http://www.playboy.co.uk/the-articles/interview/79286/1/20Q-Jack-La-Lanne/commentsPage/1/contentPage/0The elder statesman of fitness on his workout (ugh!), nutritional breakfasts (yuck!), gays (gulp!) and better sex (aah!). Physical fitness has America in an iron grip. With that in mind, we asked Contributing Editor David Rensin to speak with one of the few legends of health-and-body conditioning and the founder of the modern-day health salon, Jack La Lanne, on the eve of his 70th birthday.
"When the interview began in La Lanne's living room at 8:30 A.M., he had already been awake for five hours. He'd exercised, had breakfast and donned a red jump suit."Most people know La Lanne only from his TV show. It's the least of his achievements. On each birthday, La Lanne performs a muscle-numbing feat. At 45, he did 1000 push-ups and 1000 chin-ups in an hour and 22 minutes. At 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf--handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1000-pound boat. At 66, La Lanne swam more than a mile--handcuffed, feet shackled, towing ten boats carrying 77 people. In 48 minutes."Most of us have trouble just turning on a tape recorder. Happy birthday, Jack."
Q1 Playboy: What incredible feat are you planning to do to celebrate turning 70?
Jack La Lanne: I'm planning to swim underwater from Catalina Island to Los Angeles. That's 26 miles. I'll do it in less than 24 hours. But what I really wanted to do was carry a 350-pound bar bell on my shoulders down Hollywood Boulevard to protest all the male and female prostitution, all the dope and crap. I wanted to show people that there are better things in life, that you can be fit at any age. Can you imagine 350 pounds on your back for half an hour? All your muscles contract simultaneously. That's plain pain. And I would challenge anyone in the world to do that and give him $10,000 if he did. But I can't do it now. Some kid hit my new Porsche 924 head on. About $15,000 damage. I had to have surgery on my knee to take cartilage out, and that took care of that. But I got a new Porsche 944 recently. It's a pistol. I had it up to 130 the other day.
Q2 Playboy: Why do you often handcuff and shackle yourself for your swims?
Use it or lose it, I say Lanne: Because it makes them ten times more difficult. Otherwise, anyone would be doing these things.
Q3 Playboy: What's your secret? Wheaties?
Lanne: Sometimes I have a Jack La Lanne Diet Shake, a product I've had out for about 20 years now. Or one of the five Jack La Lanne breakfast cereals. They're all natural grains--no white sugar, no white flour, no salt, no fats. I'm more and more into grains these days; also raw fish. I eat sashimi almost every day--though not for breakfast. But mainly, I have about 400 vitamin supplements for breakfast right after I work out.
I put them in a blender and make a high-protein drink. I use a quart of carrot and celery juice, half and half, then put in two heaping tablespoons of wheat germ, two more of nonfat-milk solids, two more of high-strain brewers' yeast, then a heaping tablespoon of bone meal and a banana. Then I put in 100 liver-yeast tablets, 15,000 milligrams of vitamin C, 2000 units of B, some boron and some zinc; also 75 alfalfa-and-kelp tablets. Then I blend it and drink it. It's one of the worst-tasting health drinks you could have, but I still drink it, because it's the perfect breakfast. It's got about 40 grams of protein, all the B-complex vitamins, everything that's natural from the carrot and celery juices, the enzymes, the trace elements, calcium and potassium from the bone meal. And it's very low in calories. After you work out like me, you're not hungry; you're thirsty.
Q4 Playboy: What are your workouts like?
Lanne: I believe in vigorous, violent, daily, systematic exercise to the point of muscle failure. I'm usually up each day at 3:30 A.M. I hit the gym at four A.M. I'm out at 6:30 A.M. I do it seven days a week and have ever since I can remember. Sometimes I hit the gym without having gotten any sleep, like when I've done a lecture or a seminar. My top priority in life is my workout. Regardless of what happens, I hit that gym. Even when I was in the hospital twice with serious knee operations: Right after I came out of anesthesia, there was a chin bar over my head and dumbbells. I worked out immediately.
It's very easy to rationalize, however, and say, "What the hell. I didn't get enough sleep" or "I'm too busy" or "I've got this little ache or pain." That's all bullcrap. You do it. It's tough. It's hard. I'd rather take a beating sometimes than get in that gym every morning. Anyone who gets up that early and says he likes it is a goddamned liar. The only good thing about it is that when I'm finished, I look at myself in the mirror and say, "Jack, you've done it again!" I've won another battle over myself, and that's what it's all about: conquering me. If I didn't do it, I'd be lying to myself. If I lie to me, I lie to you and wreck everything that Jack La Lanne stands for. If I'm not an example of my philosophy, it sure isn't going to turn anyone else on. That's why Jesus made such a big impact. He practiced what he preached. He also did miracles to call attention to his philosophies. That's why I do incredible things on my birthdays.
Q5 Playboy: Do you consider sex an exercise?
Lanne: Absolutely. What's more physical? We're sensuous creatures. Sex is the greatest driving force on this planet. Christ, why are we living if we can't have a little fun?
