Kenneth Cooper: Dr. Aerobics
___Kenneth Cooper is recognized around the world as the leader of the fitness movement. His 1968 book, "Aerobics," prompted the jogging boom and a greater international awareness of fitness. A native of Oklahoma City, Cooper completed a 13-year military career in 1970, when he and his wife, Millie, moved to Dallas to open the Cooper Aerobics Center. Cooper has published 18 books that have sold 30 million copies and been translated into 41 languages. The Coopers are members of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. They are the parents of a son and daughter.
Q.
___ What prompted your interest in fitness and health?
___One thing stands out, and it occurred about 1960. I am 71 now and was around 29 at the time. Although I had attended college on a track scholarship, I had been totally inactive for eight years after being in medical school and internship and had gotten married and had gained about 40 pounds and was up to about 204 pounds.
___I went water skiing and had an arrhythmia. I didn't know what was happening at the time and thought I was having a heart attack. It was at Lake Texoma. They rushed me to the hospital, but by the time I got there my heart rate was back to normal, and they couldn't find anything abnormal, except I was out of shape.
___That was a slap in the face. I was less than 30 years of age, slovenly overweight, inactive and, just like most Americans, I was having blood pressure problems and had no energy. I told my wife I was dying of mental lethargy. I decided I was going to get back in shape.
___Within six months, I had lost 40 pounds, and in less than a year had run my first marathon in Boston. That made such an impact on me that I thought this was a whole field of medicine we had been ignoring. It made such a change in my life, I felt I needed to concentrate on this area of health and fitness for everyone, not just me.
___That one event changed my direction. I had planned on being either an ophthalmologist or an orthopedic surgeon. I finished my internship in Seattle and was going to an ophthalmology institute in Oregon after finishing my time in the military. That was my plan. But I got into the military and got very interested in the space program. So I thought I would be a scientist/astronaut.
___After two and a half years in the Army, I received a direct lateral transfer to the Air Force at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio and got involved in aerospace medicine. I was sent to Harvard to get a master's degree in public health and then stayed another year to work on a doctorate of science degree. During that time, I ran in the Boston marathon. After my return to San Antonio, I was assigned to the space program as an investigator and from 1964 to 1966 worked with NASA on a device to keep astronauts from losing their cardiovascular conditioning after going through the weightlessness of space. We also worked on a conditioning program to help prepare astronauts to go into space. I was then assigned to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory project with the Air Force and published my first book, "Aerobics," in 1968 and finished my military requirement in 1969.
Q.
___ Who had the greatest influence on you as a youth?
___My father, no question. He was a practicing dentist, a periodontist, in Oklahoma for over 50 years and was light years ahead of everyone else in the field of preventive medicine. He was an expert in natural vitamins and at one time was the president of the American Academy of Applied Nutrution.
___He found that many of his patients didn't heal well until they got off their diets of refined foods, sugar, etc., so he would treat them and then put them on a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. And they healed so quickly that he became famous. Other dentists who had patients that weren't healing properly with general therapy would send them to my dad. He would put them on very nutritious diets that not only healed their mouths but also healed other problems.
___He was even accused of practicing medicine at one time because he was interested in their whole body, not just their mouths. I dedicated the auditorium in our building here to my father, who instilled in me the overwhelming desire to practice the art and science of preventive medicine.
Q.
___Recent stories have indicated Americans are more obese than ever. Why do Americans have such a penchant for overeating or eating the wrong things?
___It's not so much overeating as it's underexercising. Recent studies have shown that Americans have not increased their caloric consumption that much, but obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Inactivity is increasing at a rapid rate. We have become so mechanized while minimizing our physical activity. I think it's that more than what we eat.
___The other reason people have gained weight is because we have changed our pattern of eating. When I was growing up, we referred to our meals as breakfast, dinner and supper. Supper was a light meal, because, as my dad said, it would make me sleep better. Now we have breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat 60 percent of our calories after 6 o'clock, which is the worst possible way to eat if you are trying to lose weight.
___If you are trying to lose weight, you shouldn't consume more than 25 percent of your calories after 6 o'clock. If you are trying to lose weight, you should consume 75 percent of your calories before 1 o'clock. We have quit exercising, changed the pattern of the way we eat, and we are very susceptible to advertising of fast foods.
___Kids are overweight because we don't have physical education in schools. The kids don't walk to school or ride their bikes anymore; they are driven to school. And they spend 25 to 30 hours a week watching television, playing video games or sitting at the computer. And it's a fast-food generation, eating lots of fat and cholesterol; and the same thing that's happening to the kids is happening to adults.
___So I think it's inactivity more than eating more calories that is accounting for obesity, although we know that from 1990 to 1996 the average American increased his or her daily consumption of calories by about 300. That's a pound every 11 days.
Q.
___If the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, as the Bible states, is it sinful to be overweight or to take things into the body that would harm it?
___I think it is just as sinful to be overweight as it is to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Anything you do to your body that may shorten your life, to me, is sinful. I'm afraid a lot of pastors don't understand that. As a profession, pastors are the most poorly conditioned people who come through our clinic. You are to glorify God in your body as well as your spirit.
Q.
