Fitness guru Jack LaLanne dies at 96 in California

Jack LaLanne, a one-time
sugar-holic who became a television fitness guru preaching
exercise and healthy diet to a generation of American
housewives, died on Sunday at age 96, his daughter said.
LaLanne, who became U.S. television fixture in his
close-fitting jumpsuit starting in 1959 and came to be regarded
as the father of the modern fitness movement, succumbed to
pneumonia following a brief illness at his home in Morro Bay,
along the California's central coast.
"He was surrounded by his family and passed very peacefully
and in no distress ... and with the football game on Sunday, so
everything was normal," Yvonne LaLanne, 66, told Reuters.
She said her father had remained active until a few months
ago, including the taping of a recent public TV special.
Well into his 90s, LaLanne exercised for two hours a day. A
typical workout would be 90 minutes of weightlifting and 30
minutes of swimming, changing his routine every 30 days.
He preached the gospel of exercise, raw vegetables and
clean living long after his contemporaries had traded in their
bicycles for nursing home beds.
"I can't die," LaLanne would say. "It would ruin my
image."
LaLanne was born Francois Henri LaLanne on Sept. 26, 1914,
in San Francisco, the son of French immigrants. He said he grew
into a "sugar-holic" who suffered terrible headaches, mood
swings and depression.
In desperation when he was 14, LaLanne's mother took him to
hear health lecturer Paul Bragg, who urged followers to
exercise and eat unprocessed foods.
The young LaLanne swore off white flour, most fat and sugar
and began eating more fruits and vegetables. By age 15, he had
built a backyard gym of climbing ropes, chin-up bars, sit-up
machines and weights.
Soon, LaLanne, who was only 5 feet, 6 inches (1.67 metres)
tall, was playing high school football. He added weight-lifting
to recover from a football injury and was hooked.
LaLanne opened the nation's first modern health club in
Oakland, California, in 1936. It had a gym, juice bar and
health food store. Soon there were 100 gyms nationwide.
Without bothering with patents, LaLanne designed his own
exercise equipment, which he had built by a blacksmith. In
1951, he started using television to get the first generation
of couch potatoes to try jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups.
"The Jack LaLanne Show," which went national in 1959,
showed housewives how to work out and eat right, becoming a
staple of U.S. daytime television during a 34-year run.
He also was known for a series of promotional fitness
stunts. At age 45, in 1959, he did 1,000 push-ups and 1,000
chin-ups in 86 minutes. In 1984 a 70-year-old LaLanne had
himself shackled and handcuffed and towed 70 boats 1.5 miles
(just under 2 km) in Long Beach Harbor.
LaLanne said in 2007 his focus was always to help people
the way Paul Bragg had helped him, adding, "Billy Graham is for
the hereafter, I'm for the here and now!"