Motivation Monday: 5 Lessons I Learned From Jack Lalanne, RIP

Jack Lalanne

LaLanne receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award on September 3, 2007 during a ceremony at Muscle Beach (source)

Just the other day it was announced that fitness icon, Jack Lalanne, had passed away due complications from pneumonia.

While a sad day for everyone in the fitness industry and to those that grew up watching Jack on TV, he should be commended for his life long work in health and fitness.  It can easily be argued that he did more for health and fitness than almost anyone else.   You could pull people over on the street and virtually everyone knows who Jack Lalanne is.  Read on as we learn more about him and I reveal 5 important lessons that I learned from Jack at a young age.  He truly created massive change during his lifetime and was someone I always admired.

Background

Jack first got into fitness at age 15 after going to a lecture by nutritionist Paul Bragg in 1929.   Paul advocated using deep breathing, water fasts, organic foods, drinking distilled water, juicing, exercise, and listening to one’s body (hmm,biofeedback training anyone?)  as methods of prolonging life span (source).     Hmmmm, sounds like we could learn from that approach 80+ years later!

Jack went on to open many health clubs and even invented many common place exercise machines like cable stacks, pulley machine and even an early Smith machine (although I won’t hold that against him).

Many probably don’t realize that his message was far from popular at the time.  He was talking about crazy stuff like people should lift heavy objects, and even women should lift weights!

What?

That is just crazy talk!   We now know the list of benefits of weight training is virtually endless from bone health, insulin/glucose management, strength, mood, etc.

“People thought I was a charlatan and a nut,” he remembered. “The doctors were against me — they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.”     (source: NY Times)

People also may have missed that Jack was one of the early performing strongman of the time and completed many insane feats

Here are just a few of his crazy feats of strength and endurance

1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds (64 kg; 10 st) 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.

1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound (1,100 kg; 180 st) cabin cruiser.

He kept at it for years, into his 70s!

1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg; 460 st) 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): Handcuffed, shackled and fighting strong winds and currents, towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, 1 mile.   (source)

Jack doing finger tip pushups

Insane to say the least. I also like how he was constantly one upping himself, despite getting older.

Even in his 90s, he started each day with exercise, normally weight training and swimming (source).

“The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow” –Jack Lalanne (source)

When you watched any interviews, such as this one on Larry King, he had more life and vigor in him than most 40 year olds!

Jack Lalanne lifting 1,000 lbs!

 

5 Lessons I Learned from Jack Lalanne

  1. Weight training does a body good
  2. Age is NOT an excuse
  3. Work to get better, each day
  4. Communication is key
  5. One heretic, can make a difference

Comments

What did you learn from Jack Lalanne? Let me know by leaving a comment below. He will be missed by all

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS

If you want to get better by adding more muscle and strength in a way that is best for YOUR body, click HERE. Offer expires this Wed, so act now.

PPS

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