___Can you be overweight and still be healthy?
___It's hard to say. One statement we make is it's better to be fat and fit than skinny and sedentary. But it's not because we are endorsing obesity; we are just telling you how dangerous it is to be sedentary. The surgeon general in 1996 encouraged us to collectively get 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. He also said recently that within 10 years we would have more people dying because of obesity than from smoking. So it's awfully hard to say that you can be fat and be healthy.
Q.
___ Is there a formula we can follow that will yield good health and a balanced life?
___Yes. I used to think that exercise was a panacea--all you needed was to exercise. That was in 1968. I made a lot of statements in 1968 that I changed over the years as we got more data. In 1982, I said there is nothing known to man that will totally protect you from coronary disease, whether it's medicine, surgery or marathon running. Exercise helps, but it's not a panacea.
___I coined the word "aerobics" in 1966 and wrote the book by that name in 1968 and over the years have written 18 books total. In 1982, I coined the word "wellness." I've never taken credit for it, but I don't know if anyone was using that term before 1982.
___I said people need these things to be totally healthy, physically, not spiritually: No. 1, they need proper weight, proper nutrition and proper supplementation. No. 2 is proper exercise. No. 3 is elimination of tobacco products in all forms. No. 4 is control of alcohol and habit-forming drugs. I don't drink at all, but the data clearly shows that if you drink half a drink a day it reduces the frequency of heart attacks and strokes in general. Anything above that can be very dangerous. I prefer you don't drink and tell my professional audiences not to give their patients a license to drink. No. 5 is stress management. Under stress management, I say both spiritual and mental health are very important. No. 6 is the importance of a periodic wellness examination.
Q.
___ How can we begin a fitness program and stay with it?
___Slowly and progressively. Don't start too fast. If you start too fast, there will be injuries and you will quit. Accept the fact that it will take a long time. You don't get out of shape rapidly, and it will take a while to get back in shape. Fitness is a journey, not a destination.
Q.
___ What exercise and nutrition regimen do you follow?
___At this stage of life--on March 4 I was 71--I try to exercise five or six days a week. I am doing about as much walking as running. My mileage is 12 to 15 miles a week. When I run, I can run a 9.5- or 10-minute mile pace, but I usually run slower. I usually go out in the evening prior to the evening meal and burn off the stress of the day and clear my mind. My workout consists of running two and a half to three miles on this cushioned track here at the Aerobics Center or walking in my neighborhood at a 12- to 13-minute mile pace, which is fast. If you can walk at a 12-minute-per-mile pace, our studies show it is the equivalent of running at a 9-mile-per-hour pace, and you have much less injury problems. I also use circuit weight training.
___I control my weight through exercising and counting calories. Exercising suppresses my appetite and tranquilizes me so I can sleep at night. I eat fish and chicken but very little red meat. I try to consume about 55 percent complex carbohydrates, 15 percent protein and 25 to 30 percent fat, including less than 30 milligrams of cholesterol a day. I try to eat five servings a day of fruit and vegetables, but nine is better.
Q.
___ When did you become a Christian?
___At 9 years of age at Trinity Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Hal Yearby was the pastor. I was raised in a Christian home. My mother and father were devout Christians. In fact, they met at a Baptist church in Nashville, Tenn. Dad was in dental school at Vanderbilt, which had a dental school in those days. My grandfather was an itinerant Baptist preacher in Alabama.
Q.
___What role has religious faith played in your life?
___It's been the foundation of my life, without question. I am a man of faith and a man of prayer. My wife and I spent days in prayer before I left the Air Force 30 years ago. I had a promising career, would soon have been a full colonel and might have made general. But after 13 years in the military, we decided to leave and start out on our own here in Dallas.
___I had two books out at the time, but both were in paperback, and you don't make any money on paperbacks. For months I had to borrow money to pay our two employees. If you had asked me at that time, I would have said we eventually might have an office with four or five employees. But today we have almost 500 employees and a budget of $40 million. Why? Because while my vision was finite, the Lord's vision was infinite. Each day I get here at about 6:30 a.m. and spend the first 30 minutes in prayer and Bible study, and I read Christian books. My favorites are Chuck Swindoll and Max Lucado--both of them my patients. Now I am reading "When Couples Pray" by Sherry Fuller during my Bible study in the morning. She says when couples pray only 1 percent of marriages end in divorce. Millie and I are coming up on 43 years of marriage, and we have prayed through all of them. Both of our children are fine Christians.
Q.
___What do you do for fun?
___Work. I work at least 60 hours a week. I get up at 5:45 a.m., eat a light breakfast and get to the office by 6:30 and usually don't leave until 6:30. I enjoy fellowship and Bible study with Christian friends. We have set up a new Bible study class at Northwest Bible Church on Thursday morning. I am a co-sponsor, and soon I think we will have 500 men attending. On Sundays, Millie and I attend the Pastor's Class (at Prestonwood Baptist Church) at 8 a.m. and the early worship service at 9:15.
Q.
___ Who are the heroes in your life?
___People ask me what is my greatest accomplishment. My greatest accomplishment is being married to Millie for almost 43 years and having two fantastic kids. They are my heroes. I have others who I greatly admire, such as Roger Staubach and George W. Bush, but I don't have any other heroes. I worship the Lord; he is my hero.
___Interview by Toby Druin
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