Professor Jukka Ammondt trains his muscles twice a day – “I’m living the best time of my life”

When Jukka Ammondt turned eight, he got dumbbells from his parents and Alexis Kiven Seven brothers. The young man had no idea that they would be a central part of his everyday life even at the age of 80.

The father, who worked as a repair manager at the Kauttua paper mill, was a keen sportsman and made his son little pounds. Little Jukka, who enjoys a variety of sports, did not need to be forced into strength training.

“The attraction to sports has come to me as a blood inheritance.”

Ammondt started going to the gym regularly when he was a student, and strength training is still the cornerstone of the retired professor’s life.

“When I open my eyes and find myself still in my bodily state, I wake myself up with a little pole walk along the Jyväskylä beach track.”

The first ones jaws Ammondt pulls the outdoor gym on a sled and continues various hand movements in the building company’s gym. Then he goes up the stairs to his apartment on the 13th floor, washes up and eats oatmeal.

After this, Ammondt moves to his study and starts the creative phase of the day. The bookshelves reaching up to the ceiling are filled with works that have clearly been read numerous times. From the window opens a beautiful view of Jyväsjärvi, and on the opposite bank is Ammondt’s long-time workplace, Alvar Aalton red brick Jyväskylä university campus designed by

At the age of 80 Jukka Ammondt feels that he is living the best time of his life. He can focus on writing, planning lectures and implementing projects, the largest of which is 700 pages long Testament of the researcher graduated in 2023. In it, he examines the three major influencers of our theater history from a male perspective Minna Canthin, Maria Jotunin and Hella Wuolijoki the effort as women to seize life and leave a mark on it.

Ammondt already familiarized himself with Wuolijoki’s plays in his doctoral thesis completed in 1980. In 1985, he wrote a play Fighting Hellawhich received widespread media attention.

In the afternoon, it’s time for the actual gym workout: overhead pull-ups, bicep curls, push-ups, front squats, corner rows and, of course, chin-ups.

“Sometimes I get too excited, and I feel it the next morning in my arms and muscles.”

By exercising, Ammondt takes care of his body, or his spirit tank, as he calls it Cicero citing. He also sees the gym as a place for a man’s integration.

“You can gather there to test your strength with your fellow athletes. The man’s territory has narrowed and the woman’s has expanded.”

Sports moreover, even as a small boy Ammondt felt a strong attraction to literature, in particular Seven to his brother.

“It’s a wonderful coming-of-age story with adventure and fascinating freedom. I have read the last pages many times in my life.”

In the final exam in the mother tongue of high school, Ammondt was able to excel with his knowledge of Aleksis Kive’s work and recited his poems from memory. He got an A on this exam, even though he wasn’t particularly motivated by going to school.

“One of my school friends said that with this answer we will go to the University of Turku to read literature, where he is a professor Eino Krohn. I got excited about the proposal and started down that path.”

Krohn taught literature and aesthetics. Even his first lecture convinced Ammondt that the study of beauty, humanism and longing is also his life’s mission.

of the 1980s after a painful divorce at the end of the year, Ammondt started singing tango in addition to his academic career.

“Tango saved me. The ex-wife left for the United States and took our three children with her. I had a constant longing for children beyond the open sea.”

Ammondt’s first tango album was released in 1993. On the next album he sang Toivo Kärjen tangos in Latin. Colleague Teivas Oksala with a twinkle in his eye, had offered to translate the bars into a language in which even the Pope could listen to them.

And no time at all, when the Finnish Foreign Affairs Administration was sent to the Vatican Doctor Ammondtin levy The Finnish tango is sad. Shortly after this, Ammondt and Oksala received the Pope From John Paul II medals of honor.

Breakthrough to international stages happened in 1995, when Ammondt had recorded in Latin Elvis Presley songs. That’s when performance arenas opened up in the United States. He has performed Finnish tango in Argentina and Uruguay, among others, and lectured on its special features in different parts of the world.

Ammondt, who became known as a tango doctor, believes that a higher power has given each of us our own path and mission.

“You should become more sensitive to listening to the call.”

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“Take good care of your body. It keeps your senses refreshed and you open up to experience the beauty that comes from eternity and leads you to the shoreless sea of ​​love.”