"The good old days are right this second!"
Jack LaLanne... The Original Fitness Guru  

By Mike McLeod

Who doesn't know Jack LaLanne and marvel at his vitality at age 94 (as of Sept 26th)? Who doesn't remember watching him on his health and fitness show on TV that ran for about 34 years?

And today, Jack LaLanne is still going strong, still doing his two-hour workout every morning. But as most know, Jack didn't start out with a body capable of doing great feats of strength, like pulling 70 boats with 70 people in them at the age of 70. Sugar was Jack's enemy as a child.

"It was destroying me. Cakes, candy, they were giving me blinding headaches. I had no friends," Jack said.

He freely admits he was a sugar-aholic and a junk food junkie. He also admits that it made him weak and caused him to have boils and pimples. But he turned his life around at the age of 15 when he attended a speech given by Paul Bragg, during which he realized he was addicted to sugar.

"He told me that I needed to obey nature's laws and that I could be born again. So I went home and prayed to God, 'Give me the willpower to overcome the foods that are killing me. Then I started working out, and ten days later, I have never had a headache since."

Jack never went back to sugar. Health became his passion. He started working out at a YMCA in Berkeley, and he developed that distinctive Jack LaLanne triangular upper body. Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV show) became his bible. He went to college to become a doctor; instead, he ended up graduating from a chiropractic college. But as we all know, that was not his true calling in life.

Jack wanted to help people get healthy and stay that way, rather than treat them after they were sick. Ahead of his time in 1936, Jack opened his first health studio at the age of 21.

Unexpectedly, he was confronted by opposition from the medical community. Doctors said working out with weights would cause heart attacks, and athletes would become muscle-bound and unable to perform. Coaches told their female athletes that they would look like men if they worked out with weights and forbad them from using them. Jack ended up giving the keys to his studio to athletes so they could sneak in at night and work out.

In those days ­ when smoking was socially accepted and even promoted by doctors as "good for the digestion" ­ running a health club was an uphill battle. Even with rent on his studio at $45 per month, Jack was going broke because he was so far ahead of his time. But he persevered. Jack is a big proponent in believing in yourself. He often says, "If you believe in something, you can do it."

Then his big break came. "I had a friend who was a manager at Channel 7 in San Francisco, and he attributed his longevity to a product. He wanted to produce and sell it, so he decided to do an exercise show. He told me that he wanted me to go audition for the show, but I sent over a lady who had lost 100 pounds at my studio. He called and said, 'I don't want her. I want you.' So they picked me up in a stretch limo. On the ride down, the guy driving asked me, 'Jack if you had a TV show, what would it be like?'"

Thinking it over, Jack was prepared when asked the same question during the interview. He gave the interviewer four or five exercises that he could do right there in his office chair. Then he said he would also "have a pep talk every day about taking care of yourself" and have a nutritionist on the show. That was all it took. The Jack LaLanne Show debuted in 1951.

Jack's show lasted nearly 34 years, but at the outset, the local TV critics in the San Francisco newspapers declared it wouldn't last six weeks. In 1985 when the show was finally canceled, it was the longest running exercise show in television history.

Along the way, Jack opened 200 health clubs nationwide. Eventually, he licensed them to the Bally Company which later became Bally Total Fitness.

So is it time to bring back another Jack LaLanne Show for the over 55 crowd?

"What's the diff if you're 10 or 100? You've got 640 muscles, work'em!" Jack exclaims.

"Do the best you can with what you have. You've got to work at living; dying is easy."

Jack has always been about helping people. That's why one of his favorite sayings is, "Billy Graham is for the hereafter; I'm for the here and now."

And that is what he has dedicated himself to throughout his life. Jack developed the first prototypes of exercise equipment that are still used today, including the leg extension machine, weight machines with pulleys, and weight selector machines. Over the years, he's also sold Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer™, the RiverPool® (a swimming and exercise pool that simulates a river current), and other health and nutrition products. Recently, Jack signed on as a brain fitness motivational coach for [m]Power Cognitive Fitness System. [m]Power is a touch screen-based brain workout program designed to help seniors combat a decline in mental function through a constantly changing series of rigorous but entertaining multimedia activities. Now used in more than 100 senior living communities, a home unit will be available soon.

"So many people are losing their memories; you gotta exercise your brain like your muscles. The only way to hurt your brain is if you don't use it," said Jack.

For [m]Power, Jack will offer motivational tips during the sessions and appear in promotional videos provided to senior living communities that purchase [m]Power units. Jack uses the [m]Power system, which was inspired by research showing that seniors who regularly exercise their brains can reduce their risk of dementia more than 60%.

"I've spent my life preaching the importance of physical fitness with the understanding that your brain doesn't die of old age, it dies of inactivity. I have added [m]Power to my workout regimen and have found that it helps keep my brain sharp as well as entertained, and I want to share that with everybody."

Still going strong as he nears the start of his next century, Jack LaLanne continues his lifelong mission to help people feel good and have healthy lives. Trumpets Jack: "The good old days are right this second!" 

A Few of Jack LaLanne's Feats of Strength

• 1954 (age 40): Swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks.
• 1959 (age 45): Did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hr. 22 minutes.
• 1974 (age 60): For the second time, swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf while handcuffed and towing a 1,000-pound boat.
• 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the U.S. Bicentennial, swam one mile in Long Beach Harbor while handcuffed, shackled and towing 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
• 1979 (age 65): Towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan, while handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.
• 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.