Jack LaLanne would fit perfectly into today’s society of fitness influencers and personalities. But he appeared several generations before the Internet and even before the birth of television. That turned out to be a good thing, as he became the creator and inventor of many common aspects of fitness as we know it today.
Lalanne was also a daredevil and wanted to try again and again. In his eyes, risking everything was a way to show why fitness is so important and could inspire the masses to start exercising and eating right. The bigger and more dangerous the challenge, the better, because Lalan will be able to show off his abilities and entertain his fans.
Jack LaLanne’s widow Elaine has been by his side throughout his crazy stunts and knows firsthand why he was able to pull them off without any problems.
“He was able to do it because he knew it could be done! Why? It was because he visualized it and believed it was possible. His famous quote is, ‘Anything is possible. . If you believe, you can achieve it! What he did, negative words were not in his vocabulary!”
Swimming on Alcatraz Island is considered his most famous feat, but he accomplished much more than that. Beyond juicers, he also made significant contributions to the fitness industry as we know it today. Elaine gave us the inside scoop on 10 of his accomplishments. What you’ll notice is that while he made them look simple, they were never easy.
Death-defying swim in San Francisco
Jack LaLanne turned 40 in 1954.To celebrate this milestone age, he Swimming across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Dive underwater with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks. At the time, this was called an undisputed world record, but no one has achieved it since. Elaine spoke about the risks involved in this swim and said the results of his efforts could have been life-changing or even life-ending.
“He barely made it to the other side because the two tanks on his back ran out of air,” she said. At the end of the swim, a strong wave threw him onto rocks beneath a retaining wall on the shoreline. ”
Elaine revealed that she didn’t know what he went through until the end, and said that his safety was thanks to the amulet.
“The hat I wore that day ended up being worn every time I went swimming…I called it my lucky hat!”
towing cabin cruiser
Three years after his first swim, Lalan returned to the ocean. This time she was towing a 2,500-pound cabin cruiser through the treacherous Golden Gate Strait. With that kind of weight, beginners might think strength is important, but Elaine shared that Jack was focused on endurance.
“When Jack went swimming in the ocean in Santa Monica, I didn’t see him for about an hour. I used to worry, but when I got up he would pop out like a daisy.”
Although the challenge sounds and reads scary, Elaine said Jack didn’t think the feat was difficult. She, too, was to join in his efforts.
“I was on this boat with local celebrities from San Francisco and a lot of local press.”
Contribution to service and fitness
Jack LaLanne served in the U.S. Navy and felt he could do more to help those serving his country after his discharge from the military. He created training programs and routines for soldiers and provided his services to various branches of the military as needed to maximize the potential of American military personnel.
Additionally, he handled the fitness testing and programming needs of the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los Angeles Police Department recognized LaLan’s efforts in 2005, when Jack was 91 years old, and awarded Jack his Webb Award. That same year, then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded LaLanne the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award.
All day paddle boarding
Jack LaLanne decided to change that on his 44th birthday. Instead of swimming, he piloted a paddleboard and ran 30 miles from the Farallon Islands to the San Francisco coast, nonstop, in 9 1/2 hours. Elaine felt this was more difficult, but he was clearly up to the task as he was determined to prove that his age was a number. She’s seen a lot of him in action, and she’s still impressed with his success that day.
“They arrived around 11 p.m. Jack jumped into the water and began rowing behind the pilot boat. More than nine hours later, the next morning, he arrived at the San Francisco coast. I couldn’t sleep and I breathed a sigh of relief when I met him on the beach! His patience still amazes me!”
celebrate america’s birthday
In 1976, Jack, 62, wanted to celebrate America’s Bicentennial. He decided to swim a mile in Long Beach Harbor. To spice up the swim, he towed away 13 boats (representing the original 13 colonies) carrying 76 people, handcuffed and shackled. According to Elaine, the preparations took months. She may have wondered how he came up with this idea, but she knew he could do it, and a lot of people wanted to see it. Ta. So she brought along a trusted ally.
