12/21/24
January 24, 2011
Fitness Legend Jack LaLanne Dies: Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired several generations to exercise and eat right for decades, died Sunday of respiratory failure related to pneumonia. He was 96. At 60, LaLanne swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. "The only way you can hurt the body is not use it," LaLanne once said. "Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it's never too late." In 1936 in native Oakland, he opened a health studio with weight-training for women and athletes. "It was absolutely forbidden in those days for athletes to use weights," he said. "We had athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out."
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posted by dviking at 07:02 PM on January 24, 2011
The guy swam from Alcatraz pulling a 1000 pound boat people. He changed the way athletes work out. He started the entire home workout thing. Cant we do better then (.)
posted by Debo270 at 08:19 AM on January 25, 2011
My mom always told me that if I swam in cold water I'd catch pneumonia. Guess she was right.
posted by tselson at 12:08 AM on January 26, 2011
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posted by tommybiden at 09:09 AM on January 26, 2011
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posted by yzelda4045 at 01:44 PM on January 26, 2011
You tend to be remembered for the endings not the beginnings. Because of this many people are going to think of him as "the juicer guy," just one more infomercial pitchman.
LaLanne was far more than that, fearlessly pushing exercise and proper diet long before Americans caught up with the concepts. I say fearlessly because I'm sure lots of guys in the Mad Men era made fun of this guy wearing tights and doing jumping jacks on morning TV.
Eat more unprocessed foods and keep sugar to the minimum if not zero. Everybody gets it now even if they don't practice it. R.I.P. Mr LaLanne.
posted by Newbie Walker at 09:56 PM on January 28, 2011
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