LaLanne says it’s not old age that kills – “it’s inactivity!”
Jack LaLanne is a man of firsts. As a lifelong proponent of “longer life through better living,” the spunky 92-year-old invented the modern health club industry, was the first to promote women working out with weights, is considered the father of the breakfast nutrition replacement drink and had a television career that spanned 34 years.
LaLanne spoke as the headliner at CBU’s School of Behavioral Science “Ethics and Aging” conference this weekend, along with his sidekick and “wind beneath his muscles” wife, Elaine. The energetic duo, both lecturers and authors, have devoted their lives to helping Americans learn proper nutrition and exercise.
“Obey natures’ laws and you can be born again,” LaLanne said, quoting an early influencer whose words inspired his own teenage-year conversion to health and fitness. A self-described “sickly” child, LaLanne said once he became a vegetarian and started exercising at the Berkeley YMCA, his energy doubled and he “never had another headache.”
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John Sarkauskas was among about 100 guests who attended the “Ethics and Aging” conference at CBU on Saturday, and is pictured here seeking Jack LaLanne’s autograph. Sarkauskas, walking spryly with his walking stick, noted his one year age advantage over keynote speaker Jack LaLanne. “I’m 93,” he winked at CBU conference organizers.
Fellow octogenarian Sarkauskas has stayed active throughout his life, he said, showing conference guests a clipping of an LA Times story that featured his walk across America in 1938, from New York City to Los Angeles. “I grew up in Scotland, where they told me, ‘Johnnie, the streets in America are paved with gold,” he mused. “I went looking for them—and I’m still looking!” |
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In his early days as a fitness consultant, LaLanne said he started a gym in his back yard in Oakland, recruiting “the skinniest kids and the fattest kids” throughout the neighborhood to help the smaller boys put on weight through muscle development and the larger boys take off weight through exercise and nutritional counseling.
“Doctors at the time thought weight training was bad and nutrition was ‘bunk,’” he said.
Yet the results LaLanne helped his clients achieve caused his reputation to grow, and ultimately led to his own television show and Hollywood movie stars singing his praises.
“Now all the things that I was preaching all my life are being accepted,” LaLanne said. LaLanne’s speech was sprinkled with advice and wit: “If man makes it, don’t eat it,” he quipped.
“It isn’t what you do sometimes, it’s what you do all the time.”
After sharing inspirational stories and footage from his vintage television show and showcase career (including black-and-white newsreel footage of his 1959 swim from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf in handcuffs), LaLanne confessed “I hate to work out!” Yet, he said, he continues to work out two hours each day, saying he feels good afterward because “I’ve done something for the most important person on earth – me!”
LaLanne concluded his presentation by encouraging the hundred or so audience members to “start working at living – do something for the most important person on earth – you!”
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LaLanne says: “Do something for the most important person on earth – you!” |
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Self-avowed fitness nut Dr. Tim Jackson, assistant professor of business at CBU, strikes a muscular pose with fitness legend Jack LaLanne. |
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Elaine LaLanne, 80, warms up the audience in Wallace Theatre with clips from the long-running Jack LaLanne fitness show. |
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Photos By: Zack Pianko
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