Tag: Fitness

He was quite the encouragement to many people over the years including me. Rest in peace good man.

LaLanne would roll his eyes at guys reading newspapers on stationary cycles. That wasn’t exercising. No, for LaLanne, every exercise needed to be done as hard as possible. And he let his muscles know it: “’C’mon, you bastards!’ See, you gotta talk to `em. These muscles are saying, `I can’t do it anymore.’ The hell you can’t! I won’t feed you! You sons of bitches work for me, Jack LaLanne! These muscles are my servants.”

Here are some other lessons to take away from a life well-lived:

LaLanne on pushing hard . . .
“I believe in vigorous, violent, daily, systematic exercise to the point of muscle failure.”

LaLanne on habits . . .
“It’s not what you do some of the time that counts, it’s what you do all of the time that counts.”

“Exercise is King, nutrition is Queen, put them together and you’ve got a kingdom.”

LaLanne on mental fitness . . .
“Fitness starts between your ears. Your muscles, what the hell do they know? Nothing. It’s brains. If you had to eat carrots the rest of your life, you’d go nuts. It’s variety, see? That’s why I change my workout every 30 days.

LaLanne on nutrition . .
“If it tastes good, spit it out.”

“Eat right and you can’t go wrong.”

“If man makes it, I don’t eat it.”

“Look at my Corvette, a `98—one of the finest sports cars I’ve ever had. Would I put water in the gas tank? Well, think about the crap people put in their bodies–white flour, sugar, all this processed food. It’s just like using water for fuel.”

LaLanne on abs . . .
“Your waistline is your lifeline.”

The scissors exercise: Grip the seat of an armless chair, straighten your legs, lift them as high as you can, then quickly and continuously cross them over each other.

The LaLanne meal plan . . .
Breakfast was always LaLanne’s biggest meal of the day, a blended concoction of juice, wheat germ, brewer’s yeast, bone meal, protein powder, and handfuls of vitamins and minerals. He would drink it after his workout, too, when he was too thirsty to mind the awful taste.

Lunch was three to five pieces of fruit, vegetable soup, and four egg whites.

Dinner was a salad, plus fresh fish and brown rice.

LaLanne on working every muscle of the body . . .
“Your health account is like your bank account: The more you put in, the more you can take out.”

LaLanne claimed to work every one of his 640 muscles in his body every day. That included doing goofy facial contortions and picking up marbles with his toes.

LaLanne on longevity . . .
“I can’t die. It would ruin my image.”

“People don’t die of old age, they die of inactivity.”

“Never, ever think of dying. I think of living . . . living, boy, you have to work at it.”

LaLanne on the sexual health benefits of exercise . . .
“I wake up every morning with an erection a cat can’t scratch.”

LaLanne on motivation . . .
“Do, don’t stew.”

“Anything in life is possible and you can make it happen.”

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