Jack LaLanne: physically -- and fiscally-- fit at 93
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Bankrate: You invented the Smith machine for weight training.

LaLanne: Yeah. It's a machine where you do squats. The weight is controlled by two bars that slide up and down, so older people can't lose their balance. It keeps them on track so they can do squats and work their legs. It was the first weight selector. But I never got anything patented.

Bankrate: Why not?

LaLanne: I was trying to pay my rent. I was paying $45 a month in downtown Oakland. Everybody was making fun of me. So I thought, "People aren't coming to me, so I'll go to them." I went to the biggest high school in the Bay Area at noon. I wore a tight T-shirt, and all the kids came around, yelling, "Jack, have this hamburger! Have this doughnut!" They knew I didn't eat all that junk. I picked out the fattest kid I could find and the skinniest kid I could find. I got their names and phone numbers and addresses, and then I went to their homes at night. If you were a dad and had a kid that was about 60 pounds underweight, and a guy came along and said, "I'll put 40 or 50 pounds of muscle on that kid in three or four months or double your money back," would you sign up? Sure! I did the same with the fat kid. I took 110 pounds off of one kid in 10 months. And word got around. I had so many students I had to cut the membership down. Then after about a year, I started getting calls from the adults. Even the girls were coming to me. It changed my whole life.

Bankrate: You appeared in an episode of "The Simpsons."

LaLanne: Yes, Homer was out in the ocean drowning in a boat, and I went to save him. I tied a line on the bow of the boat, and I started swimming, and I pulled the bow of the boat off and the thing sank.

Bankrate: This was a spoof on your own Herculean stunts. You really have towed boats full of people before.

LaLanne: On my 70th birthday, I towed 70 boats with 70 people a mile and a half from Long Beach Harbor. I did all the movements with my feet and my arms, and my feet and hands were tied. Now that was tough. I had to train for months and months.

Bankrate: How did you do it?

LaLanne: Willpower. And I was in shape. I had endurance and strength. On one of my birthdays I did a thousand chins and a thousand push-ups. My next birthday, I'm going to tow my wife across the bathtub.