Francois Henri "Jack" LaLanne (; September 26, 1914 – January 23, 2011) was an American fitness and nutrition guru and motivational speaker. He described himself as being a "sugarholic" and a "junk food junkie" until he was 15 years old. He also had behavioral problems but "turned his life around" after listening to a public lecture about the benefits of good nutrition by health food pioneer Paul Bragg. During his career, he came to believe that the country's overall health depended on the health of its population, and he referred to physical culture and nutrition as "the salvation of America". He was nicknamed the "Godfather of Fitness".Time Magazine. Jack LaLanne, Fitness Guru, Dies at 96. By Nick Carbone Jan. 23, 2011.ABC News. Fitness Legend Jack LaLanne Dies. By Amanda Vanallen. January 24, 2011.Hollywood Reporters. Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne Is Laid to Rest. Bill Higgins. February 1, 2011.
LaLanne hosted the first"Pride & Discipline: The Legacy of Jack LaLanne" Elaine LaLanne and Greg Justice. . Publisher: Greg Justice, March 16, 2022. and longest-runningLoBrutto, Vincent (2018). TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 69. . Retrieved 14 December 2017 nationally syndicated fitness television program, The Jack LaLanne Show, from 1951 to 1985. He published numerous books on fitness and was widely recognized for publicly preaching the health benefits of regular exercise and a good diet. He started working out with weights when they were an oddity.New York Times. Jack LaLanne, Founder of Modern Fitness Movement, Dies at 96. By Richard Goldstein. Jan. 23, 2011 As early as 1936, at the age of 21, he opened the nation's first modern health club in Oakland, California, which became a prototype for dozens of similar gyms bearing his name, later licensing them to Bally.
One of LaLanne's 1950s television exercise programs was aimed toward women, whom he also encouraged to join his health clubs. He invented a number of exercise machines, including the pulley and leg extension devices and the Smith machine, as well as protein supplement drinks, resistance bands, and protein bars. He also popularized juicing and the jumping jack.Erik Hayden. "Remembering Fitness Legend Jack LaLanne" He produced his own series of videos so viewers could be coached virtually. He pioneered coaching the elderly and disabled to exercise in order to enhance their strength and health.
LaLanne also gained recognition for his success as a bodybuilder and for his prodigious feats of strength. At the age of 70, handcuffed and shackled, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor. Steve Reeves credited LaLanne as his inspiration to build his muscular physique while keeping a slim waist. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as governor of California, placed him on his Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, and on the occasion of LaLanne's death he credited LaLanne for being "an apostle for fitness" by inspiring "billions all over the world to live healthier lives"."Schwarzenegger calls LaLanne 'most energetic man in the room , KSBY.com, 24 January 2011
LaLanne was inducted into the California Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life LaLanne was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Jennie (née Garaig) and Jean/John LaLanne, French immigrants from Oloron-Sainte-Marie. Both entered the US in the 1880s as young children at the Port of New Orleans. LaLanne had two older brothers, Ervil, who died in childhood (1906–1911), and Norman (1908–2005), who nicknamed him "Jack".
He grew up in Bakersfield, California, and later moved with his family to Berkeley, California, circa 1928. In 1939, his father died at the age of 58 in a San Francisco hospital, which LaLanne attributed to "coronary thrombosis and cirrhosis of the liver". In his book The Jack LaLanne Way to Vibrant Health, LaLanne wrote that as a boy he was addicted to sugar and junk food.The Jack LaLanne Way to Vibrant Health (page 21, 1960 edition) He had violent episodes directed against himself and others, describing himself as "a miserable kid ... it was like hell".
Besides having a bad temper, LaLanne also suffered from headaches and bulimia, and temporarily dropped out of high school at the age of 14. The following year, aged 15, he heard health food pioneer Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition, focusing on the "evils of meat and sugar".St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture vol. 3, St. James Press (2000) pp. 81-83 Bragg's message had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who then changed his life and started focusing on his diet and exercise. In his own words, he was "born again". He also began exercising daily (although while serving during World War II as a Pharmacist Mate First Class at the Sun Valley Naval Convalescent Hospital, LaLanne stated that he started bodybuilding at "age 13")."On The Sports Front," Twin Falls (Idaho) Times News, 25 February 1944, George F. Redmond, sportswriter. Describing his change of diet, LaLanne stated, "I had to take my lunch alone to the football field to eat so no one would see me eat my raw veggies, whole bread, raisins and nuts. You don't know the crap I went through"."Jack La LanneA Berkeley (not Oakland) Original", Berkeley Daily Planet, 25 January 2011
Writer Hal Reynolds, who interviewed LaLanne in 2008, noted that he became an avid swimmer and trained with weights.
