Long before Arnold Schwarzenegger and other freaks pumped up on steroids distorted public perceptions about health and fitness, Jack LaLanne was the pied piper exhorting people to get in shape the old-fashioned way: with proper nutrition and daily exercise.
The only way you can hurt the body is not use it. Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it’s never too late. I tell the truth, I practice what I preach. I’m helping people to a better life.
(Jack LaLanne, ABC News Obituary, January 23, 2011)
Trust me, there was no greater indication of the popularity and influence of this “Godfather of Fitness” than my own Mummy heeding his call to get off her couch and do side bends with him on his TV show.
Of course, it speaks volumes that his fitness show was as big a hit from the 1950s to the 1970s as The Biggest Loser is today.
Indeed, LaLanne must have been profoundly dismayed that the more he preached the virtues of health (even resorting in recent years to infomercials to hawk his power juicer), the more obese Americans became.
But talk about living the life you preach about: LaLanne reportedly exercised two hours every day and, just to prove the benefits of all of that exercise, he continually performed Houdini-like feats of fitness – like marking his 65th birthday by towing 65 boats a mile on Japan’s Lake Ashinoko near Hakone, southwest of Tokyo, on Oct. 15, 1979. He clearly enjoyed longevity and vitality in equal measure.
LaLanne died of pneumonia on Sunday at his home in California. He was 96.
Farewell, Jack.
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