Secrets of Senior Fitness Stars.

by Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D.

In addition to a professional life as a scientist, professor, author and lecturer, I have been a competitive athlete and champion power-lifter. At age 45 I took up body-building and for five years won physique contests against men half my age.

As a professional trainer and fitness director, my clients have ranged from NFL players and Ms Galaxy contestants to collegiate athletes and seniors. At 32, I broke the end of my femur playing basketball. Leading orthopaedic sports physicians told me I would not be able to walk by the age of 50, but “I can’t hear you!” I not only walk but also train vigorously 10 hours weekly without a knee replacement.

Like many older athletes, I have had to contend with other maladies including a lower back injury incurred in basketball. I have spondolothesis, slippage of the lumbar spine where a disk has completely worn away. I also suffers from kyphosis, curvature of the upper spine caused by a compression fracture of the cervical vertebrae from body surfing in Hawaii.

These injuries are potentially crippling, but I have refused surgical intervention in favor of therapeutic exercise, proper attitude, nutrition, prayer and application of principles of sports psychology. I receive no therapy and use no prescription drugs for pain.

At 54 when I suffered a separation in my right shoulder, my bench press dropped from 365 to 45 pounds overnight. Refusing to go under the knife, I steadfastly employed corrective exercises to recover use of his shoulder and within a year was bench pressing 225 pounds.

Fitness Resume – Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D.

An internationally known scientist, Dr. Eaton is an award-winning author, lecturer and TV producer. Two of the 15 books he authored or edited received national book awards. He has served on the faculties of zoology and psychology at major universities including University of Georgia and University of Washington. The author of 115 communications in peer-reviewed journals, he also has authored several hundred popular articles which have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Utne Reader, NY Times, etc. A popular keynote speaker, Dr. Eaton has been interviewed on CBS TV National News, PBS TV’s NOVA, Fox TV National News, CBS radio national news, NPR, CBC, BBC radio worldwide news, etc. He has been interviewed in LATimes, NYTimes, Washington Post, Sacramento Bee, Seattle Times, Atlanta Constitution Journal, Miami Times, NYPost, San Diego Tribune and many others.

Director of Fitness at Jungle Gym, Flamingo, Costa Rica, 2005-2007. Supervised PFTs, created, led and promoted special programs including boot camps, fitness training, equipment acquisition, etc.

Trainer of San Diego Chargers during off-season, Incline Court House, Incline Village, NV. 1988-1993.

Trainer of National Collegiate Champion Ski Team, Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, NV. 1994-1997.

Trainer of Ms Galaxy Contestants, Incline Court House, Incline Village, NV, 1988-90.

Athletic Trainer: powerlifters; bodybuilders; basketball; football; track and field; cross country; golf; swimmers, etc., high school and collegiate. At Purdue University, Incline Court House (Lake Tahoe), his own gym in Enterprise, OR, the Jungle Gym, Costa Rica, etc.

Senior Fitness Authority: conducted questionnaire and personal interviews of worldclass senior fitness stars to identify common factors of their success. Subjects included Bill Pearl, Frank Zane, Larry Scott, bodybuilding legends, as well as Sri Chin Moy, a yogi who was the strongest man in the world.

Bodybuilding Champion: began competing at age 45 and won open and master’s divisions for five years, Lake Tahoe Bodybuilding Championships.

Powerlifting Champion: as Captain of Purdue University’s powerlifting team, Won lightheavy weight division and overall champion by formula in all collegiate competitions. Our coach, a math professor at Purdue, was the Senior Men’s National Powerlifting Champion.

Athletic Competition: Captain of basketball team, University of Nairobi, Kenya, where he also threw shotput on the track and field team; Captain of basketball and football teams in high school; also competed in track/field, swimming and diving.

Nutrition Authority: conceived, developed, promoted, edited and published an interdisciplinary, scientific journal entitled CARNIVORE, about the role of carnivory in human evolution, culture and health. The editorial board members were the foremost biologists and anthropologists in the world, including Nobel laureates in Medicine and Pulitzer prize-winners. 1978-1987. My own scientific work published in CARNIVORE led to an invitation to apply for a tenured position at Harvard in vertebrate biology.

Academic Courses Taught: general biology; vertebrate zoology; mammalogy; marine mammalogy; animal behavior; wildlife biology; environmental studies/ethics; ecology; general psychology; educational psychology; philosophy of education; hunting societies; prehistoric art; transpersonal psychology; etc. Also numerous adult/continuing ed courses.

Management and Marketing Experience: extensive as President of Institute for Study and Conservation of Endangered Species; as Director of Wildlife Safari in Oregon where he conceived, designed, directed and successfully promoted a major zoological theme park, also hired and trained 60 staff and managed the education and PR programs; as President of Wildlife World, Inc., which designed and developed theme attractions in Mexico; as President of the Orca Society at U. Washington, with 15,000 members, he also edited its popular science whale magazine and established two field research stations for student interns; as Director of the Orca Project, a volunteer field research program in which he led over 3,000 volunteers into the wilderness to study wild orca whales; as President of the Asian Elephant Survival Foundation; as President of Sacred Press and Sacred Productions, and so on. Placed ads, wrote press releases, many media appearances, publicity tours, etc.

Holistic Fitness: Dr. Eaton has worked closely with orthopedic physicians, PTs, holistic physicians and healers, nutritionists, sports psychologists and others to develop a full spectrum comprehension of health and fitness that encompasses attitude, exercise and nutrition.

Education: B.A. in biology, Western Illinois University; M.S. in neurobiology Program, Purdue University; Ph.D. in neurobiology program, Purdue; post- doctoral study in zoology, University of Washington. Additional graduate study in zoology and psychology at University of Washington, University of Missouri, Oxford University and University of Nairobi.

Personal: Randall Eaton is supremely fit and healthy. He has two sons, one of whom is a fitness trainer at Fit Works and who was recently interviewed by the NYTimes as the outstanding young fitness trainer in America based on his highest score on the American Sports Medicine fitness trainer exam.

Contact him at 513-394-0284
or email randalllewiseaton@gmail.com.