The Godfather of Fitness

By Bob Cox

If you didn’t know that Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne, was actually born twice, then you really don’t know “Jack”. LaLanne entered the world where Tony Bennett left his heart (San Francisco) on September 26, 1914. His older brother Norman nicknamed him Jack, probably to keep the kids at school from torturing him.

During his childhood, Jack was addicted to sugar and junk food. He had violent episodes directed against himself and others. "I was a miserable goddamn kid...it was like hell," recalled Jack. He actually set his parents' house on fire and attacked his brother with an axe. In addition to having a bad temper, Jack suffered from headaches and bulimia. At age 14, he was so weak his family physician recommended he be removed from school to rest and regain his strength.

The following year, he turned his life around. According to Jack, he was born again after attending a lecture by health food pioneer Paul Bragg. Bragg emphasized the importance of proper health and nutrition, honing in on the "evils of meat and sugar” during his seminar. From that day on, Jack committed himself to a strick daily regimen of nutrition and exercise. “I had to take my lunch alone to the football field to eat so no one would see me eat my raw veggies, whole bread, raisins and nuts. You don’t know the crap I went through”, said Jack.

By the time he was 18, LaLanne was training policemen and firemen in exercise and weightlifting at his home gym. Three years later, he opened one of the nation's first fitness gyms in Oakland, California and even invented a number of exercise machines. In 1955, LaLanne was named Professional Mr. America.

Jack became famous during the early years of television. His futuristic looking one piece jumpsuit and signature “jumping jacks” gave him the persona of a man ahead of his time. A number of cynics felt his show on fitness and nutrition wouldn’t last four months, let alone four decades. He absolutely pummelled his critics as the The Jack LaLanne Show aired in millions of living rooms across America from 1951 to 1985.

LaLanne also achieved a variety of amazing feats of fitness, including: At age 41, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while wearing handcuffs. At age 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf handcuffed, shackled and towing a thousand-pound boat. He saved his most amazing feat for last, when at age 70 while handcuffed and shackled, he towed seventy boats holding seventy people for one and a half miles across Long Beach Harbor!

Among LaLanne's many memorable quotes, my personal favorite was: “I can't die. It would ruin my image.” After 96 extraordinary years, LaLanne passed away from pneumonia, while surrounded by his family in January, 2011.