I was always interested in how famous men worked out. We’ve analyzed Steve McQueen’s routine and Bruce Lee’s workout here at AoM before, and every time I go down one of these rabbit holes, I walk away inspired by how these guys approached fitness: they trained to do the job they did to the best of their ability.
So when I had Beau L’Amour — son of the great western novelist Louis L’Amour — on the podcast a few years ago to talk about his dad’s life and habits, my ears perked up when he mentioned that his father worked out every day for an hour or two in the afternoon, well into his old age.
The conversation moved on, so I didn’t go back to ask exactly what L’Amour did for his workouts, but that question has been on my mind ever since.
So I recently decided to email Beau to see if he remembers what his dad’s daily workout was like.
To my pleasant surprise, Beau immediately wrote me something better than I expected. Instead of sending me a general description of Louis’ workouts, he sent me scans of his father’s typed weekly to-do lists with completed items crossed out in red pencil. In these weekly agendas, Louis included his workouts for the week.
The ones he sent span from 1968 to 1983 and cover much more than exercise. A single week might include hammering out the first chapter of a novel, answering all his mail, working on his Chinese and French, reading to his children by the fire, and teaching them how to fall and fall properly. It was encouraging to see that the young self-taught Education of a wandering man he continued his self-training even into his 80s and deliberately scheduled it with the same rigor as he scheduled his workouts. But it is L’Amour’s education that I want to dig into here in this article.
Why was Louis L’Amour trained
Bo gave me the story of his father’s exercise habit. Louis was born in 1908, trained as a boxer and worked as a manual laborer during the 1920s. He boxed and trained for the sport, focusing mainly on speed and endurance. In his early 30s, he was trying to make it as a writer while training young boxers, which kept him in shape.
Then came World War II. His job with the Transportation Corps took him in convoys of double gasoline tankers through burning cities in Europe, but food was plentiful and trips to nearby towns were frequent, and he came out of it overweight.
Louis continued to exercise after the war, but took it very seriously in 1966, when he was 58 years old. Like other writers, he spent long hours of the day sitting, and this aggravated a dull backache he had from the war. The pain hindered his work. It got so bad that she went to a doctor for advice.
In a letter written in 1976, L’Amour recalled what he did next:
When my doctor told me I shouldn’t lift anything heavy, not even my own child, that was ten years ago. Only then did I start lifting weights. I had never done it before, other than what I had done working around the country… I started lifting weights carefully, with very light weights, as I had a bad back from driving in jeeps during World War II. Now I can deadlift five to six thousand pounds in a couple of hours, and after my workouts I feel great…since I started lifting weights, I’ve had no more back problems. I was just sitting too much, and my muscles had gone soft, and there are some bones that need strong muscles around them. I never had to go back to this doctor because my back problem went away with proper exercise.
L’Amour’s doctor told him not to lift anything. Louis responded by charging thousands of pounds a session and treating the very problem the doctor was worried about. I like this. He sounds like a young Teddy Roosevelt who, when his doctor told him not to overdo it, decided to do the opposite and “fix his body.”
There was another reason Louis started lifting when he was approaching 60. In 1974, he wrote in his diary:
I have yet to do a book that really satisfies my taste…A reason I am also practicing. I’m just learning to write, just getting mastery of my medium and have to work for a long, long time.
Louis continued to train because he wasn’t done creating his art yet and wanted a body that would last long enough to continue honing his craft and putting his work out into the world. He trained for what Nietzsche called “Great Health.” Inspired!
The Louis L’Amour workout
Okay, so what did ol’ Louis do for his exercise routine?
Remember, the man on these sheets is in his sixties and seventies, and the routine remains remarkably consistent over fifteen years of listings. It is divided into three parts: preparation, iron and table discipline.
Air conditioning (the Boxer Base)
- Jump rope
- Stationary bike
- Heavy bag work
- Walk
- Boxing rounds with his son, Beau
- Abdominal and side bends
The Lifts (BB & DB — Barbell and Dumbbell)
L’Amour performed a circuit 6 times a week that worked both his upper and lower body and included these exercises:
Discipline at the table
- Constant goal to stay under 220 pounds — sometimes tried to get down to 210
- The snack was omitted when she was losing weight. “Not between meals,” as one leaf bluntly puts it
Nothing fancy here. L’Amour jumped rope, hit the bag, ran through his lifts and ate sensibly. He planned to do a variety of exercises, treated his workouts like a standing date, and did one to two hours of physical activity each afternoon.
I lift for many reasons, but as a middle-aged man, L’Amour’s reason for lifting is one that resonates more and more. I want to stay strong enough to continue doing the work I haven’t finished yet.
Thanks to Beau for sharing these snapshots of his dad’s life. He has a new novel out – Skyring Water — that he worked with his father, both before and after Louis’s death.
For more details on Louis L’Amour’s life and work, listen to our podcast with Beau:
