a glass of wine than a glass of milk. So many people drink Coca-Cola and all these soft drinks with sugar. Some of these drinks have 8 or 9 teaspoons of sugar in them What's the good of living if you can't have the things that give a little enjoyment?""If you've got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get bigger because you build up the muscle. You've got to get rid of that fat! How do you get rid of fat? By changing your diet.""Look at the average American diet: ice cream, butter, cheese, whole milk, all this fat. People don't realize how much of this stuff you get by the end of the day. High blood pressure is from all this high-fat eating.""Probably millions of Americans got up this morning with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a donut. No wonder they are sick and fouled up.""Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you.""So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don't get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity.""The only way you get that fat off is to eat less and exercise more.""They thought that athletes that worked out with my system wouldn't be able to throw a ball because they'd be too muscle bound. Those are the misconceptions I had to go through for about 40 years.""We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge.""What you need to do is get that tape measure out, and start measuring that gut. Then you start working out and you start eating properly till that gut gets down close to it was when you were in your 20's. Then you'll find out what your weight should be.""Yes, exercise is the catalyst. That's what makes everything happen: your digestion, your elimination, your sex life, your skin, hair, everything about you depends on circulation. And how do you increase circulation?""You can't get rid of it with exercise alone. You can do the most vigorous exercise and only burn up 300 calories in an hour. If you've got fat on your body, the exercise firms and tones the muscles. But when you use that tape measure, what makes it bigger? It's the fat!""You don't have to call it God or Jesus. That's religious humbug to a lot of people, but you've gotta believe that nature and spiritual things surround us. That is what put us here! I thank the universe for that every day of my life."
He was born as John LaLanne in San Francisco, California, to Jean LaLanne and Jennie Garaig. His parents were immigrants from Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwest France. LaLanne had an older brother, Norman (1908-2005), who lived to the age of 97.
LaLanne wrote that as a boy he was addicted to sugar and junk food. At age 15, he heard Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition. Bragg's message had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who decided to focus on his diet and exercise habits. He studied Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting.
LaLanne blames overly-processed foods for many health problems. He advocates a vegetarian diet, though he eats some fish himself, and has described organic food as "a bunch of bull."
After graduating from high school, LaLanne attended night classes at Oakland Chiropractic College in San Francisco and graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. In 1936, he opened his own health spa (gym) in Oakland, California and encouraged clients to better themselves through weight-training. LaLanne designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and the weight selectors that are now standard in the fitness industry. He was the inventor of the Smith machine. LaLanne encouraged women to lift weights (though at the time it was thought this would make women look masculine and unattractive). By the 1980s, Jack LaLanne's European Health Spas numbered more than 200. He eventually licensed all his health clubs to the Bally company, and they are now known as Bally Total Fitness. He is no longer associated with any gym, but still lifts weights.
Books, television and other media
Jack LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television for 34 years. "The Jack LaLanne Show" was the longest running television exercise program. It began as a local program on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, but eventually was carried on the ABC network nationwide. In 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album which provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher.
LaLanne has published books and videos on fitness and nutrition, appeared in movies, recorded a song with Connie Haines. He has marketed exercise equipment, a range of vitamin supplements, and two models of electric juicers. These include the "Juice Tiger", as seen on Amazing Discoveries with Mike Levey, and "Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer". It was on the show that LaLanne introduced the phrase "That's the power of the juice!"
In March 1996, 70,000 Juice Tiger juicers were recalled after "14 incidents resulting in at least eight lacerations to the hands, face, arms, and chest, and one permanent eye injury were reported to the CPSC and National Media Corporation of The USA." However, this is about 9 percent of the Juice Tiger models. Another 600,000 units were not recalled. The Power Juicer is still actively marketed.
LaLanne celebrated his 95th birthday with the release of a new book entitled, Live Young Forever. In the book, he discusses how he has kept healthy and active well into his advanced age.
At the age of 96, LaLanne continues to work out every morning for two hours. He spends 1½ hours in the weight room and half an hour swimming or walking. LaLanne and his wife Elaine (84) live in Morro Bay, California. When interviewed by Katie Couric on NBC's Today show, LaLanne said his two simple rules of nutrition are: "if man made it, don't eat it", and "if it tastes good, spit it out." He often says, "I cannot afford to die, it will ruin my image." Interviewed on his 93rd birthday, he said his feat of strength was going to be "towing my wife across the bathtub."
In a June 2007 interview, LaLanne announced that for his 95th birthday, he'd like to swim to Santa Catalina Island, a distance of approximately off the coast.
On December 8, 2009, the 95-year-old LaLanne underwent heart valve surgery at a Los Angeles Hospital.
LaLanne was an Inaugural Inductee into the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2005.
On December 15, 2008, in a ceremony presided over by California Governor (and fellow 2005 inductee of the National Fitness Hall of Fame) Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Jack LaLanne was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts along with 11 other legendary Californians inducted that year.
1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
1955 (age 41): swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
1956 (age 42): set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of .
1958 (age 44): maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The trip took 9.5 hours.
1959 (age 45): did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
1974 (age 60): For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a boat.
1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a boat.
1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, he swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.
1980 (age 66): towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.
1992 (age 78): Jack received the Academy of Body Building and Fitness Award.
1994 (age 80): Jack received the State of California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness Lifetime Achievement Award.
1996 (age 82): Jack received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Fitness Award.
1999 (age 85): Jack received the Spirit of Muscle Beach Award.
2002 (age 88): Jack received a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.
2004 (age 90): Jack celebrated his 90th birthday in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. ESPN Classic ran a 24-hour marathon of the original Jack LaLanne television shows.
2004 (age 90): Jack became the official spokesperson for Covenant Reliance Producers, LLC, a Financial Marketing Organization based in Nashville, Tennessee
2005 (age 91): Jack received the Jack Webb Award from the Los Angeles Police Department Historical Society, the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award, Interglobal's International Infomercial Award, the Freddie Award, and the Medical Media Public Service Award, and he was a Free Spirit honoree at Al Neuharth's Freedom Forum.
