Presidential exercising through the years
- Barack Obama playing basektball on April 25, 2008. AP Photo
Theodore Roosevelt took jujitsu lessons. John Quincy Adams had a billiards table installed in the White House. But ever since the emergence of the aerobics, Pilates, low-fat, nonfat, measure-your-body-fat craze, more recent American presidents have made a spectacle of their dedication to exercise.
Who can forget the images of a sweaty Bill Clinton in exercise shorts popping into McDonalds while out for a jog? George W. Bush's running and mountain biking has remained an oft-maligned constant through the ups and downs of his presidency. And the morning after his 21-month campaign ended with his election as the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama — to the amazement of couch potatoes everywhere — hit the gym.
Presidents fixate on exercise for a number of reasons. It’s a source of stress relief for the man holding down what is arguably the world’s highest pressure job. It helps elevate the mood. It can make those doing the exercising appear sportsmanlike, i.e. strong and presidential. Or, like Clinton’s designation as the fast food president or Obama’s fondness for pickup basketball, it can project the image of an everyman.
Not to mention that the pure routine of regular exercise has kept presidents steady over the years, said Tim Blessing, a professor of history and political science at Alvernia University in Pennsylvania who has studied presidential fitness since 1972.
“It wasn’t so much that they were doing exercise so that they’re better in the office — rather their lives are so organized that keeping fit is like another box they check off,” Blessing said. “For them, exercise is just something they should be doing and they do it.”
Few of the United States’ 43 presidents have been out of shape. William Howard Taft, weighing roughly 350 pounds, got stuck in the White House bathtub more than once. Grover Cleveland didn’t exercise and was a heavy smoker. Franklin Pierce drank too much.
But most have incorporated physical activity into their daily lives. Thomas Jefferson famously said, “Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading.”
Some presidents have even been downright buff. Theodore Roosevelt's sculpted chest is said to have saved his life during an assassination attempt in 1912 when a bullet passed through his glasses case and lodged in his chest muscles.
“They said if he hadn’t had so much chest muscle it would have killed him and went into his heart,” Blessing said.
Obama, the 44th president-elect, has a disciplined, if not superstitious, workout routine. He played basketball every Election Day during the Democratic primary and on Nov. 5.
With rare exception, he does some kind of exercise seven days a week. The New York Daily News reported in October 2007 that Obama’s campaign paid $35 for his workouts at gyms in Charleston, S.C., and North Hampton, N.H. (A campaign aide told the paper it was an error, and said Obama, 47, would reimburse the campaign.)