Patrick Hutton, 71, was convicted of four assaults on his wife, one on his son and one on his daughter between March 1965 and December 1984.
Livingston Sheriff Court heard Hutton still maintained his innocence.
The sheriff said he used his "feet and fists" on those he should have shown "love and protection".
At an earlier trial, Hutton, from Longridge, West Lothian, had denied a total of 16 charges, of which he was convicted of six following a four-week trial.
Sheriff Peter Hammond imposed concurrent sentences on each of the charges, amounting to a total of two years.
He told Hutton: "You were for many years an experienced boxer and a fit man and you used your feet and fists on vulnerable members of your family as a means of discipline, control and subjugation of them.
"These are serious offences involving ill treatment and violence towards members of your family who should have been entitled to expect your love and protection as a father and a husband."
During the trial, Hutton's wife Rachel, 70, said her husband - who trained at a local boxing club and practiced judo - was a powerful man, nearly 6ft tall and weighing 14 stones, when he physically abused her.
She said the violence began when she was aged just 20 and escalated over the years to include assaults on her children as well.
The mother-of-four told how the attacks often came when they got home after nights out in a social club near where they lived.
She said she had to stare at the floor in pubs and clubs because her husband would accuse her of looking at other men and of being unfaithful to him.
Son John, 50, told how he was left to feed chickens at his dad's coal yard when his parents went on holiday.
He threw the entire sack of grain into the chicken run because he was scared of the birds and they all died from overeating.
As punishment his father gave him a beating and locked him in the chicken shed with the dead birds.
Defence counsel Tony Lenihan said that Hutton still maintained his innocence and he stressed that the pensioner kept very poor health and had mobility problems.
Sheriff Hammond told Hutton: "I accept that you're an elderly man with a declining state of health. You can take it that - but for your health issues - the sentences would have been significantly longer."
A "fit and powerful" ex-boxer found guilty of attacking his wife and family over a period of 50 years has been jailed for two years.