Thanks for the videos guys!
I didn’t think that his old stuff would be on youtube. I’ll be watching them all over the next few days.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
This list is from his website.
Opened the first modern health spa
The first to have a nationally syndicated exercise show on television
The first to have athletes working out with weights
The first to have women working out with weights
The first to have the elderly working out with weights
The first to have a combination Health Food Bar and Gym
The first to have a weight loss Instant Breakfast meal replacement drink
The first to have a Coed health club
The first to combine weight training with nutrition
The first to have an edible snack nutrition bar
The first to sell vitamins and exercise equipment on television
The first to teach scientific body building by changing the program every 2 to 3 weeks
The first to encourage the physically challenged to exerciseâ?¦ to work around their disabilities
The first to do feats of strength and endurance to emphasize what exercise and nutrition can do for you
Developed the first:
o Leg Extension Machine
o Weight selector machine
o Cable/Pulley machines
o Calf machines
o Wrist roll machines
[/quote]
OK, please don’t take this the wrong way because I have great respect for the guy, but some of these firsts are incorrect.
Athletes have been working out with weights at least since the days of Milo of Crotona. It’s believed that the ancient people of India were the first to lift and swing heavy clubs and stones in order to build up strength for sports and combat. I’d go even further and suggest that stone age people probably figured out that you could practice and build up your strength for stuff like throwing spears and rocks by hefting and throwing heavier-than-normal spears and rocks, but I’ll grant that they weren’t athletes.
In the early 1940s, the Olympic weightlifter and bodybuilder John Grimek appeared before a university medical board to bust the myth those “experts” had been perpetuating in journals that weight training was causing athletes to be musclebound. Grimek did that by demonstrating feats of strength and flexibility/gymnastics that left the board members speechless. Afterward they admitted weight training could improve sports performance and flexibility and they abandoned the concept of being musclebound.
As for combining weight training and nutrition, a lot of early bodybuilders/strongmen were doing that and in some cases commercializing it: Eugen Sandow, Charles Atlas, and a wrestler named George Hackenschmidt (inventor of the hack squat), for example. Most of these guys came a generation or two before Jack.
About being the first to do feats of strength and endurance to emphasize what exercise and nutrition can do for you… I would give that distinction to Eugen Sandow. The guy touched off a popular fitness revolution back in the 1890s doing just that. He also got rich selling instructional courses and offering personal training to the wealthy. He even worked as the personal trainer to some of the British royal family. Sandow paved the way for Charles Atlas to create his mail order muscle-building and nutrition course in the 1920’s, when Lalanne was still a kid.
Again, I’m not trying to denigrate Jack Lalanne. I think he was a pioneer in his own right. IMO, Lalanne’s greatest achievement was demonstrating that getting old doesn’t have to mean getting weak and decrepit. And I have no doubt he did all you list FOR TELEVISION AUDIENCES - something that had never been done before. But I’m too into the history of fitness to let exaggerated marketing claims go unquestioned.
[quote]Mad HORSE wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[quote]Mad HORSE wrote:
You guys must be kidding. He was the man, and he will refuse to rest in peace. He’s up there now getting a harness and handcuffs so he can show St Peter how to really pull the gates!
Damn, this does make me rather emo though.[/quote]
He’s up there banging Mary![/quote]
I actually doubt that. By all accounts I’ve seen, he was a good faithful man. I can’ see him sleeping around, even after death.[/quote]
No way man. He’s cornholing Mary, he’s beating Jesus at Indian leg wrestling and he’s swimming across Heaven in shackles while towing Noah’s ark with a rope in his teeth.
[quote]BobParr wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
This list is from his website.
Opened the first modern health spa
The first to have a nationally syndicated exercise show on television
The first to have athletes working out with weights
The first to have women working out with weights
The first to have the elderly working out with weights
The first to have a combination Health Food Bar and Gym
The first to have a weight loss Instant Breakfast meal replacement drink
The first to have a Coed health club
The first to combine weight training with nutrition
The first to have an edible snack nutrition bar
The first to sell vitamins and exercise equipment on television
The first to teach scientific body building by changing the program every 2 to 3 weeks
The first to encourage the physically challenged to exercise�¢?�¦ to work around their disabilities
The first to do feats of strength and endurance to emphasize what exercise and nutrition can do for you
Developed the first:
o Leg Extension Machine
o Weight selector machine
o Cable/Pulley machines
o Calf machines
o Wrist roll machines
[/quote]
OK, please don’t take this the wrong way because I have great respect for the guy, but some of these firsts are incorrect.