“Hundreds of people were lined up along the shore,” she recalled, “people in their own boats and reporters on the boats yelling ‘Go Jack Go!'” “I put on my lucky hat again and boarded the press boat!”
smith machine
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve used a Smith machine at least once. It turns out it may have been called the LaLanne Machine. Elaine talked about how the device Jack used in his backyard was introduced into his studio and evolved into the version we know today.
Jack’s squat machine was developed around the same time in a backyard for knee rehabilitation.
“One of his students, a patterner named Jack Palmer, created patterns from Jack’s crude drawings for things like leg extensions, squat bars, and wall pulleys. Jack used these patterns to create metal labor to weld the parts together. Paul Martin.
Jack LaLanne invented several other concepts, including the wall pulley and the calf machine. Eventually, his squat machine fell into the hands of Rudy Smith, who added his own innovations to it, and thus Smith’s machine was born. Even though numerous machines have been sold in the decades since then, it hasn’t been of economic benefit to the innovators, Elaine said.
“Neither Jack nor Rudy received any royalties from it.”
Designed for speed and strength
When the 1980s arrived, Jack found new waters to swim in and new challenges to overcome. When he was 6-6, he towed 10 boats over a mile in less than an hour in North Miami, Florida, carrying 77 people. It wasn’t just the distance, but also the speed that challenged him. This was a rare occasion that Elaine could not attend, but she believed he could do it. She and America were able to see it thanks to a local TV show.
“Jack told me that the dish was created by a local spa owner and his publicist, as well as singer Julius LaRosa, who had a national TV show from Miami. LaRosa later appeared on his own TV show. We showed some of it on the show. So it got national coverage.”
A unique way to celebrate 70 years
Jack LaLanne had no criminal record, but was handcuffed multiple times. One such opportunity came after he turned 70. Handcuffed and shackled, he battled strong winds and currents to tow 70 boats carrying 70 people the 2.5 miles from the Queensway Bridge in Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.Elaine reported that this required a lot of preparation
You can’t imagine how he accomplished this challenge, although he did have help from the sea and volunteers who operated the boats.
“At the end of the swim, Jack jumped out of the water as if nothing had happened,” she said. She said: “Once on shore, I attended press conferences and parties on the Queen Mary as if I had just returned from a TV show.”
Development of leg extension machine
Jack was a football player in high school, but a knee injury derailed his season. The doctors who operated on him told him he might never walk properly again. Elaine learns how a book and the determination he had already cultivated changed his future and the future generations to come thanks to the development of his new training machines that can be found in almost every commercial gym around the world. I remember how it influenced me.
“A few years before Jack was injured, he had bought ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and was devouring it,” Elaine said. “It took many months of rehabilitation for Jack to perform the leg extension exercises he had designed for himself, using a crude prototype of a still-unborn machine.”
Glamor Stretcher (currently resistance band)
By the 1950s, Jack’s friends could bring him random objects to see how they could be used for fitness and training. One of Jack’s friends, Paul Bragg, brought along a two-foot length of rubber to see what he could do with it. Elaine described this moment as if Jack had given her a new toy.
“Jack got excited and started stretching in all directions. The next day we went to a rubber company in Oakland, California to make an exercise stretcher. “I wanted something that had loops and was flexible enough that anyone could stand up and stretch it over their head,” she said. “The loop design allows you to put your feet and hands through it, and it also allows you to hang it on a doorknob.”
If they look familiar, it’s because today they’re known as resistance bands and are used for stretching, training, and even as an accessory for barbells. He called it the “Glamour Stretcher” because he was marketing it to women, who made up a large portion of his audience.
“Soon after that, we launched another stretcher with more tension called the Easyway Conditioner for Men,” Elaine explained. Other products emerged in the years that followed, and this innovative technology became a gym staple for decades to come.
This list is a snapshot of Jack LaLanne’s long list of accomplishments and innovations. If you would like to learn more or read more about swimming at Alcatraz, order Elaine’s book, Pride and Discipline, co-authored with Greg Justice. This book is currently available on Amazon.
