Jack LaLanne at 92 (photo: nathancreminsino
[Flickr])
The fitness guru Jack LaLanne has died. Now, many of you knew him only
as an old man (albeit with a younger man's trim physique) hawking his
juicer, but Jack was a true pioneer in fitness and nutrition.
In tribute to "The Godfather of Fitness," here are Neatorama's
10 Facts About Jack LaLanne You Didn't Know:
The Jack LaLanne Show
In 1951, when Richard Simmons was still in diapers and Jane Fonda was
but a young lass, Jack started his own TV exercise show - the first fitness
program ever televised, actually - that ended up running for 34 years.
When it first aired, critics gave it 6 weeks tops. He even had to buy
air time, because the studio didn't believe anyone would watch an exercise
show.
Here's the first Jack LaLanne Show:
What's With the Ballet Slippers?
As you can see in the video clip above, Jack wore ballet slippers. Why?
His blog explains:
In those days tennis shoes were not popular, and only used to play
tennis in…Most show business people and Hand Balancers wore ballet
slippers, and Jack being a Hand Balancer, that was what he wore!
Sugar-Addicted Juvenile Delinquent
Jack LaLanne was a self-described sugarholic kid, hooked
on junk food:
“As a kid,” he flatly states, “I was a sugarholic
and a junk food junkie! It made me weak and it made me mean. It made
me so sick I had boils, pimples and suffered from nearsightedness. Little
girls used to beat me up. My mom prayed… the Church prayed.”
He blamed his bad diet for attacking
his brother with an axe and setting the family house on fire. At 15,
his mother took him to see a talk by nutritionist Paul Bragg, and Jack
reformed his eating habit and became interested in fitness.
America's First Health Club
Jack LaLanne opened the country's first modern health club in Oakland,
California, in 1936 at the tender age of 21. He worked with a blacksmith
to create many of the weight machines that you see in your neighborhood
gym today.
Jack LaLanne vs The Medical Community
After he opened his health club, LaLanne got a lot of heat ... from
doctors of all people!
“People thought I was a charlatan and a nut,” he said
in a 2005 interview. “The doctors were against me — they
said that working out with weights would give people everything from
heart attacks to hemorrhoids; that women would look like men.”
LaLanne prevailed.
How Many Push Ups Can You Do?
Jack could do 1,033 push-ups. In 23 minutes. At the age of 42. Now, how
about you?
Just a Little Swim
Every year, Jack LaLanne went for a little swim on his birthday. For
his 70th birthday, he swam a mile and a half through the Long Beach Harbor
while towing
a flotilla of 70 boats. With his hands and feet shackled, no less.
We could talk about Jack's other fantastic
feats of strength and endurance (he famously swam from Alcatraz to
the San Francisco shore. Handcuffed. Shackled. And towing a 1,000-pound
boat. You know the drill by now), but we'd be here all night.
Warming Up is for Sissies
You'd think that a fitness expert would tell you to warm up before a
vigorous exercise, but not Jack LaLanne. No, Sirree! From an interview
with Outside
Magazine:
"Now, you listen to some of these so-called sports-medicine
experts today--shit! It's just shtick. It's just something else to sell.
Warming up," he scoffed, adjusting a red ascot fitted neatly into
his jumpsuit, "warming up is the biggest bunch of horseshit I've
ever heard in my life. Fifteen minutes to warm up! Does a lion warm
up when he's hungry? 'Uh-oh, here comes an antelope. Better warm up.'
No! He just goes out and eats the sucker. You gotta get the blood circulating,
but shit, does the lion cool down? No, he eats the sucker and goes to
sleep. And that," he concluded, folding his arms into a variation
of the pose, "is the truth."
Facenastics!
Got a sagging face? Obviously you have never seen Jack LaLanne's Facenastics.
That's right. He's got an exercise
program for your face:
I
Can't Die. It Would Ruin My Image.
And
lastly, one of my favorite Jack LaLanne quotes (or "LaLanneisms,"
as he called it). When
he was asked about the difference in public attitude between today and
when he first opened his gym decades ago, Jack said:
"Then I was a crackpot and a charlatan, today I am an authority…
and believe me I can’t die, it would ruin my image."
Jack
LaLanne, RIP.
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