his muscular body make his message palatable and convincing. But, at times, he’s felt compelled to perform extraordinary feats (see sidebar) to disprove false claims about his approach to fitness.

Findi ng his way

Today La Lanne is still a statesman of the modern health and fitness movement. Many recall The Jack La Lan ne Show, the first nationally syndicated exercise show on television, which ran from 1951 to 1984. Before that, La Lanne was a well-known bodybuilder. He was the first to open a modern health spa in 1936, the first to open co-ed health clubs, and he’s been honored with a host of fitness-related awards. He even has a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. Yet, in his early teens, La Lanne was the quintessential 97-pound weakling. He is quick to credit Paul C. Bragg, a nutritionist and early

Feats &wonders

Because so many people were skeptical of bodybuilders, Jack La Lanne performed numerous feats of strength and endurance to counter rumors, bad information and outright lies about the ill effects of weight lifting. Here are a few.

sickly that, under doctor’s orders, I hadn’t been to school in six months. Then my mom practically dragged me to a lecture on health. That lecture saved my life. Paul Bragg told me that if I would exercise and eat a proper diet, I could regain my health,” he says.

The lecture had a profound impact on La Lanne. Almost immediately, the strict vegetarian diet Bragg suggested helped him feel better. To this day, he is mostly a vegetarian. He says he gets all the protein he needs from egg whites and occasionally eating fish.

Through consistent experimentation with weight training at the Berkeley, California, YMCA, near his home, La Lanne developed a powerful physique, becoming captain of his high school football team. His schoolmates, impressed with his transformation, began working out with him in his backyard.

Thrilled with his new life, La Lanne voraciously studied the human body in order to better learn how to help others, as he’d been helped. “Gray’s Anatomy was my bible during this time. After high school I studied pre-med, planning to become a doctor. I also went to a chiropractic college and graduated,” he says. However, he was more interested in helping people take care of themselves in a proactive way rather than treating them after they became ill. His efforts in this direction led him to open a new kind of gym in 1936.

1955, at 41, La Lanne swims handcuffed from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

“I was 15 at the time. I was addicted to sugar. I ate junk food constantly and felt horrible. I suffered from blinding headaches. I was skinny, weak and had a nasty temper. I was so sickly that, under doctor’s orders, I hadn’t been to school in six months. Then my mom

practically dr agged me to a lec ture on health. That lecture s aved my life.”

1956, at 42, he sets the world record of 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes on You Asked for It, a TV show.

1959, at 45, La Lanne does 1,000 pushups and 1,000 chin-ups in one hour and 22 minutes.

health industry pioneer, as the

person who set him on the path that turned his life around. La Lanne says that a lecture that Bragg delivered one night in 1929 was the turning point of his life.

“I was 15 at the time. I was addicted to sugar. I ate junk food constantly and felt horrible. I suffered from blinding headaches. I was skinny, weak and had a nasty temper. I was so

Trials and tribulations

In the late 1930s, musclemen were seen as complete boneheads. People commonly believed that bodybuilders suffered freakish physical limitations as a consequence of their muscle-bound physiques. Extensive weight training was believed to cause early death or impotence. These and other dark weight-train-ing myths persisted for decades, despite a lack of supporting evidence.

It was in this cultural climate that La Lanne, at the height of his muscleman days, labored to establish a business that promoted a lifestyle of vigorous exercise and good nutrition. His venture, Jack La Lanne’s Physical Culture Studio, offered clients nutritional advice, which included making and consuming fresh juices (see “Getting Juiced” on page 53), a new idea to most people back then, and supervised their exercise programs.

La Lanne says he was routinely taunted. “ ‘Hey, muscles, let’s see you comb your hair,’ they’d say. Or ‘Jack, let’s see you touch your toes,’ ” La Lanne recalls. “I quickly realized that no one was going to come to me. I was going to have to go to my customers.”

He began recruiting prospective clients, offering impressive results or double their money back. While he struggled with widespread ignorance about weight lifting, his own introverted nature was another huge obstacle.

“In those days I was so bashful [that] to get the courage to walk up and knock on someone’s front door, I’d have to walk around

1974, at 60, swims from
Alcatraz to Fisherman’s
Wharf for a second
time, handcuffed,
shackled and towing a
1,000-pound boat.

1976, at 62, commemorating the “Spirit of

’ 76,” he swims 1 mile in Long Beach Harbor,

handcuffed, shackled and towing 13 boats containing 76 people.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEFI T EN TERPRISES

1979, at 65, La Lanne tows 65 boats filled with 6,500 pounds of wood pulp while handcuffed and shackled in Lake Ashino, near Tokyo.

1984, at 70, handcuffed and shackled, La Lanne tows 70 boats with 70 people 1. 5 miles from the Queensway Bridge to the Queen Mary.