Verified answer

Yes, to help deal with severe back pain, he had at least three exercise therapy sessions per week in the White House gym and regularly swam in the White House swimming pool. He was under the care of Dr. Hans Kraus, at the time he was a pioneer in sports medicine and physical rehabilitation.

See source under "Boston" and "Exercise as a cure."

Good answer Louie O.....

Yes he swam a lot...And went sailing a lot, running a giant sail boat alone all by himself a lot. He played with his little children and played a lot of 'touch' (minimal tackle) American football with his brothers/ relatives. The big thing was his back wounds as a US Navy combat captain in WWII (1941-1945) had left him with a broken lower back....The spinal cord was intact, but the vertebrae that make up that part of the spine and the discs between them.... were gone....With a lower spine wired together by the best surgery of the time, he suffered constant pain. If he 'over did it' in sports he could snap the cord and be forever paralyzed from the waist down. As such he wore a secret 'back brace' round his middle to keep his spinal cord without bone to support some inches of it from 'severing'.

The fact he did 'any' sports and took the brace off to play risking 'all' to me is in itself amazing.

Re: 1st answer...Yes I've heard that too, that what he did with Marilyn Monroe and other girlfriends is 'supposed' to be good for the lower back.

He did a bit of physical exercise with Marilyn Monroe...