Posted on 09/28/2004 7:10:31 PM PDT by churchillbuff
LOS ANGELES -- Fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne is still preaching what he practises: a sensible diet and regular exercise.
Mr. LaLanne, who has spent his life urging people to eat better and exercise more, can still lift weights, do abdominal crunches and hoist his 78-year-old wife, Elaine.
"I've got no aches and no pains," he said. "If I get a sniffle, it's gone the next day. Everything's working. Just look at my wife. She's smiling."
Mr. LaLanne turned 90 Sunday, an event marked by nine hours straight of reruns of his 1960s fitness show by a U.S. cable sports channel, and appearances on television and radio talk shows.
"Most people work at dying. I work at living. It's a pain in the ass," Mr. LaLanne said. "You have to eat right and exercise.
"Most people, when they reach a certain age, let down and talk about what they used to do. Well, who gives a damn about what you used to do? It's what you're doing now."
What he does now: exercises two hours a day, seven days a week, and steers clear of meat, caffeine, white sugar and refined flour.
He was a pioneer of U.S. fitness trends that saw membership gyms sprout up all across the country and housewives following televised aerobics classes in their living rooms.
Those trends continue to proliferate today, from specialty yoga to extreme sports to diet books that scale the bestseller lists.
Mr. LaLanne hails from California, long known for its cult of the body and focus on the good life. A skinny high-school dropout, he attended a lecture on nutrition with his mother at 15 and never looked back: He swore off sugar, went back to school, and became captain of the football team.
In 1936, he founded the first health club in Oakland, east of San Francisco, and went on to invent the first generation of exercise equipment that is ubiquitous today.
As more and more North American households acquired television sets, he jumped on the bandwagon of another emerging trend, exercising on air from 1951 to 1984, before millions of viewers.
"He was ahead of his time when it comes to pushing the idea of fitness and weight training," says Dr. Ron Davis, an American Medical Association board member.
"This guy had some of the same stuff that Oprah has and Johnny Carson had: the ability to insinuate themselves in the domestic space of people's lives," added Robert Thompson of The Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
More than half a century after he began, Mr. LaLanne's message is taking on new credibility, even as reruns of his now quaint-looking show are giving him something of a comeback.
His prescription for a long life? It all comes down to diet, exercise and common sense.
"All these diets are from crackpots. You've got to have a combination of everything -- fats, sugars, carbohydrates, protein. The only way to lose fat is to count calories. There are no shortcuts."
As for exercise, 30 minutes three times a week will suffice.
"You don't have to work out seven days a week," he said. "That's stupid. But it's what I do. I'm a nut."
I'm impressed!
I watched with my mom in the 50s too...
He used to say, "Inhale.........Blow it out!" That always cracked me up, he never said "exhale."
Dad said he was a sissy, mom said, "no he's not, he's married."
I've always been able to impress women with feats like this. My sixth wife is still charmed...
Well, chicks dig men who can belch the alphabet and shoot long-distance raisins from their noses.
I have lived a full life.
Men everywhere envy you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.