Fitness Follies of President's Past

Many presidents have been active in the White House, not just those of recent past. As a tribute to President's Day, let's take a look at some of those memorable ones of the past:

Upon seeking re-election in 1828, President John Quincy Adams(6th president 1825-1829), then 61, began to have reservations about how his declining health was affecting not only his chances of winning the election - but his family life as well. He decided to re-double his efforts, and continued his strenuous routine of riding between eight to 14 miles on horseback before breakfast and swimming in the Potomac(Teed 120).

President Theodore Roosevelt(26th president 1901-1909) was an avid boxer and rower. His father encouraged him to learn boxing after learning his son had several health ailments as a young boy, making him easy prey for school bullies. Roosevelt, who was also a young Sunday school teacher at his church, was scolded once for paying another boy a dollar after the boy showed up with a black eye after having fought a bully. At Harvard, he was a runner-up in the university's boxing championship.

He continued boxing well into his adult life, even after he suffered a detached retina which left him blind on that side. He even permanently carried a bullet in his chest after a salonkeeper's bullet meant for the president's head went awry. Roosevelt decided surgery to remove the bullet was too risky. On a safari to Africa, Roosevelt suffered a severe leg injury and contracted malaria. Despite his ailments, he continued to box and espouse an active and conservationist lifestyle. For example, Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring marines to hike 50 miles in 20 hours, no small physical feat. That would require the soldier to walk at 2.5 mph...for the entire duration of the test, over unsteady ground in weather conditions with no rest! Many people don't know he is also the founder of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), and his physical accomplishments are numerous(Wikipedia).

Iowa-native President Herbert Hoover (31st president 1929-1933)created his own sport, an amalgamation of volleyball and tennis played with a medicine ball(yes, you read right!). Before breakfast around 7:30 am, he would play a game of what was nicknamed, "Hoover-ball". The ball itself was a six-pound ball tossed over a net similar to volleyball, and the game was scored like tennis(Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum). See picture above - Hoover and his staffers conducting a game of "Hoover-ball" on the White House lawn.

President Harry S. Truman (33rd President 1945-1953) installed a horseshoe pit at the White House and enjoyed a two-mile walk each day. In an interview conducted after his days in the White House, he had this to say about not letting the job increase his waistline:

"Well, you know, when you're on a job where when you have to sit down all day, the best thing you can possibly do is to walk, especially after you're forty-years old, because that exercises all the muscles in the body, a walk does," he told the interviewer. "Legs were put on us to use. The present-day youngsters, and most people, will get in a car to go a block. They'd be much better off if they'd walk(pg. 117)."

This interview was conducted on Thursday afternoon, September 10, 1951. It's now 57 plus years since he gave that interview, and things have not changed. If you haven't already, take that step today - make a difference in your life, as these presidents did with their fitness!

Don't be a fool!
____________________________________________________________________________________ Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum. Accessed online at: http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/hooveronline/hoover_bio/pres.htm. National Archives and Records Administration.

Roosevelt, Teddy. Wikipedia.

Truman, Harry S. and Ralph Edward Weber. "Talking with Harry: Candid Conversations with President Harry S. Truman." Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.

Tweed, Paul E. "John Quincy Adams: Yankee Nationalist". Nova Publishers, 1996.