Need inspiration?
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Need inspiration? - 1/24/2007 7:58:45 AM
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cursor
Posts: 392
Joined: 1/20/2007
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Photograph by MAUREEN DONALDSON
Ninety Years of Muscle
Jack LaLanne Is Still Feeling the Burn
Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 24, 2004
If California is world headquarters for juicing, weightlifting, supplement-happy fitness lovers, thank Jack LaLanne. Oh, and wish him happy birthday: LaLanne, who turned 90 in September, had an epiphany after attending a health lecture as a sickly, underweight 15-year-old in Berkeley, and he's been breaking records ever since. LaLanne, who founded a chain of fitness centers and spent 30 years in Hollywood taking his revolutionary weightlifting, bodybuilding and nutritional principles to the masses on television, still weighs in on late-night television with the Power Juicer he markets with Elaine, his wife of 50 years. The Morro Bay resident gave us some pointers between trips to New York, Atlantic City and his ancestral home in southern France. -- Mark Edward Harris
Q: Since you gave up white flour and white sugar more than 70 years ago, what did you do about your birthday cake this year?
A: I didn't eat it. I practice what I preach.
Q: You started in Northern California and now have a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Did you basically invent the West Coast fitness movement?
A: It was a struggle at first, boy. The doctors back then called me a crackpot and a nut and a charlatan. [Today] the medical profession wants you to have whole grains, five or six raw vegetables every day, five pieces of fresh fruit. You never heard that 30,40 years ago. They said "health food" was a bunch of bull. I was the first one to have women working out with weights. I had athletes working with weights. I had 80-year-old people working out with weights. They said, "You go to that Jack LaLanne you'll get muscle-bound, you'll lose your sex drive, and women will look like men." Now there's not one world-class athlete, male or female, that doesn't work with weights.
Q: Is there something about Southern California that puts us ahead of the learning curve when it comes to a healthy lifestyle?
A: The weather has a lot to do with it. Pride and discipline have a lot to do with it. You want to look good in a bathing suit.
Q: Does the fitness movement go overboard at times?
A: Sex and exercise, you can't overdo them. Try it. But a lot of guys have gone haywire over these damn steroids. When I was entering bodybuilding, drugs were just coming in, but I wouldn't even take an aspirin. I just never went for that stuff.
Q: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger developed a serious heart problem.
A: It's from those steroids, he admits it. Start fooling around with old Mother Nature, you get in trouble. Arnold's a good friend of mine. I met him at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica just after he came over from Austria. We've been buddies ever since. I'm on the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
Q: Do you still work out?
A: Every day I get up around 5 or 6 in the morning, do about 10 minutes of stretching in bed before I get up, then I hit the gym. I do about an hour to an hour and a half with the weights, then I spend another 45 minutes to an hour in the pool. Exercise is something you have to do the rest of your life. It's a lifestyle.
Q: What are your main nutritional principles?
A: I'm a big believer in, "if man makes it, don't eat it"—cakes, pies, ice cream, fries, soda pop, that's what's killing people. Would you get your dog up in the morning and give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a doughnut? You've got to eat more natural foods in their natural state. And you've got to take supplements. Your canned stuff, your fried stuff, most of your vegetables are picked green, then stored. Most people bring them home, boil the stuff'and put the water down the drain. They end up with a healthy drain.
Q: What about a steak once in a while?
A: What's wrong with that? I eat fish seven days a week. You've got to have some protein, whether it's a steak or a lamb chop or chicken or turkey.
Q: Are we in a new era of senior fitness?
A: There are more people than ever living to be 100. They have older people exercising, eating properly and taking the fat off. Most old people sit around and overeat. The only thing they think about is, "Ah, the good ol' days." The good old days are this second. Seize the moment.
Q: Over the years you've done athletic feats to celebrate your birthday, such as swimming from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf.
A: I was 41 years old and did it handcuffed. Another year I went from Fisherman's Wharf to the Farallon Islands and back on one water ski, towed by a helicopter.
Q: What did you do this year for your 90th?
A: Towed my wife across the bathtub!
