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CNN Saturday Morning News
Summer Shape-Up: Interview With Richard Simmons
Aired August 03, 2002 - 08:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: One fitness expert has a new video with seniors in mind. Richard Simmons has helped millions of Americans battle their weight for 25 years. This morning he is joining us from Cleveland, Ohio, and he is ready to go.
Good morning, Richard.
RICHARD SIMMONS, FITNESS EXPERT: Good morning, Catherine. Good morning, Larry.
LARRY SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: How are you?
SIMMONS: Did you do your exercises today?
CALLAWAY: Oh, just getting up this early was my exercise.
SMITH: Yes. I walked downstairs to the car and I walked in the building. Is that good?
CALLAWAY: That was it.
SIMMONS: That was it? You have to come on the road with me for a couple days. I'll teach you how to lose weight and sweat.
SMITH: I think I would collapse after like two hours.
CALLAWAY: You know, Richard, I can't believe all the e-mail that we've received from people already since we've been telling everyone that you were going to be on. These people love you, that...
SIMMONS: Well, I've been around a long time and I've never lied to them. I've always told them the truth. Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you've got to squeeze your buns. That's my formula. And in the last 25 years there's been a lot of diets and a lot of, I think, some very unhealthy ways to lose weight. But it's always going back to balance.
SMITH: Richard, there was one e-mail question we wanted to kind of get to it that was very interesting, from Jer, I believe, if we can show that one. Richard asks could it be true -- this person asks you, I should say, "Could it be true that tight leg muscles could be the cause of a sore lower back? And if so, what type of stretches should be done?" SIMMONS: Well, you know, you have your major muscles. You have your quad, your hamstrings and your calves and your soleus. Most people do not warm up before exercise and most people don't cool down. You have to do the stretches. You can find the stretches online, in books, in videos, all my videos, and I've done 50 videos now. Everything begins with the warm-up and a cool down.
If you don't have that, you get cramps and you can really hurt your lower back.
CALLAWAY: Right. You know, we should ask you a little bit about your new video. Tell us more about it.
SIMMONS: Well, I have a great video called Platinum Sweat. And it's for seniors. Now, I'm a member of AARP. I'm in my mid-'50s. And so I brought a cast of people together -- don't laugh. It's fun. I brought people together who were in their '60s, '70s and '80s and I did great music like Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me" and "Pennies from Heaven" and "I've Got Rhythm." And you see these people moving.
America doesn't move. We're so infatuated with food. We try 50 million diets. But people are not getting up and doing exercise on a regular basis and that's my secret, after losing 123 pounds. I've kept it off all these years because exercise is like my bible.
CALLAWAY: Well, Richard, we're not laughing at you, we're laughing because no one can imagine you as an aging senior citizen. That's just not going to happen.
SMITH: Right.
CALLAWAY: But I do want to ask you a little bit about some of this e-mail that we have received today is heartbreaking. It's people who are perhaps in a wheelchair or they're suffering from bad knees. We've got several e-mails from people who knee issues or perhaps they have arthritis, these type of things. And they want to know what kind of exercising they can do that's not going to make them have more pain but will perhaps help them lose weight.
I know we just saw your video, which is called Sit Tight, right?
SIMMONS: That was Platinum Sweat. Now I have a video called Sit Tight. It took me five years to do this video, Catherine and Larry. It's for people with polio, spinabifidus (ph), cystic fibrosis, paraplegics, people with bad backs, obesity. It's a 30 minute video done from a chair. It begins with a warm up. Then you do aerobics sitting down. Then you do some strength training and then you do a cool down. And I teach these classes, the platinum sweat and the sit tight, all over the world. And people just love it.
I don't care what you can move, just move it and move it every day. I have a man that comes to my class and he's a quadriplegic. And all he can do is move his head. But he's got a smile from ear to ear. His breathing's getting better. And that's what you have to do in life. You have to share your talent and you have to make people feel good about themselves and let their body just rejoice in the exercise they can do.
CALLAWAY: It's good to see a video out there, an exercise video for those who are in wheelchairs. That's excellent.
