Jack Lalanne is an idol of mine, along with Bruce Lee. When I started training as a kid I'd try to do push ups. Up to 200 a night after reading that bruce did it. I would put my feet up on the couch and go low trying to touch my collar bone to the floor. Initially only to do about 30 (sets of 4 or 5), I made it after a couple of years (8 sets of 25, slow and controlled). Built a good chest and shoulders for a teenager.
Jack's endurance feats are amazing. In this day and age if he did them people would be screaming EPO, GH, steriods and the like. He had a pretty good physique back in the day. Most importantly the man was highly functional. The bodybuilders today could jog a few hundred meters without an ambulance being called.