Sex is giving, and the more you give, the better lover you are. But if you don't have it to give, well, that's why physical fitness is so great. What group of people are the sexiest of all these days? Athletes! They've got the health, the energy; they can give of themselves. And if you love sex, you've got to have something to give. Look, if you're sick, are you thinking of sex? That's what I try to tell the guys. Some have three or four extra inches on their waistline, yet they like to be proud of themselves in the sack. I say, "Look, for every two inches you take off up there, it makes your business down there look an inch longer. Isn't everything relative? If you have a six-inch tool and a 50-inch waistline, the thing doesn't look very big, does it?" That's my incentive.It's simple: You've got to appeal to the pride in people. When a woman is flabby and soft, she's unattractive. When you married a beautiful girl and all of a sudden you start seeing her tits down to here and her breath stinks and she's not clean anymore and has no pride in herself, you can't love her. You may bullshit yourself, but you can't. Energy makes people beautiful. That's what charisma is. You don't want to be close to someone who is dead and crapped out all the time, who's bitching that it's a lousy fucking world and "Christ, my ulcers are killing me." Maybe 50 or 60 percent of all divorces are predicated on someone's being physically unfit. Who wants to live with negativism? Love goes out the window.
Q6 Playboy: Are all kinds of sex healthy?
Lanne: It's up to the individual. Sex has to do with imagination, so the sky is the limit. If you're not doing bodily harm, why shouldn't you do what turns you on? I'm not a prude who thinks everything should be done the Jack La Lanne way. All I want you to do is follow my method of fitness: Eat properly. Think right. Exercise more. What you do with your new-found energy and vitality is your own business.
Q7 Playboy: Is sex still good at 70?
Lanne: The biggest bunch of bullshit is that it's not. Use it or lose it, I say. I've got friends who are 70, 80, 90, and, Christ, they're horny bastards. Three or four times a week is nothing to them.
Q8 Playboy: By now, you've probably seen all the health-and-fitness videos put out by such people as Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons and Debbie Reynolds. Would you care to offer a quick critique?
Lanne: They're all about the same; they're all jumping around. Some of it's good; some of it's bad. But 90 percent of the exercises in those things are for your calves. There's too much stretching for the lower back and calves while ignoring the rest of you. What are they doing for your shoulders, arms, chest, waist?
Now, I'm going to be coming out with ten audio-visual tapes for home consumption. They'll be good ones. They'll concentrate on all the problem areas. I'll do one for kids, one for executives, a motivational tape, one on nutrition.
I've just built a television studio in my new home in Morro Bay. I'm going to do a syndicated show from there called Jack La Lanne and Friends. I'll get celebrities like Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller, big sports celebrities, anyone who's recognizable. I'll put people up overnight at my home. I have a maid who will take care of their food and drinks. Then we'll shoot a show together, a real comprehensive thing. I'll find out what they're having for breakfast, lunch and dinner, what their exercise habits are, their sex habits, their hobbies, their problems. And then I'll give them an exercise for their problem areas and get them right there on the floor exercising with me. And I'll recommend what foods they should eat: a real in-depth thing.
Q9 Playboy: For most people, food equals pleasure. Yet diet programs usually leave you hungry, and it's difficult to stick to a diet when you go to a restaurant. What do you eat when you eat out?
Lanne: I've never told my stomach I'm a poor man. Lots of my contemporaries go into a restaurant and figure they can cheat just this one time. What the hell, they don't want to bother anyone. Not me. I call over the chef or the maitre d'. I ask for the right food and he respects me for it. Some people complain about taste. They'll look at a squid and go, "God!" So they eat chicken. But chickens are some of the world's filthiest creatures. They eat anything. I lived on a ranch as a kid. When the sheep died, they'd get maggots. We'd throw the carcasses into the chicken yard, and within two hours they'd be down to the bone. The pigs would defecate and the chickens would eat it up! But people love chicken. So the chickens I eat are organically grown with special care. I know the source of everything I eat.
Q10 Playboy: Lots of people work out during the week; then, on weekends, they do drugs, drink wine and indulge in vigorous self-abuse. Are they just fooling themselves? Is there a wine that goes well with wheat germ, so to speak?
Lanne: They've earned the right. It's just like, goddamn, if you write a check for $1000 but have only $500 in the bank, you're bankrupt. But if you have $5000 in the bank, you can afford it. Who are the greatest dissipaters in the world? Professional athletes. They're in such good shape that they can drink, they can screw, they can smoke. What you put into life you can take out. Look, you've got to have a little fun. We're living in a promiscuous society now. People want sex; they want drugs; they want lots of things.
I know we all hear that we shouldn't smoke, shouldn't drink, but you've never heard me say that. I would rather see you drink moderately than not drink at all. Any kind of wine is great. Most restaurants have good food, but the only natural food you'll get at the whole damn meal is wine. It's never been cooked, heated or had anything taken away from it. It was picked at maturity and nothing was added. It gives you a nice little euphoria and opens the blood vessels. It adds extra vitamins and minerals. That's helping yourself and having fun at the same time. Complete abstainers' life spans are shorter than those of people who indulge moderately. My next-door neighbor just died recently. He was 102. He had two martinis for lunch; later a few more; wine. But he was active. I had a program of exercises for him that he did until damn near two months before he died. Now, I'm definitely not into this heroin or coke or any of that stuff--well, maybe coke; it depends on how you eat and how you exercise. And marijuana--nobody knows too much about it except that it's definitely not habit-forming, so it would probably be better for someone to have a joint once in a while on the weekends than to drink booze to excess. I mean, you wouldn't eat 100 apples a day, would you?