SMITH: Right. And one other thing you brought up, too, is hey, Richard, speaking of the -- we need you to sit tight. We're not down with you yet. We've got to take a quick break, but more coming up in just a moment.
SIMMONS: Well -- and welcome back to CNN in a few minutes.
CALLAWAY: We're going to come right back to you.
SMITH: That's right. We're going to answer your fitness questions. And here's a phone number where you can call us, 404-221- 1855. We'll answer your calls and e-mails after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. This hour we're talking summer shapeup. And once again joined by fitness expert Richard Simmons, who is taking your questions and e-mails.
SIMMONS: I bet you all weren't, I bet you weren't doing your exercises during the break.
CALLAWAY: No.
SMITH: No.
CALLAWAY: No, we weren't. I was actually...
SIMMONS: I did 300 leg lifts while that commercial ran.
SMITH: Richard, you're making us look bad over here.
SIMMONS: I'm sorry. I don't mean to.
CALLAWAY: I was working. I'm over here pulling all e-mail that we've received of questions from people. We also have someone on the phone with us, Deedee. You're on the line with Richard Simmons. Good morning to you.
SIMMONS: Hi, Deedee.
DEEDEE: Hello.
SIMMONS: How are you this morning?
DEEDEE: I'm great, thanks. And you?
SIMMONS: Wonderful. I'm here in Cleveland. I'm going to go teach a big class for Lake Hospital and get people motivated, do a fundraiser. How is your morning going?
DEEDEE: Oh, fine, thank you. CALLAWAY: OK...
SIMMONS: What is your question?
CALLAWAY: Deedee, what's your question? I'm sorry. I had a producer talking to me. I didn't hear. Are you still there, Deedee?
DEEDEE: Yes. I'm watching it on TV so I'm confused.
SMITH: Oh.
CALLAWAY: OK, well don't, there's a little bit of a delay so don't...
SMITH: Yes, turn your TV down if you could.
CALLAWAY: So don't turn your TV off.
SMITH: And do you have your question for Richard?
DEEDEE: Yes. The question is if one has never exercised, such as myself, what would you suggest as a beginning program? I'm into immediate gratification and I know you don't get it with exercise.
SIMMONS: Aren't we all? Aren't we all? That's why people in America are starving and trying stupid diets. I would start easy. I don't know if you can walk. I don't know how much you can walk. I don't know if you could get a video that's a chair video where you're sitting down in a chair and you're doing your workouts and you're doing all your stretches. Take it slowly. If you could only walk for 10 minutes, then walk 10 minutes and keep a little journal, I, you know, 10 minutes this week. The next week I went to 20 minutes.
You know, the instant gratification is after you do any workout, whether it's for 10 minutes or for 45 minutes, you feel so doggoned good. You're filled a energy. You're thinking positive and your body feels great. So just start off slowly and make sure you drink your water and make sure you eat healthy, because that helps the body.
SMITH: Our next question now. Christy (ph) in Tennessee, you're on with Richard Simmons. What's your question?
SIMMONS: Hey, Christy in Tennessee, how are you?
CHRISTY: Oh, I'm doing fine, thank you so much.
SIMMONS: I love your accent. I'm from Louisiana, where those little mosquitoes are biting everybody.
CHRISTY: Oh, I know. It's horrible.
SMITH: Christy, what's your question?
CHRISTY: My mother's on oxygen 24 hours and she's COPD and she's diabetic and she's real overweight. She's about 300 and something pounds. And she's kind of given up. CALLAWAY: Oh, dear.
SIMMONS: Do you know what? It's very easy to give up. And when you're feeling bad, you don't want to do anything. I think that if you would just go there and get some kind of a tape that she could do in her bed, just some stretching, just doing something, that would make her feel so good. When you're not exercising, oxygen does not go all over your body and you get very lethargic and depressed.
Even if she did some deep breathing every day and, you know, getting something that a physical therapist could allow her to do, some sort of movement. I call about 50 to 80 people every day who are obese or morbidly obese. Some of them are in wheelchairs or have been in bed for eight years. And I talk them through some breathing and some stretches because it always makes you feel good.
Please say hi to your mom for me, OK?
