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Interview
with Jack
LaLanne
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About
Share Guide
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Share Guide: When I was in my early twenties I started a natural foods distribution company. My mom thought I was kind of crazy--eating health foods, taking supplements and exercising--but when I showed her a picture of me shaking your hand at the Natural Foods Expo, then she began to understand. That picture stayed by her bedside until she passed on, so she could explain to her friends what her oldest son was doing for a living. Jack LaLanne: That is very
touching. How
old was your mom when she died? Jack LaLanne: There must have
been
something she was doing wrong along the line. Jack LaLanne: That is sad.
Everything you
do in life, I don't care, good or bad--don't blame God, don't blame the
devil, don't blame me, blame you. You control everything! The thoughts
you think, the words you utter, the foods you eat, the exercise you do.
Everything is controlled by you. Jack LaLanne: It means being able
to do the
things that you want to do. So many people say, "I'd like to do this,
I'd like to do that." The mind should control the body. When you move
your fingers, when you move your toes, that's done by the mind.
Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you. If you had
people working for you, employees, and it was very important what
condition they were in, boy, you'd make sure you fed them right, you
exercised them, gave them everything they needed so they could do
things for you, right? Jack LaLanne: That's what your
body is. The
more things you do to help your health, the more you'll be able to do.
That is why a lot of people are sick and tired. They get arthritis and
rheumatism and all these diseases. Then they decide to go on vacation
and think that is going to help. Well, they take their problems with
them! They can't leave them at home can they? Jack LaLanne: That's what I am
saying. You
have to take care of your 640 muscles, and the number one thing is
exercise. You can eat perfectly but if you don't exercise, you cannot
get by. There are so many health food nuts out there that eat nothing
but natural foods but they don't exercise and they look terrible. Then
there are other people who exercise like a son-of-a-gun but eat a lot
of junk. They look pretty good because the exercise is king. Nutrition
is queen. Put them together and you've got a kingdom! Jack LaLanne: Exercise IS number
one! Think
about it: the human body, how do you hurt it? Jack LaLanne: Right! 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. Jack LaLanne: That's what I am
saying. They
think they are going to get it out of a bottle or a pill or food. Jack LaLanne: 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? 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. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely. For
example, take
a guy that's 60 years old and hasn't exercised. Say you exercise him
for 6 to 8 weeks--you can double his strength and double his endurance.
Test after test has been done all over the world to prove this. They
have even taken people in their 90's and put them on a weight training
program and doubled their strength and endurance. Just think what the
younger people at 50, 60, 70 and 80 can do if they can do that with 90
year olds. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely. You can
ward it
off; you can prolong your life. I've outlived the age of maturity. I
have showed my system works. Jack LaLanne: Three days is
enough if it's
vigorous. Jack LaLanne: Do you work with
the weights? Jack LaLanne: Twelve to seventeen
minutes
is plenty on the treadmill--if it's done fast. That's all you need for
cardiovascular benefit. You don't need to spend that extra time unless
you are over weight and you need to burn off extra calories. Jack LaLanne: Do it vigorously,
like
somebody is chasing you. You've got to do it hard. Otherwise, if you
just take it easy and do it longer, you are spending all that time when
you don't need it. Use that extra time with your weights instead. 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. Jack LaLanne: If it's for the
average
person that doesn't have any willpower, it's important. For the person
that is really progressing and they read up a lot and they have a lot
of energy and discipline, they don't need a trainer. It depends on the
individual. I don't need a trainer--I am my own trainer. Jack LaLanne: Yes, just starting
up it
would be good to get a trainer for a couple of months. But not everyone
can afford it. I know a lot of older people can't manage that. Jack LaLanne: If you are
ambitious and you
want to do more, then I would do 4 days. Exercise vigorously one day
and rest the next. Jack LaLanne: No, but they help
with
coordination and increase the circulation. Jack LaLanne: I say if you enjoy
it, do it.
