“I do it as therapy.  I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline.  Exercise is my discipline.”

-Jack LaLanne

After 96 years of youthful, healthy living, an American icon passes away.  Jack LaLanne was an avid health and fitness nut if you will, encouraging people to workout and eat well for decades.

He didn’t sugar coat any of it either.  Typically speaking it was get up and get moving type of mentality.  From the things I’ve read about the man, and interviews I’ve seen with him, he said like it is.

“The only way to get that fat off, is eat less and exercise more.”

Simple.  Truth.

Some LaLanne’s feats included doing a 1,000 push ups in 23 minutes!  Hell, it took me 20 minutes to do 250 push ups!!  He swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf shackled to a 1,000lb boat at the age of 60.

I don’t think he was trying to prove that he himself could do these things, but that they COULD be done, all you had to do was do it.

“The only way you can hurt the body is not to use it.  Inactivity is the killer and remember, it’s never too late.”

In 1936 he opened a training facility that incorporated weight training for women.  This was unheard of, the stereotype started way back then, that if women lifted weights they would look like men.

Thank you Jack!!

Although we still struggle with fighting some of the same myths in regard to women and strength training, maybe it’d be a little harder to overcome if you didn’t start so early.

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1. Are You Being Lazy?

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