< Message edited by cursor -- 1/24/2007 12:05:49 PM >
_____________________________
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"Push your limits — define aggressive goals"
_________.P R O G R E S S___P I C S
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RE: Need inspiration? - 1/26/2007 9:53:34 AM
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cursor
Posts: 392
Joined: 1/20/2007
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For those readers who don't know, Clarence Bass (cbass), 65 years old (at the time of this interview), is a lawyer and author of eight highly acclaimed books on bodybuilding and fitness. His Q&A column, the Ripped Department, appeared in Muscle & Fitness magazine continuously for 16 years. He now writes a monthly column for his web site, cbass.com, which has become one of bodybuilding's hottest links. An all-around athlete, Clarence is a former weightlilfting champion and winner of the Most Muscular Man award at the Past-40 Mr. USA contest.
I had the privilege of interviewing Clarence a couple of years back, and thought I'd share it here.
cursor
Good afternoon Clarence.
I certainly appreciate your willingness to take a few minutes to respond to some questions regarding your views on how we might all hone our individual fitness techniques and polish our efforts at improving our health.
cbass
Thanks for the opportunity.
cursor
What frequency and intensity of weight training workouts will ensure optimal muscle gains—and how does periodization come into play?
cbass
No one frequency is best for everyone. It depends on how hard you train. As a general rule, the harder you train the longer it takes to recover and grow. You can train long or you can train hard, but you can't do both. Beginners can usually benefit from more frequent training than advanced trainers who are able to train with more intensity.
Periodization is training in periods of varying volume and intensity; it's planned variation. Intensity generally increases as volume decreases. As I said, you can train hard or long, but not both. The body thrives on variety. The phases starts out moderately hard and become more difficult as the phase unfolds. When you top out at the end of the phase, you back off and start a new and different phase. The ebb and flow of stress and rest is designed to produce optimal progress. In my experience, it's the best way to train for long-term gains.
cursor
How might a beginner best come to understand (mentally & physically) what true maximum effort means when performing a work set?
cbass
The best way to learn is to explore your limits by training. Learn by doing. It doesn't take long to find out how much you can lift for a certain number of reps, while maintaining proper form. It does take a while to learn how to recruit the maximum number of muscle fibers, however. It's mental as well as physical, because your brain sends a message to your muscle fibers to contract. As I explained in Ripped 2, muscle fibers contract as hard as they can or not at all; it's called the all or none law of muscle fiber contraction. Your job on a maximum work set is to activate as many muscle fibers as possible.
Watching helps, of course. Our new video includes an actual work set on the squat. At the risk of boring people to death, I show my general warm-up (without weight), the warm-up sets with weight and the all-out work set. Many have told us they found that helpful. Some said it was their favorite part of the video.
cursor
Do different muscles (abdominal vs quadriceps, for example) require unique approaches in terms of intensity and frequency in order to maximize gains?
cbass
Generally, no. In my experience, abs should be trained the same way as your biceps or any other body part: hard and infrequently. You build the abdominal muscles by training, and then reduce the fat all over your body so they will show. You don't reduce the fat by training your abs; that's done with diet and by training the whole body, weights and aerobics.
I prefer to train the whole body as a unit, and then rest the same way. Split training works too, of course. It is true that the smaller muscles of the upper body recover a little faster than the lower body. I sometimes do an upper body and aerobics workout at midweek.
cursor
Although cardiovascular exercise is recognized as being effective fat loss technique, bodybuilders have clear concerns about its apparent catabolic effect on muscle. What advice can you offer regarding frequency and intensity that might help us develop a productive aerobic program?
cbass
In Ripped 3, I discuss the problem with aerobics for bodybuilders and suggest a solution. Marathon runners are build differently than bodybuilders because of genetics, but also because they train differently. Endurance training sends a different message to the body than weight training. When an athlete does both, it's important to avoid confusing the body with a mixed message.
First, it's best to do weights and aerobics on separate days. Secondly, it's important not to overtrain, which is the mistake runners often make when they add strength training to their regimen. The same is true for bodybuilders who do aerobics. The key is to allow enough time between workouts, weights and aerobics, for recovery. "Less is more" is especially true for athletes, like me, who do both types of training.
I believe that high-intensity aerobics is more compatible with bodybuilding than the more common "fat-burn zone" type of aerobics. The message to the body is more consistent.
cursor
What factors are important in designing a meal plan that offers proper caloric volume and macronutrients balance, while ensuring a healthy muscle to body fat ratio?
cbass
This isn't as complicated as some people make it. Bodybuilders don't need any more protein than other hard training athletes. As explained in Challenge Yourself, research has shown that the highest protein requirements are for elite athletes who train hard at both strength and endurance. Athletes who eat a balanced diet with enough calories to supply their energy needs almost always get plenty of protein. Most Americans and especially bodybuilders eat far more protein than they need.