Athletes have been working out with weights at least since the days of Milo of Crotona. It’s believed that the ancient people of India were the first to lift and swing heavy clubs and stones in order to build up strength for sports and combat. I’d go even further and suggest that stone age people probably figured out that you could practice and build up your strength for stuff like throwing spears and rocks by hefting and throwing heavier-than-normal spears and rocks, but I’ll grant that they weren’t athletes.
In the early 1940s, the Olympic weightlifter and bodybuilder John Grimek appeared before a university medical board to bust the myth those “experts” had been perpetuating in journals that weight training was causing athletes to be musclebound. Grimek did that by demonstrating feats of strength and flexibility/gymnastics that left the board members speechless. Afterward they admitted weight training could improve sports performance and flexibility and they abandoned the concept of being musclebound.
As for combining weight training and nutrition, a lot of early bodybuilders/strongmen were doing that and in some cases commercializing it: Eugen Sandow, Charles Atlas, and a wrestler named George Hackenschmidt (inventor of the hack squat), for example. Most of these guys came a generation or two before Jack.
About being the first to do feats of strength and endurance to emphasize what exercise and nutrition can do for you… I would give that distinction to Eugen Sandow. The guy touched off a popular fitness revolution back in the 1890s doing just that. He also got rich selling instructional courses and offering personal training to the wealthy. He even worked as the personal trainer to some of the British royal family. Sandow paved the way for Charles Atlas to create his mail order muscle-building and nutrition course in the 1920’s, when Lalanne was still a kid.
Again, I’m not trying to denigrate Jack Lalanne. I think he was a pioneer in his own right. IMO, Lalanne’s greatest achievement was demonstrating that getting old doesn’t have to mean getting weak and decrepit. And I have no doubt he did all you list FOR TELEVISION AUDIENCES - something that had never been done before. But I’m too into the history of fitness to let exaggerated marketing claims go unquestioned.
[/quote]
I’m sure you’re right Bob. Jack LaLanne was “the man” but not “the only man.” I’m sure his website tended toward the hyperbole. I will say, we have a term at our house. I think I made it up. The verb - “Lalanneing”. This is what you do while watching TV, instead of sitting on your rear on the couch. When I’m up playing with a medicine ball or doing glute bridges or something I’m “Lalanneing”. I love that the guy never seemed to sit down!
He may not have originated weight lifting for athletes, but there was a long period of time, call it the dark ages for athletes training with weights in the 40’s and 50’s, 60’s and even into the 70’s where weight training for athletes was frowned upon. That doesn’t mean that the Greek athletes or whomever didn’t lift some sort of weight to grow stronger. It just means that LaLane brought us out of a very dark age of several decades.
A true inspiration and a man ahead of his time. I have tons of respect for Jack.
Is there anyone who can even come close to beating any of his records? What an incredible specimen
[quote]ZEB wrote:
Is there anyone who can even come close to beating any of his records? What an incredible specimen[/quote]
I don’t think the records even matter. It’s who he was, what he did, and the time period he did it in. The records are awesome, don’t get me wrong, and I’m sure they’ll stand for a very long time, but they’re just a detail in an completely awesome life.
Just my opinion; I might be wrong.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Developed the first:
o Leg Extension Machine
[/quote]
bullshit
[quote]Mad HORSE wrote:
[quote]ZEB wrote:
Is there anyone who can even come close to beating any of his records? What an incredible specimen[/quote]
I don’t think the records even matter. It’s who he was, what he did, and the time period he did it in. The records are awesome, don’t get me wrong, and I’m sure they’ll stand for a very long time, but they’re just a detail in an completely awesome life.
Just my opinion; I might be wrong.[/quote]
I think you are correct. He did all this in a time when doctors and coaches were telling those who trusted in them that lifting weights would actually harm them. He was a pioneer in so many ways. But the records do intrigue me.
I just heard about this last night (yeah, been busy). I still remember that shadowy B&w intro of him doing the jumping jacks on TV when I was a kid. Wow, like the passing of a legend and an era.
There’s a news agency in Taiwan that makes terrible recreations of the news with horrible embellishments. Here’s their video about jack;
Sorry, I’ll try again:
Here’s how the do the weather. A little better I’d say:
It’s funny that their video animation made LaLanne look more like Nards than the actual LaLanne.
lol