Let me ask this: when you are at the gym, how long do you rest before
you do the next exercise? Jack LaLanne: That's too long. I
rest ten
seconds between sets. Jack LaLanne: That is the very
minimum. I
do 20 sets for deltoids, 20 sets for pecs, and 20 sets for lats. It's
important to change things around. Maybe for 30 days I might do ten
reps with high weight, but the tenth rep should be to failure. Jack LaLanne: That's it. Then you
build
muscle and you build strength. Then for say 30 days I'll cut the weight
down a bit and do fifteen reps. Then maybe for 30 days I'll add weight
and do only 5 or 6 reps, then for another 30 days I'll do everything
really slow. Try that sometimes. Like you are doing a prayer. Eight
counts to bring it up and eight counts to let it down. That is very
hard, I'll tell you! Then I'd do everything for a while real fast. You
aren't used to any of this so the body responds. Pretty soon the hips
and knees start to go, doing the same thing day after day. I am also
very high on pool exercises. I started doing exercises when I was 15 or
16 years old called Jack LaLanne Hydronastics. I worked every muscle of
the body in the pool. It's very effective. Jack LaLanne: Yes. You should do
it against
the clock. Say you are going to do 30 laps in 15 minutes. Then you try
to do it each day a little faster. That is putting demands on the body,
and that is how you build up. You keep up your energy instead of going
downhill. Jack LaLanne: That's right. Many
people
have arthritis and rheumatism; they get bum knees, a bum back. A lot of
guys get a little pain in the toe or knee and then they won't exercise.
Well gee, you have 640 muscles in your body. There may be a few
exercises you can't do, but there are hundreds you can do! Too many
people make excuses like I am too old, or I don't have the time, or it
costs money. Then when they get sick they go to the doctor and want a
shot in the backside to make them healthy. Many so-called spiritual
people, they overeat, drink too much, they smoke and don't exercise.
But they do go to church every week and pray "Please help my arthritis.
Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again." But tell me,
can God go to the gym to work out for you? God helps those that help
themselves. You have to do it! God or some omnipotent power or whatever
you want to believe in gives you the energy, the will to do it, but you
have to do it yourself. If you haven't exercised for a long time, just
start out for a couple of minutes a day. Then work it up a little bit.
You'd be surprised at the end of thirty days, how many things you are
doing. How do you build up your bank account? By putting something in
it everyday.Your health account is no different. What I do today, I am
wearing tomorrow. If I put inferior foods in my body today, I'm going
to be inferior tomorrow, it's that simple. What does age mean? Not
being able to do the things you used to do. If I can get you doing
things you haven't done for ten or fifteen years, isn't that exciting? Jack LaLanne: Work around it. If
you can't
use your legs, you can sit in a chair and you can do curls, you can do
presses, you can do stretches. There are all kinds of things you can
do. Or maybe you can't use your upper body but you can work your legs. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely! You can
take them
in a wheelchair and put them in a pool, so they can move their arms and
legs. In a pool disabled people can do things that they can't normally
do otherwise. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely not.
Although for
many years I worked out at four in the morning and then later I started
at five. Now my workout begins around 5:30 or 6:00 am. But I never
think of age. The only person that talks of age is my wife. She says,
"Oh look at Jack! He's going to be 88!" I think about TODAY; I don't
think about tomorrow. I think about this moment and what I am going to
do. Jack LaLanne: Yes, 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: I was a strict
vegetarian.
Then I decided to enter a Mr. America contest (which I won) and in
those days they thought that in order to build muscle you had to have
meat. So I ate meat for a while. Jack LaLanne: In those days
everybody was
saying that you had to eat meat to build muscle, so I went on a meat
thing for awhile. NowI only eat fish--no chicken, no turkey, just fish.
I get all my protein from fish and egg whites. Jack LaLanne: I use no milk of
any kind.
Anything that comes from a cow I don't eat. Jack LaLanne: I may take one
bite. Or a
little skim milk once in a while is not going to hurt you. It isn't
what you do once in a while that's a problem; it's what you do all the
time. 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. 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? 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. Jack LaLanne: Are you kidding?