CALLAWAY: All right, Richard, I want to first ask -- before we move on to another call -- ask you a quick question that we received from Emily in Pensin (ph), Alabama. She wants to know, "Is stationery bike riding equal exercise to walking?"
SIMMONS: I would say no. I mean I think any exercise you're doing is great because most Americans don't do it. Eighty percent of Americans don't exercise on a regular basis. You know, on a bicycle it's great. But when you are walking, your hands are moving, your legs are moving and that's the most important thing you can do is keep that body moving. When you're on a stationery bike, most of the time people are just pedaling and not moving their upper body.
It's the combination of the upper body movements and the lower body movements where you see the best benefits of exercise.
CALLAWAY: Look at us.
SMITH: Hey, look, see.
CALLAWAY: We weren't doing anything and we are exercising.
SMITH: Can you see us? There we go. See? We're getting going there.
CALLAWAY: Yes.
SMITH: Tara (ph) in New Jersey.
SIMMONS: Where's my box of gold stars? Could somebody give me the box of gold stars?
CALLAWAY: All right, Tara is on the line from New Jersey. Good morning, Tara. Do you have a question?
TARA: Yes.
CALLAWAY: Ooh, Tara, Tara, turn your television down. Off completely, please.
SIMMONS: Hi, Tara.
TARA: Hi.
SIMMONS: How are you this morning?
TARA: Good. How are you, Richard?
SIMMONS: I am so full of energy. I think one day I'm just going to combust.
TARA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for you, Richard. What keeps you motivated all of these years?
CALLAWAY: Yes, what does motivate you?
SIMMONS: Well, I've been traveling for 30 years now, since 1972, and I think what keeps me going is the results. I thought in my journey that there would be other people who would help the overweight and obese. But sad to say there's none. Everyone seems to go for the targeted perfect body. But I do hospitals, rehab centers, shopping malls. I even did a church and I did a fundraiser called Jiggle for Jesus, because you know, they're sitting in that pew -- I would say get those pews out of church and put those treadmills in.
So what keeps me going is just the knowing that a little kid who was 268 pounds and now at 54 can go out there and make a very big difference in this country.
CALLAWAY: Now if they could just put stationery bikes in between the pews and people could exercise while they're...
SIMMONS: I think so. Get them off their knees.
SMITH: A lot of noise.
SIMMONS: And get them on that treadmill.
SMITH: What was that scripture again? OK, got you. I was changing gears, I couldn't hear that.
Hey, Richard, your Web site, www.richardsimmons.com, I know you answer so many questions on there.
SIMMONS: Yes. I write a daily message every single day. I have a clubhouse. I have chats. I have auditoriums. I'm on the Web every day. Over a million people come and just try to get motivated. You see, Larry and Catherine, it is 10 percent exercise and it is 10 percent eating and it's 80 percent motivation. If you don't like yourself, if you're feeling low, if people have put you down, if you're walking among the ruins of your life and just living in the past, you will never go forward.
So my secret is yes, teach them exercise, teach them to eat. But my secret is to make them like themself, because most Americans do not know their worth and I try to plant those seeds.
CALLAWAY: All right, Richard Simmons, it's been a pleasure having you on.
And Larry and I are so motivated. When we get off this morning, we're going to go work out, aren't we, Larry?
SMITH: That's right.
SIMMONS: Well, I know when I get off the air you'll be doing your sit-ups and your crunches and your aerobics. And you're going to go thank goodness, I feel alive.
CALLAWAY: Bye, Richard.
SIMMONS: Thank you for your time and I wish all of your viewers health and happiness today.
CALLAWAY: Yes, all right, thanks Richard.
SMITH: Thank you very much, Richard.
CALLAWAY: First of all, I want to say, we don't mean to offend anyone, any parishioners out there when we were making our jokes.
SMITH: Right. Exactly.
CALLAWAY: We know that the church is a house of worship.
SMITH: Right. But I do say, though, that brief workout, I feel the blood pumping. I'm ready to go for this next hour.
CALLAWAY: Do you? You're motivated, right?
SMITH: Sure. Yes, I'm motivated. He's got me going.
Well, that does it for this weekend's summer shapeup.
CALLAWAY: That's right.
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