LAME-BRAIN EAST BAY ALIVE MAGAZINE AND OLD-SCHOOL SUPERIORITY IN HEALTH&FITNESS

Another bastion of extreme East Bay pretension turns out to be a glossy commercial ad rag monthly magazine, self-styled Alive East Bay, based in Danville, CA, that enthusiastically solicits complimentary contributions it's too cheap to pay for, and whose supposed "editors" are far too superior to even acknowledge receipt of those submissions its potential contributors take the time and trouble to prepare and submit for courteous consideration.  In Danville, as with most everyplace else in the near bankrupt state of California, common courtesy is an archaic relic of a concept of the far distant past.  So it was, too, with this most recent health&fitness-related submission, which anyhow shall see far more play in this worldwide publisher blog than it ever would in even the extremely limited free-circuit circulation of Alive East Bay:

 

“Everybody’s got a guru!” snidely cracked a member of the so-called “Downtown” Berkeley

YMCA some years ago.

What “downtown,” I’m always rather humorously inclined to wonder, but that’s beside the point.

We’d just emerged from the basement steam room soaked in sweat, fresh from one of those casual locker room discussions concerning supposed health and fitness experts and icons.

Lots of loose, idle talk about things relating to health and fitness abounds in gyms, health clubs and locker rooms.  So does boundless misconception and misinformation, unfortunately.  Considering the source, of course, is always advisable.  Picking and choosing the best and most beneficial health and fitness role models to emulate can prove essential.

As right-minded members of health clubs crowd their teeming gyms, overpopulated with people aspiring to keep those winter health and fitness resolutions many if not most will break before spring, the new year’s a fitting time to consider this question: who most inspires and motivates you to train and work out with energetic zest and gusto—and to devotedly follow the most healthful fitness principles and practices?

Most importantly: how can you be reasonably sure you’re effectively engaged in sound and sensible fitness activity?

To solemnly commemorate the first anniversary of the momentous loss of the legendary “Godfather of Fitness,” Jack LaLanne, who prematurely(for him)passed away last January at 96 from complications of pneumonia, it’s an opportune time for me to enthusiastically celebrate and commend the unassumingly modest man who to this day enlivens in me a fervent, lifetime devotion to invaluable health and fitness habits: Jack LaLanne’s own fellow old-school physical culturalist, the one-of-a-kind, pioneering, all-natural, classic physique bodybuilding champion and filmdom’s one and only Hercules—the late great STEVE REEVES.

Francois Henri “Jack” LaLanne(born 26 September 1914)was 12 years senior to Stephen Lester “Steve” Reeves(born 21 January 1926)when they competed together in the Mr USA contest of 1948—the very same year Steve was crowned Mr World at Cannes, France.

At the 1948 Mr USA contest Steve placed a most respectable second and Jack ranked tenth behind Clancy Ross(Mr America, 1945), another fabulous classic physique bodybuilder of that era who took the 1^st place prize.

Steve won every major bodybuilding championship competition of his day, from Mr Pacific Coast(1946)and Mr America(1947)—the “Big One”—and including Mr Universe(1950), considered then the “Super Bowl” of physique contests.

It was the Glasgow, Montana-born, Oakland, California-bred Steve Reeves, of course, who went on to worldwide fame and fortune portraying epic heroes in some 14 so-called sword-and-sandal flicks produced mostly in Italy—most notably, Hercules(1957)and its sequel, Hercules Unchained(1959)—which were all the rage cinematically throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Sadly, Steve died at 74(1 May 2000)in Escondido, California from a blood clot induced by the complications of lymphoma.  To his dying day Steve spoke out vehemently against the use, abuse and misuse of drugs(growth hormone, steroids)in the noble sport of bodybuilding.

In the general realm of health and fitness, though, Jack LaLanne and Steve Reeves remained kindred spirits indeed.

Amongst other things, Steve ardently believed in what he referred to as the absolute beauty and value of a fully-developed male physique that’s perfectly balanced and proportional—or what he simply called the “classic physique”—meaning wide, square shoulders and small waist with the neck, biceps and calves all measuring exactly the same.  As opposed to the typical contemporary physique, featuring overdeveloped trapezius muscles and a round-shouldered look with oversized oblique muscles of the midsection that widen the waist and detract from a broad-shouldered appearance.