About 40 or
50 a day. Everything from A to Z. Ninety percent of them are natural,
as much as I can take. I take enzymes, I take herbs, the whole bit! Jack LaLanne: Absolutely! 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? I never drink wine
unless I am eating though. I take it with my meal. Jack LaLanne: I drink 6 or seven
glasses of
water a day. I also drink vegetable juice. And I have at least 5 or 6
pieces of fresh fruit everyday and 10 raw vegetables. Jack LaLanne: It's a bunch of
bull. How do
you know what's really organic? Today, there's all these impurities in
the water and the air. The water for the fruits and vegetables has junk
in it. If you get enough vitamins and minerals out of normal food and
whole grains, and you get enough proteins and exercise (that's the key)
then nature builds up a tolerance to all of these things. It's survival
of the fittest. You can't have everything perfect, that's impossible,
but the fit survive. The fit can handle the impurities in the air and
in the water, but the poor people who are sick, it really affects them
more. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely, that's
the key.
If you want to eat more organic that's fine, but I don't go out of the
way to get to organic vegetables. The way I eat, I am really high on
vegetable juice. I have a juicer coming out right now on the Home
Shopping Network, called the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. Jack LaLanne: We've never been
busier. I
lecture all over the world. I lecture to medical doctors, lawyers and
colleges. I have spoken to a whole group of millionaires, head
executives at Microsoft. Boy did I chew those guys out. Jack LaLanne: Yes! I said, "You
should be
the examples. Here you are influencing thousands and thousands of
employees. You should be the first ones to work. You are the ones that
should set the example and stand for what it is to be healthy and
successful. People look up to you. You have got to take care of the
most important person in the world, YOU!" For many of these guys, the
only things they think about is making money, money, money and business
stuff, and they forget about their body. Without their body, they are
nothing. I never got such response in my life. I got a standing ovation
for about 5 minutes. Every one of those big multimillion-dollar execs
that got my autograph said things like, "Jack, that is the most
stirring speech I've ever heard in my life. I am going to start
tomorrow. I am going to go get a physical, go back to the gym and get a
trainer!" Jack LaLanne: If you are over 25
or 30
years old, then get one. Jack LaLanne: Yes, that's a good
idea. I
don't care how well you think you are eating or exercising, little
things can happen. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely. You
don't have to
be a nut. You don't have to be like Jack LaLanne either. The way I eat,
I get my nutrition from fruits and raw vegetables every day. My wife
and I eat out practically every night, and I've got every restaurant
trained. The Chinese restaurants we go to have brown rice, and other
restaurants make sure they have the right soups for us, with no butter
or cream. Jack LaLanne: Yes, we eat out
almost every
night. You can eat well if they do a good job. Sometimes I bring my own
pita bread for example--we work at it. Jack LaLanne: The main thing is to
start a
weight training program. It's not about seeing how much you can lift.
I'm talking about specific exercises for your arms, shoulders, chest
and back. With weight training you can control things, work around your
infirmities, if you have an injury or pain in a certain area. That is
the beautiful part about weights: even if you are 100 year old, you can
lift something. Maybe it's only a half a pound or a pound or two
pounds. It will still do something. Jack LaLanne: Free weights. But I
invented
most of the machines in the gyms. All the leg extension machines to the
weight selectors, every one of those I invented way back in the 30's. Jack LaLanne: For variety. When
you are
running a gym for the public, you've got to get variety and change the
people's programs every 30 days. Then the people break the monotony of
doing the same thing. If you had to eat carrots for the rest of your
life you'd be so damned bored and malnourished, wouldn't you? These
machines of today are terrific. But the weights should be an integral
part of it. Jack LaLanne: Work that sucker!
Get a good
ball that you can squeeze. The main thing though, is to take a weight
and put your hand over a chair or bench with your palms down. Put a
weight in your hand and lift it up. Then you take your palms facing up
and you curl it into you. Work it backhand and forehand, to get the
pronation and supination of it. Then take the dumb bells and spin them
to the right and to the left. That gets everything in your wrist. These
exercises are things you never do in your daily living. Jack LaLanne: Whatever you can
handle, it's
up to you. Pick something where you are going to do it to failure--in
other words, where you can hardly do it. That's the key. So many people
will just take five pound weights and do something 10 times. What are
they getting out of it? Nothing! Say you are going to build up your
bank account. If you put in a penny a day, it's going take a long
while. It's the same with exercise--the more you put into it the more
you take out. Jack LaLanne: Absolutely, but
start it
slowly. Do a little bit, then start increasing it. Jack LaLanne: That's right, don't
kid
yourself. You have a mirror, right? And you know what you can do. One
thing that you have to remember is SCALES LIE! The biggest liars we
have are the scales. I always ask in my lectures, "What did you weigh
when you were 20 years old?" Someone will say, "Oh, I weighed 170 lbs."
