Francois Henri LaLanne’s (1914-2011) famous diet and exercise program paved the way for him to become an American health icon. He opened the first public gym in Oakland, California and is best known for his TV show about fitness. But he started out as a kid as a junk food addict until he was embarrassed at failing a routine physical exam at school. This angered and motivated him to attend health lectures, which realigned his life.
WORK OUT: LaLanne’s workout routine began with a series of stretches in bed as soon as he woke up around 5am. Then he went to one of his weight rooms, one had free weights and the other had weight lifting machines. He trained lower body one day and upper body the next, and the entire routine was changed every 30 days. After 90 minutes of weightlifting, he went into the pool for another 30 minutes for swimming and water aerobics.
DIET: He only ate two meals a day. The first meal was at 11am after training and the second around 7pm, usually at a coffee shop with his wife. His breakfast consisted of fruit, oatmeal, broth, and four egg whites.
His restaurant dinners began with a salad made from 10 raw vegetables and four hard-boiled egg whites. Fish was eaten almost every night and roast turkey occasionally. He ate no other meats and no snacks between meals. His juicer became popular because Jack just couldn’t eat that many raw vegetables. He found that juicing made it easier to consume the large amount of vegetables he wanted.
VITAMINS: In addition to a disciplined diet, Jack consumed 40 to 50 vitamins and minerals daily. The list is too long to print here, but it can be found on his website. However, he has never relied on supplements to replace food, he just considers it an “insurance policy”.
ALCOHOL: As a Frenchman, he believed in wine drinking because he noticed that the French tend to live longer in their wine culture. He indulged in this pleasure alongside his discipline and was even known to sometimes get drunk.
He published his last book at the age of 95, live forever young this prompted me to switch my breakfast to oatmeal and raisins – his favorite. He died of pneumonia a little over a year later at the age of 96.
CONCLUSION: There are points of contention in his routine. It is true that Jack placed weights before aerobic exercise. In his diet, he derived most of his protein from egg whites and fish rather than from more diverse sources. His heavy vitamin consumption may not have helped much as absorption rates were lower back then. And he probably drank a little too much at times. But it’s his longstanding dedication to healthy eating and challenging exercise that sets him apart.
Allen, R. 4-8-15 Jack LaLanne training Retrieved from muscleprodigy.com/jack-lalanne-workout/
Thanks to H Lee Johnson