“I got the idea for formulating these classic proportions from looking at Jack LaLanne, who had a big chest and a small waist—in fact, Jack had a 20-inch difference between the measurement of his chest and waist,” Steve wrote, fondly acknowledging Jack’s impact in his definitive book, Building the Classic Physique, The Natural Way(December 1995), my personal training and workout bible.  “I always wanted to build a 24-inch differential between my waist and my chest—and that became my goal.  I focused my diet and training to achieve a minuscule waist and a maximally developed chest and back.  I actually built this chest/waist differential up to 23 inches but then I went into the movies and actually had to undo a lot of the muscle building I’d done, so that I didn’t dwarf my fellow actors.  I never reached that 24-inch differential, but having that goal in mind served to keep my training on the right track and led to me cultivating a classic physique.”

To Muscle and Fitness(May 1983, p 127)magazine, Steve likewise confided: “I must also give credit to Jack LaLanne, who developed many new bodybuilding techniques and equipment I found so helpful.  I think he was the first person to use the incline bench.”

Even though Jack LaLanne outlived by roughly a decade Steve Reeves, who died some 22 years Jack’s junior, their ever timely message was essentially the same: no matter how long or short you may live, live fully and well—with vibrant vigor and vitality!

“A person simply cannot live fully if he is not healthy,” Steve philosophized in his other definitive bodybuilding book, Dynamic Muscle Building(published posthumously, 2003).  “He can have money, fame, friends and influence, but still he will only be partially alive if his health is under par…None of us know what the future holds in store; fortunes can be lost, friends can move away and be seen no more, power can vanish, but good health if properly cared for is a substantial thing, a platform upon which a tower can be built; a tower which can be fortified as a protection against any unexpected emergency.”

Powerfully inspiring words indeed!

What really sets off the classical from the contemporary school outlook is the determined ambition to marry rather than divorce true all-natural health and fitness principles and practices relating to training and nutrition regimens.  Irreducibly—and tragically—this translates quite simply to the use, abuse and misuse of various and sundry drugs.  Or in more contemporary parlance: “sports supplements,” so-called.  And the vast difference separating these two schools is outright startling.

“(Steve)Reeves,” writes 3-time Mr Olympia(1977, 1978, 1979)winner, Frank Zane, in his handbook, “had wide shoulders, small waist, perfect proportion, his posing was nothing sensational but his body was perhaps the most perfect to exist on this planet.”

Frank Zane himself boasts an aesthetically pleasing physique, emphasizing extreme definition and proportion over sheer size and monstrous, freaky bulk.  Where Frank drastically parts company with Steve in attaining his high definition(extremely striated, razor-thin or “ripped”)look is his daily ingestion of synthetic supplements—everything from amino acids, protein powders, pancreatic digestive enzymes and super-potency vitamin-mineral complexes—interspersed morning, noon and night with minuscule amounts of real solid food as nourishment.  Maximum muscular development, like-minded contemporary champions claim, is impossible without such excess if not excessive and overindulgent supplementation.

According to Frank’s “High Def Diet at 66” handbook, he pops daily some 50-plus pills in the form of capsules, tablets and powders in addition to his less than 2000 calories of edible food!  That’s a far cry from even pretending to be “all-natural” by any rational standard.  By stark contrast a typical dinner for Steve’s training diet consisted simply of a huge salad together with a swordfish steak—without popping one, single, solitary pill!

“In many cases,” Steve wisely advised in his bodybuilding book, “our choice of conditioning activities are almost as counterproductive as our daily living habits.  Everyone seems to be looking for a gimmick or fad—the easy way.  In response to this demand, everywhere you turn there is a new diet, exercise gimmick or conditioning tool—anything to make us look younger, thinner, sexier, bigger, smaller or better.  Few people seem satisfied with approaching their health in a scientific manner.  No matter how bad the economy, people will always find a way to afford the luxury of beauty.  Truth be told, there is no quick fix.  There is no miracle way to fitness or weight loss.  But there are good and practical ways to achieve a firmer and more shapely body.  These principles will not and have not changed.”

When it comes to practical training techniques as well as healthful and wholesome diets, the old-school classical practitioners of times past are anything but passé—let alone old-fashioned, out-of-date or out-of-style.  They excel by exerting, not cheating; and, all told, exceed their new-school contemporary counterparts by far in both robustness and longevity!

“Quit looking for miracles in a pill, packet or powder,” Steve exhorted those seeking drug-free health and fitness solutions in All Natural Muscular Development magazine(December 1997, Vol 34, No 12, p 130).  “At best, they may only help.  Get your body in the gym and under the iron and keep it there for as long as it takes for you to have the body you want.  That’s the way you build it and keep it.  It’s always been like that and it will always be like that!"