By Cary Castagna
Mon, August 18, 2008

Despite being 93, Jack LaLanne still finds time to exercise two hours a day, seven days a week

No time to work out? Too busy?

Tell that to Jack LaLanne and you're liable to get an earful from the legendary 93-year-old fitness phenom.

"That's a bunch of bull," he says in a recent phone interview from his office in Morro Bay, Calif. "They've got time sitting on their big butt drinking drink after drink and watching television for hours. And they don't have 30 or 40 minutes to take care of the most priceless possession in the whole damn world - your body? They gotta be sick."

NO EXCUSES

Indeed, the tough-talking LaLanne - who's affectionately known as the godfather of fitness - doesn't mince words.

He's heard every excuse in the book and he doesn't buy any of them, especially the one about blaming your parents for bad genetics.

"So many people say, 'I'm fat because my mother was fat,' " he says. "My dad died at 50. Does that mean I have to die at 50? My dad wouldn't listen. I tried to get him to exercise and eat right."

LaLanne - born Sept. 26, 1914 - has been working out since he was 15 years old, long before the days of bosu balls and core training. That's 78 years of pumping iron and he's still going strong.

A pioneer in the fitness industry who counts Arnold Schwarzenegger among his friends, LaLanne says he still works out two hours a day, seven days a week.

Hard to believe, but it's the truth, he insists.

"You know why I never lie? Got a lousy memory," chuckles the former host of a popular TV exercise show that aired from 1951-85. "These politicians better have good memories."

His vigorous training sessions, which typically begin at 6 a.m. in one of two gyms at the California home he shares with his 80-year-old wife Elaine, involve 90 minutes of weights, including classic exercises such as military presses, bench presses, bent-over rows, biceps and triceps curls, and weighted chins and pushups.

"Every workout I do is to muscle failure. It's hard," the San Franciso-born father of three adds, noting he changes his program every 30 days and focuses on different muscle groups each workout.

LaLanne, a fit and feisty 150 pounds at five-foot-seven, tops off his daily workout with 30 minutes of swimming.

When he's travelling while conducting fitness seminars and making personal appearances, he hits the gym and pool in his hotel.

"I feel great," says the man credited with opening the first modern health spa. "Of course, I have a few aches and pains once in awhile. You name me one athlete that trains hard who doesn't have an ache or pain sometimes.

"Life is tough. Dying is easy. Living, you gotta work at it. Living's an athletic event. You gotta work through it. You gotta be tough."

Besides a Spartan workout regimen, LaLanne - who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - follows a rather stringent diet.

"If man makes it, don't eat it," he advises. "Cakes, pies, soda pop, all that junk. Did you ever read the label on a can of soup? You can't pronounce it.

FUEL UP RIGHT

"You gotta put in the right fuel or you're gonna end up in the grave (sooner than later). Put good food in that body, boy, and you'll live a good lifespan."

The famous fitness guru, author and motivator prefers to stick to wholesome foods such as raw veggies, fruit, egg whites and fish. He also swears by his Power Juicer, which he peddles online and via late-night infomercials.

And just to prove that he practises what he preaches, LaLanne has pulled off some outlandish stunts over the years. Among them: performing 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes in 1956, and towing a 1,000-lb. boat the length of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1975 - while handcuffed and shackled.

"Man, life is wonderful and you can make it wonderful. Be a champion at living," he urges. "Anything in life is possible. Make it happen. God helps them who help themselves.

"And I hope you will help the most important person on this earth - you!"