04/11/2024
He invented the Calf Raise machine and the LaLanne push-up!
Throwback Thursday ... By the 1950’s, friends of Jack would bring random objects to him to see how he could use it for fitness and training. Paul Bragg, one of Jack’s friends, brought a two-foot long piece of rubber to him to see what he could do with it. Elaine described this moment as if Jack was just given a new toy.
“Jack excitedly started stretching it in all directions. The next day we went to a rubber company in Oakland, CA, to make an exercise stretcher. He wanted it about 60 inches long with loops on each end and flexible enough so that anyone could stand on it and stretch it over their head,” she stated. “The loop design was so that it would have the ability to put your feet and hands through and also it could be hooked onto a doorknob.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s because we know them today as resistance bands, and they have been used for stretching, training, and even as accessories on barbells. He called it the Glamour Stretcher because he marketed it to women, who made up a lot of his audience.
“Shortly after that, they came out with another stretcher that had more tension called The Easy Way Conditioner for Men. Other products would follow in the years to come, and the innovation became a gym fixture in the decades to come.