But then they played football and basketball, and were in good shape.
Now they guy is 50 years old and he says, " Jack, I haven't gained a
pound! I weigh 170 just like I did when I was 20!" I'll say "Really,
that's wonderful! How big was your waist when you were 20?" "Oh, 30
inches" "How big is it today?" "Oh, 36." The sands of time have
shifted. The guy put five or six inches on his waist. You figure about
every inch is five pounds approximately. That guy has gained about 30
pounds of fat and lost 30 pounds of muscle and the scale says he weighs
the same. Jack LaLanne: Yes. 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. Jack LaLanne: It's not sit-ups,
it's
everything! In fact, 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. 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! A two or three inch layer of fat. The only way you get that
fat off is to eat less and exercise more. Jack LaLanne: Yes. Getting out of
shape is
like a thief in the night that sneaks up on you. I always tell people
that it is never too late. I tell them about the folks in their 90's
that doubled their strength and endurance. In the old days the doctors
would say: "Slow down Jack, you're going to have a heart attack; you
won't be able to get an erection; you'll make the women look like men."
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. Now the medical
profession is saying something different. Every one of the doctors
without exception is saying, "Build muscle." Things really changed
after I went on television and got the message out. That's when I
starting reaching millions of people. In fact, I just made The
Guinness Book of World Records for being on television 34
years
non-stop (20 years in Europe). Jack LaLanne: We are back on TV
right now.
I have a one-minute "Jack LaLanne Tip of the Day" on about 70 stations
now. Jack LaLanne: You have to be
pretty stupid
to think there isn't a Supreme Being to put all this together. Do you
think that man could ever make a heart that is indestructible? Do you
think that man could make a calculator like your brain? Do you think
that man could ever make a machine that the only way you could hurt it
is don't use it? Could man make a machine that in every 90 days
practically every cell changes? Think about this. Look at all the
creatures, the snakes, the worms and the birds, and the entire universe
and everything that goes on. Don't you think there is a universal
power, that there is some Supreme Being that put this all together? 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. 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. I'm just trying to help people with my lectures.
I say, "You are out on the sea and drowning yourselves. Here is a life
preserver. Grab it. I can save your life. Help yourself!" Jack LaLanne: George Burns was
more
athletic than you think he was. And he was a very social man--he loved
people, he enjoyed life. He worked at living. Old George was a social
lion, he got around and did things. That's the key right there. It
starts with your brain. Some people, when they get to 60 years old have
no interests anymore, have no friends left. George Burns was busy all
the time doing something. My oldest son, Danny, was in Beverly Hills
going down the street in his brand new car and this guy in a stretch
limousine came through a stop sign and hit him broadside. Danny got out
of the car and was going to punch the guy out. He looks in the car and
who is riding in the limousine? George Burns! Can you believe this?
Danny said, "Jack LaLanne is my Dad!" He said, "Jack LaLanne, That's my
buddy! I watch him all the time. I want you to come over to the house.
Don't worry about the car, I'll pay you cash. I won't tell my
insurance, I don't want to fool with it." So Danny went over to the
house and they had a couple of drinks. He gave him 300 or 400 bucks for
the damage to his car and they became friends. He was a hell of a guy. Jack LaLanne: I don't care how
old I live;
I just want to be LIVING while I am living! I have friends of mine that
are in their 80's and now they are in wheelchairs or they're getting
Alzheimer's. Who wants that? It's terrible. I want to be able to do
things; I want to look good; I don't want to be a drudge on my wife and
my kids. And I want to get my message out to the people. I might live
forever or it may seem like that. I tell people I can't afford to die;
it will wreck my image! I am proud to say I was just voted in to the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. This year I get my star. Inspired by Jack LaLanne to
lose
weight? Check out this new weight
loss program recommended by The Share
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