They call him the "Godfather" of Fitness and they call him a legend. I believe that not only the 2 are true but they even go beyond the great wisdom of the man. He is one of my greatest influences and inspirations to be fit and be happy with myself. The story of this great man has more words then I could ever write. I'll do my best to put it in my view of this powerful infuence to millions of his students:
At a young age little Jackie was like a lot of the young boys of the early 20th century, sickly, ate a lot of junk food and had short fuses. He was hooked on ice cream and the such and didn't exercise and just didn't put in the effort to give himself the change. At age 15 his mother took him to see one of the biggest names of the fitness industry and that was the late legendary Paul Bragg and he talked about nutrition, daily exercise and a clean living and that changed Jack Lalanne forever. At the height of the great depression that destroyed people's financial and emotional well being, Jack learned the power of exercise and nurtition and opened the first Health Spa in the U.S that gave people the oppertunity to change their lives and physical as well as emotional success. He created machines that would revolutionize the fitness industry and encouraged people from all walks of life to get fit and become a new and a new well put human being. All this around the ages of 22 and up. He made a solom vow to get people fit the best way he knew how. He studied many things from under the sun from chriopractic to nutrition to anatomy and physiology. Within 20 years after his successful practice as a physical culturist and lecturer he decided a very rare thing that only the physical culturists of the past did and thats to stay fit and strong after the age 40 when at that time most people barely lived to be 50. This was such a shocking hobby at the time for just about every american in the U.S and he proved that by doing 1000+ push-ups and 1000 pull-ups in over an hour on a tv show in 1954. Doing this feat and things before this feat gave him the oppertunity to do something never seen before in the history of television and thats teach his methods of exercise on a weekly exercise show. This became the longest running fitness show in TV history. At each birthday every few years or so he would put himself in a situation where he would do a feat of strength/endurance that he felt fit his fancy and every feat he did never was broken again. Throughout the years Jack continued to practiced what he preaches and still does it to this day at the age of 94.....Thats not a typo, 94 years young and still has the strength of men nearly 3 times his age. Who else can say that about someone let alone men his age who can't walk nor move without assistance. To quote him about his practice "I can't die, it'll ruin my image" that is by far one of the best quotes ive ever read and all I can say is Jack is an immortal human being and very rarely you see men of his stature in this day in age.
It is an honor to have this man as one of many influences of physical culture and continue to read and listen to his powerful wisdom and humor cause in todays society looking good is the way to go to get ahead in life but he never believed that to be true and nor do I. He sais it best "Exercise is King, Nutrition is Queen put them together and you got a kindom."
To find out more of this Living Legend go to:
www.jacklalanne.com
Yours in Health & Strength,
Ben Bergman
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