The last computer analysis of my diet at the Cooper Clinic was 55% carbs, 28% fat and 22% protein. That's 0.91 grams of protein per pound of body weight, which is enough for the hardest training bodybuilder/athlete.
cursor
It has been suggested that bodybuilders can see substantially improved muscle growth by intentionally boosting insulin production immediately following a workout. What are your views regarding this prescription of a protein + high-glycemic carbohydrate (post-workout) shake?
cbass
Sometimes we are too smart by half. In my view, monkeying around with (cycling) sodium, carbs, insulin or other nutrients is usually asking for trouble. It is true that the body does a better job replacing muscle sugar, glycogen, for about two hours after a workouts; calories that would otherwise be stored as fat are used to replenish the glycogen used during the workout. That's really the only time I recommend eating refined carbohydrates. Our video explains the two hour window of opportunity immediately after training and suggests a meal plan. Eating refined carbs during this time helps speed recovery; other than that, I doubt that it has much effect on muscle growth.
cursor
Does your definition of effective supplementation include shakes, bars, creatine, and the wide range of performance products currently available on the market?
cbass
I generally don't put much stock in supplements, preferring instead to rely on whole foods. I eat an energy bar to stabilize my blood sugar before workouts. As related in Challenge Yourself, creatine works – it allows you to train harder and recover faster, especially if you don't eat much meat. I use it regularly, but only in the minimum effective dose, which is usually far less than recommended on the label. I also use a tablespoon of protein powder on my breakfast cereal and a multivitamin/mineral formulation. That's about it.
cursor
Are there gender-specific adjustments that should be made when designing effective fitness programs (increased aerobics, different diet, etc.), particularly as women age beyond menopause?
cbass
Not really. Women react to training basically the same as men. The main difference is that they don't have the muscle-building hormones possessed by men. Because women naturally have less muscle and more fat, they burn fewer calorie for their body weight than men. Otherwise female muscle responds to overload the same as male muscle.
As you probably know, many female athletes are almost as strong in the lower body as their male counterparts; they aren't as strong in the upper body, however. I'm not a doctor and don't really know the affect of menopause.
cursor
The fitness industry is replete with books, videos, and web sites offering a wide variety of information about how to build a healthier body. In fact, you have very effectively shared your experiences through your own series of books (and, most recently, in video). In your estimation, which selections could you recommend for our own fitness libraries?
cbass
In addition to our own books and video, you'll find a wide range of other books and videos offered on our website: cbass.com. We only sell books and videos that we recommend; I've read or watched almost everything on our products page. Each book or video listed includes a description and why we found it helpful.
In addition, I frequently review books on our website, including those that we don't sell. For the most part, I only review books that I can recommend. I don't waste my energy on the others. I don't like being negative. I occasionally review books that I'm not thrilled with, but not often.
r e f e r e n c e s
cursor
I really appreciate the fact that you've taken time out of your busy schedule to share some of the valuable fitness perspectives that you have developed over the years.
cbass
I hope your members find them helpful. Thanks for your interest. Best of luck on your forum.
< Message edited by cursor -- 1/31/2007 8:57:38 AM >
_____________________________
¯
"Push your limits — define aggressive goals"
_________.P R O G R E S S___P I C S
(in reply to cursor)
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RE: Need inspiration? - 2/12/2007 10:15:38 PM
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lowredxtreme
Posts: 431
Joined: 1/11/2007
Status: offline
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good thread a good read good to hear from icons like this that have been around since basicly the begining of body building
_____________________________
Height 5'10"
Weight 200lbs
Incline bench press 300
curl 115 5 times sitting down
Skull crushers 105 lbs 12 times 4 sets
One arm Bent over row 90 lb dumbell 4x12
Body fat 14.2
(in reply to cursor)
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RE: Need inspiration? - 2/14/2007 9:04:40 AM
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cursor
Posts: 392
Joined: 1/20/2007
Status: offline
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Yes, it is encouraging.
Note, however, that from the personalities noted above:
Chuck Meole (88 in the pic above) didn't start until 66 years old.
Kelly Fisher (72 in the pic above) didn't start until 52 years old.
_____________________________
¯
"Push your limits — define aggressive goals"
_________.P R O G R E S S___P I C S
(in reply to lowredxtreme)
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