We'll Miss You Jack Lalanne !!!
Jack Lalanne,fitness icon,dead at 96. /september 26.1914-january 23.2011
Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron for decades before exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday.
Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne (September 26, 1914 – January 23, 2011) was an American fitness, exercise, and nutritional expert and motivational speaker who is sometimes called "the godfather of fitness" and the "first fitness superhero."[1] He described himself as being a "sugarholic" and a "junk food junkie” until he was 15. He also had behavioral problems, but "turned his life around" after listening to a public lecture by Paul Bragg, a well-known nutrition speaker.[2] During his career, he came to believe that the country's overall health depended on the health of its population, writing that "physical culture and nutrition — is the salvation of America."[3]
Decades before fitness began being promoted by celebrities like Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, LaLanne was already widely recognized for publicly preaching the health benefits of regular exercise and a good diet. He published numerous books on fitness and hosted a fitness television show between 1951 and 1985. As early as 1936, at age 21, he opened one of the nation's first[3] fitness gyms in Oakland, California, which became a prototype for dozens of similar gyms using his name.[4] One of his 1950s television exercise programs was aimed toward women, whom he also encouraged to join his health clubs.[3][5] He invented a number of exercise machines, including leg-extension and pulley devices. Besides producing his own series of videos, he coached the elderly and disabled to not forgo exercise, believing it would enable them to enhance their strength.[3][5]
LaLanne also gained recognition for his success as a bodybuilder, as well as for his prodigious feats of strength. Arnold Schwarzenegger once stated, "That Jack LaLanne's an animal!," after LaLanne, at 54, beat a 21-year-old Schwarzenegger "badly" in an informal contest.[1] He credited LaLanne for being "an apostle for fitness" by inspiring "billions all over the world to live healthier lives,"[6] and had earlier placed him on his Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.
He was inducted to the California Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early lifeLaLanne was born in San Francisco, California,[3] to Jennie (née Garaig) (1884-1973) and Jean LaLanne. His parents were immigrants from Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwest France. LaLanne had an older brother, Norman (1908–2005), who nicknamed him "Jack."[3][7]
He grew up in Bakersfield, California and later moved to Berkeley when he was still a child. His father died at the age of 50, caused in part by poor nutrition.[8] LaLanne wrote that as a boy he was addicted to sugar and junk food. He had violent episodes directed against himself and others, describing himself as "a miserable goddamn kid...it was like hell."[9] Besides having a bad temper, he also suffered from headaches and bulimia, and dropped out of high school at age 14. The following year, at age 15, he heard health food pioneer Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition, focusing on the "evils of meat and sugar."[8]
Bragg's message had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who then changed his life and started focusing on his diet and exercise.[10] In his own words, he was "born again," and besides his new focus on nutrition, he began working out daily. He went back to school, where he made the high school football team, and later went on to college in San Francisco where he earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. He studied Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting.[8]
[edit] Fitness career[edit] Health clubsIn 1936, he opened what is considered the nation's first health and fitness club in Oakland, California,[8] where he offered supervised weight and exercise training and gave nutritional advice. His primary goal was to encourage and motivate his clients to improve their overall health. Doctors, however, advised their patients to stay away from his health club, a business totally unheard of at the time, and warned their patients that "LaLanne was an exercise 'nut,' whose programs would make them muscle-bound" and cause severe medical problems.[8] LaLanne recalls the initial reaction of doctors to his promotion of weight-lifting:
"People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me—they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive."[5]
LaLanne designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and the weight selectors that are now standard in the fitness industry. He invented the original model of what became the Smith machine.[11] LaLanne encouraged women to lift weights (though at the time it was thought this would make women look masculine and unattractive). By the 1980s, Jack LaLanne's European Health Spas numbered more than 200. He eventually licensed all his health clubs to the Bally company, now known as Bally Total Fitness. Though not associated with any gym, LaLanne continued to lift weights until his death.
LaLanne's gym ownership led to a brief professional wrestling career in 1938. Wrestlers were among the few athletes who embraced weight training, and they frequented his health club. LaLanne wrestled in the Bay Area for only a few months. He was well-respected enough that he was booked to wrestle to a draw against some big name opponents rather than lose, despite his lack of experience. LaLanne was friendly with such performers as Lou Thesz and Strangler Lewis.
Fitness icon Jack LaLanne, a man who pushed Americans to pump iron, eat better and lose weight for more than 70 years, has died. He was 96.
The so-called "godfather of fitness" died of respiratory failure from pneumonia in his Morro Bay, Calif. home Sunday afternoon, his longtime agent Rick Hersh told The Associated Press.
"I have not only lost my husband and a great American icon, but the best friend and most loving partner anyone could ever hope for," Elaine LaLanne said in a statement. The two had been married for 51 years.
LaLanne was a fitness pioneer, opening the first of his many exercise studios in 1936 in his hometown of Oakland, Calif. He focused on weight-training at a time when the idea of pumping iron was strictly taboo, especially for women.
"You have to understand that it was absolutely forbidden in those days for athletes to use weights. It just wasn't done. We had athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out," he once said.
Athletic trainers believed bulking up would slow athletes down and women were supposed to look curvy and feminine, not athletic and toned.
"Back then, women weren't supposed to use weights. I guess I was a pioneer," LaLanne said.
LaLanne underwent a successful heart valve surgery two years ago and bounced back as strong and active as ever.
"He was amazing. He never lost enthusiasm for life and physical fitness," said former "Price is Right" host Bob Barker, 87, who said LaLanne's influence turned him on to a regular exercise regimen.
LaLanne became a household name after he launched a televised exercise program in the 1950s that aired until the 1970s. He would forever after be known for his dedication to healthy living and his signature one-piece belted workout suit.
"This is a nation of tired people," he said, in an effort to encourage people to exercise. "Everyone is suffering from that chroinc disease that I like to call pooped-out-itis."
"Inactivity is a killer," LaLanne once said. "The only way you can hurt the body is not use it."
LaLanne was known for his extreme fitness stunts. The body-building fanatic churned out 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes on the television show "You Asked for it" at age 43 in 1957.
At age 60, he swam handcuffed and towed a boat from San Francisco's Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf. He repeated the amazing feat 10 years later in Long Beach, Calif.
"I never think abotu my age, never. I could be 20, I could be 100. I never think about it, I'm just me," LaLanne said in 1990.
LaLanne is survived by his wife and workout partner Elaine, his two sons Dan and Jon, and a daughter, Yvonne.
Téma: In memory of fitness guru Jack Lalanne. (Megtekintve 11986 alkalommal)
