Diet and Fitness Advice from Jack LaLanne
Who is 94 years of age and fit that you're going to get fitness and diet advice from? If you guessed Jack LaLanne, you're right. He's been working out and taking his fitness and diet seriously since he was 15. Think that has anything to do with his longevity? Absolutely. How else could a man with his travel schedule, lecturing, and teaching throughout the world keep up? Think of how differently that is from the thousands of people younger than he, even 30 years younger, who require living assistance because of their poor health, many of whom are the result of an unhealthy lifestyle. Here's more from as reported on EdmontonSun.com.
Tell that to Jack LaLanne and you're liable to get an earful from the legendary 93-year-old fitness phenom.
"That's a bunch of bull," he says in a recent phone interview from his office in Morro Bay, Calif. "They've got time sitting on their big butt drinking drink after drink and watching television for hours. And they don't have 30 or 40 minutes to take care of the most priceless possession in the whole damn world - your body? They gotta be sick."
NO EXCUSES
Indeed, the tough-talking LaLanne - who's affectionately known as the godfather of fitness - doesn't mince words.
He's heard every excuse in the book and he doesn't buy any of them, especially the one about blaming your parents for bad genetics.
"So many people say, 'I'm fat because my mother was fat,' " he says. "My dad died at 50. Does that mean I have to die at 50? My dad wouldn't listen. I tried to get him to exercise and eat right."
LaLanne - born Sept. 26, 1914 - has been working out since he was 15 years old, long before the days of bosu balls and core training. That's 78 years of pumping iron and he's still going strong.
A pioneer in the fitness industry who counts Arnold Schwarzenegger among his friends, LaLanne says he still works out two hours a day, seven days a week.
Hard to believe, but it's the truth, he insists.
"You know why I never lie? Got a lousy memory," chuckles the former host of a popular TV exercise show that aired from 1951-85. "These politicians better have good memories."
His vigorous training sessions, which typically begin at 6 a.m. in one of two gyms at the California home he shares with his 80-year-old wife Elaine, involve 90 minutes of weights, including classic exercises such as military presses, bench presses, bent-over rows, biceps and triceps curls, and weighted chins and pushups.
"Every workout I do is to muscle failure. It's hard," the San Franciso-born father of three adds, noting he changes his program every 30 days and focuses on different muscle groups each workout.
LaLanne, a fit and feisty 150 pounds at five-foot-seven, tops off his daily workout with 30 minutes of swimming.
When he's traveling while conducting fitness seminars and making personal appearances, he hits the gym and pool in his hotel.
"I feel great," says the man credited with opening the first modern health spa. "Of course, I have a few aches and pains once in awhile. You name me one athlete that trains hard who doesn't have an ache or pain sometimes.
"Life is tough. Dying is easy. Living, you gotta work at it. Living's an athletic event. You gotta work through it. You gotta be tough." Read more...
Bottom line: Jack LaLanne is definitely the example of a healthy lifestyle, the epitome of health and fitness. While you may not think that you can do what he does, you certainly can't unless you take the time to exercise and eat a healthy diet.
