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Building the Dream Body



Aging, Self-Mastery, Dream Yoga, and the Science of Winning

An interview with three-time Mr. Olympia Frank  Zane


by Andrew Cohen
 

Introduction

It is a rare individual who strives to achieve goals beyond the ordinary. It is an even rarer individual who sets such goals—goals that no one else has yet achieved—and actually succeeds. And it’s a rarer individual still who sets extraordinary goals and, after he or she has attained them, continues to set even higher goals and continues to strive for success. Now add to this picture the aging process. And then try to imagine what it would be like to relentlessly strive for excellence and higher achievements even as one passes into a phase of life that is far beyond what is normally considered one’s prime. Such individuals are rare indeed. In our ongoing cultural and philosophical inquiry here at WIE, we have been privileged to encounter a few of these exceptional men and women; we call them the “self masters.”

Driven by what often seems to be otherworldly inspiration, fueled by a superhuman capacity for self-discipline and self-control, these individuals prove what’s possible for all of us through their own passion, blood, sweat, and tears. Their demonstrable achievements speak louder than words.

My first encounter with this kind of unique individual was when I interviewed the then-eighty-four-year-old marvel Jack LaLanne at his house in northern California for our Spring/Summer 1999 issue called “The Self Masters.” I remember vividly this elderly gentleman’s joie de vivre, relentless inspiration, and infectious passion for health, fitness, and just plain positivity! The old-timer took my breath away when without warning he jumped out of his armchair, flexed his biceps, and commanded me unequivocally to punch him in the stomach as hard as I could so he could demonstrate how strong his abs were. And, he made me do it! After that, he began probing into the nature of my diet and exercise regimen, encouraging me to set goals for my health and fitness—and to achieve them.

Another example of self mastery is the phenomenal Peter Ragnar, who writes the health column for every issue of WIE and who we profiled in “Do You Want to Live Forever?” (September–November 2005). Peter, who is a hero of mine and my source of inspiration for ongoing discipline and development in health, strength, vitality, and overall well-being, boldly proclaims that he’s a senior citizen but refuses to divulge his age because he “doesn’t believe in it!” He is a radical thinker and a true pioneer in the field of diet and health, including being a master of martial arts and chi kung, in addition to being a musician, healer, shaman, and overall exemplar of what it means to live beyond any sense of limitation.

I recently encountered yet another great American self master. In the following interview with the three-time Mr. Olympia winner Frank Zane, you will have the unique experience of hearing the voice of a human spirit who refuses to know what it means to give up. In addition to being a bodybuilding champion par excellence, a health and fitness guru, a poet, and a multitalented musician, Frank is a serious spiritual practitioner and has been committed to inner evolution—in addition to his external development—since his youth. Not only does he practice meditation and chanting every day, but he’s even designed and created his own mind machine that induces meditative states by synchronizing both hemispheres of the brain.

Zane walks and talks what I’ve found to be the code of all true self masters: the profound and ultimately spiritual insight that a clear and disciplined relationship with our  minds and emotions is the only thing that makes it possible for us to have a truly empowered relationship with our bodies and, ultimately, with life itself.

To live a life of mastery is to live a goal-oriented life of self-discipline, self-control, and relentless striving for excellence. At sixty-five, Frank Zane has the kind of body that beefy eighteen-year-olds would envy. And now, even though, as he told me in a recent phone interview, it’s getting a little tougher every year, he wants to see what’s possible at seventy!



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This article is from
The Cosmos, the Psyche & YOU