Posted on 01/23/2011 6:39:55 PM PST by massmike
Fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron decades before exercise became a national obsession, has died at age 96.
His agent Rick Hersh says LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California’s central coast.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
RIP. The man practiced what he preached.
Rest In Peace Sir. . . I grew up watching you.
Condolences to family and friends of Jack LaLanne. A fitness inspiration to many.
I used to exercise when I was about 7 yrs old with my Mom and Jack LaLane....(he was on TV). RIP.
When I reach 96, I hope to be half as healthy as he was.
I liked the guy. May he rest in peace.
Good man. Remember him from my childhood, on the old black and white TV set.
One of the morning shows interviewed him in the past year. He was still going strong. My mother and I used to exercise to his TV show some fifty years ago.
He was amazing! I saw him on Fox News and he still looked like an @$$ kicker.
He lived life right to the end. RIP, Jack.
I was thinking about him the other day. Dang, rest in peace for the fitness guru of all time.
Prayers to his family. What a life he led. The first time I ever saw a man in unitard.
Interesting tidbits about this Giant of a Man.
Yes, always in black and white and sometimes flickering.
God bless him. He was a real livewire and looked pretty damn good for 96.
The guy could do more push-ups at 96 than I can at 46.
From LaLanne & Religion
As I mentioned, LaLanne does not believe in, or respect, people that use God as an excuse to live unhealthy lifestyles. He has no sympathy for people that overeat and don’t exercise then go to church asking God to heal them from diseases that they caused themselves! LaLanne quipped during our interview, “Does God knock at your gym door in the morning? NO! Jesus said he’d help those who help themselves.” LaLanne feels that living in poor health is not honoring your body according to the bible. Allow me to summarize for Jack…you want good health? Don’t wait for God to do it for you. Get your butt into the gym or a good workout and eat some nutritious food. That’s the way to good health!
Well, maybe his theology wasn't top-notch, but his heart sure was in the right place.
RIP Jack, and welcome home.
Jack LaLanne is an American fitness, exercise and nutritional expert, celebrity, lecturer, and motivational speaker. LaLanne is known as “the father of fitness.”
Born Francois Henri LaLanne, the son of French immigrants, he did not always lead a healthy lifestyle. Up until the age of 15, when he heard Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition, LaLanne describes himself as a sugarholic. This was the turning point in his life when he decided to focus on his diet and exercise habits. He studied Gray’s Anatomy and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting which, in the 1930s, was a revolutionary technique.
He originally planned to enter the field of medicine; but in 1936, at the age of 21, he opened his own health spa in California (the first gym in the United States) and encouraged clients to better themselves through weight-training. He designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and weight selectors; equipment which is now standard in the fitness industry. He was also the first to encourage women to weight-lift (at the time, people worried that this would make women look masculine and unattractive). By the 1980s there were more than 200 health clubs bearing his name (although he is no longer associated with any gym).
In 1951 LaLanne began to reach the American audience through television, which he continued for the next 33 years (1984), giving on-screen instruction in fitness and exercise. He also publishes books and videos on fitness and nutrition, has appeared in films, recorded a song with Connie Haines, markets an electric juicer under his name, and used to market exercise equipment and a range of vitamin supplements.
His success as a body-builder became known worldwide, as well as his prodigious feats of strength. He has won numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At age 90, he continues to work out every morning for two hours, one hour in the weight room and one hour in the pool. LaLanne and his wife of 50 years, Elaine (77), who herself was out of shape and a smoker when she met Jack during a local network news interview, live in Morro Bay, California and travel all over the world giving motivational talks about fitness and exercise.
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