My uncle has just turned 96 - in pretty reasonable physical and mental shape all things considered - and as far as I'm aware he hasn't done an hour's "exercise" in his life, other than walking to synagogue every day (maybe that's his secret). So genetics clearly play a role - the more so, I suspect, as life starts to extend beyond its typical limits and different intrinsic rates of ageing really start to come to bear. But there's also no doubt that we can optimise that genetic potential with lifestyle choices, and that this also has an increasing influence on our relative levels of health, strength and work capacity as we grow older, as compared with our age cohort. This is sometimes referred to as the "rectangularisation" of life expectancy - a clumsy term that refers to the slope of the graph of health against age - and essentially means that good lifestyle choices will tend to maximise our chances of staying healthy, fit and mobile until relatively close to the point when we finally topple off the twig. This seems worth doing from almost any perspective.
All this said, Jack LaLanne is an inspiration whatever the determinants of his longevity, strength and health, which are no doubt a mixture of natural endowment and exceptional dedication to positive habits. He's certainly - along with Dr Schwartz and Clarence Bass - one of my personal fitness lifestyle heroes.
David
I came across an interesting article (to me, anyway) about Jack LaLanne and his diet and exercise approach. There's nothing really new or revealing in his approach but there were two things in the article that stood out as being pertinent to this group. It seems that he only eats twice a day and he does his daily workout fasted. He wakes up, works out, eats breakfast around 11:00am and then eats dinner around 7:00pm. Earlier in his life he ate a lot of meats, fruits and vegetables. Now he's gone more the way of the mainstream Ansel Keys low-fat approach. He seems to fear fat as he eats nearly 8 egg whites a day but throws the yolks away!!!! I had read that his older brother lived until 97 so I think Jack just has good genetics.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119004434024629877.html
-Rick Stewart
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