LaLanne went back to school, where he made the high school football team. He later attended 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.
Fitness career Early wrestling career LaLanne won the American Athletic Foundation Wrestling Championship in 1930 and the American Athletic Union medal for wrestling in 1936. He was put on the 1936 Olympic wrestling team but was taken off the team because he was "charging money for exercise" by opening a gym and thus "considered a professional".
Health clubs Arnold Schwarzenegger said of Lalanne, "It doesn't matter where you go, there's a health club, and it all started with Jack LaLanne."http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/02/01/jack.lalanne.memorial/index.html CNN. "Arnold Schwarzenegger eulogizes Jack LaLanne." By Alan Duke. February 3, 2011.
In 1936, he opened the nation's first health and fitness club in Oakland, California, 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". LaLanne recalls the initial reaction of doctors to his promotion of weight lifting:
LaLanne designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, weight selectors, and many other inventions, none of which he patented, that are now standard in the fitness industry. He invented the original model of what became the Smith machine. He invented resistance bands, which he marketed as the Glamour Stretcher for women and the Easy Way for men with different tensions. LaLanne encouraged women to lift weights (though at the time it was thought this would make women look masculine and unattractive), and he was the first to have a coed health club. 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.
Books, television and other media
LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television for 34 years. The Jack LaLanne Show was the longest-running television exercise program. According to the SF Chronicle TV program archives, it first began on 28 September 1953 as a 15-minute local morning program (sandwiched between the morning news and a cooking show) on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, with LaLanne paying for the airtime himself as a way to promote his gym and related health products. LaLanne also met his wife Elaine while she was working for the local station. In 1959, the show was picked up for nationwide syndication, and continued until 1985.
The show was noted for its minimalist set, where LaLanne inspired his viewers to use basic home objects, such as a chair, to perform their exercises along with him. Wearing his standard jumpsuit, he urged his audience "with the enthusiasm of an evangelist," to get off their couch and copy his basic movements, a manner considered the forerunner of today's fitness videos.Jack LaLanne Show video In 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album that provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher.Jack LaLanne's Glamour Stretcher, NYTimes Exercise Product History
As a daytime show, much of LaLanne's audience were stay-at-home mothers. LaLanne's wife Elaine LaLanne was part of the show to demonstrate the exercises and to show that doing them would not ruin the figures or musculature of women. LaLanne also included his dog Happy as a way to attract children to the show. Later in the run, another dog named Walter was used, with LaLanne claiming "Walter" stood for "We All Love To Exercise Regularly".
LaLanne published several books and videos on fitness and nutrition, appeared in movies, and recorded a song with Connie Haines. He marketed exercise equipment, a range of vitamin supplements, and two models of electric juicers.Jack LaLanne, Media Fitness Guru, Dies at 96 – Wall Street Journal Published 24 January 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011. These include the "Juice Tiger", as seen on Amazing Discoveries with Mike Levey, and "Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer". It was on the show that LaLanne introduced the phrase "That's the power of the juice!". However, in March 1996, 70,000 Juice Tiger juicers, 9% of all its models, were recalled after 14 injury incidents were reported.U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC, National Media Corporation Announced Juice Tiger Recall Program The Power Juicer is still sold in five models.
LaLanne played the role of "Hercules" in the Christmas television movie, "The Year Without a Santa Claus" starring John Goodman, in 2006, his last acting role.
LaLanne celebrated his 95th birthday with the release of a new book titled Live Young Forever.
Personal health routine Diet One of LaLanne's sayings was "If man made it, don't eat it."Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity. By Jack Lalanne. Publisher: UNKNO. September 16, 2009. , .
LaLanne blamed heavily processed foods for many health problems. For most of his life, he eschewed sugar and white flour while eating many fruits and vegetables,Reuters. Jack LaLanne, 93, still spreads gospel of exercise. March 19, 2007. and he ate a mostly dairy-freehttp://www.shareguide.com/LaLanne.html Shareguide: Holistic Health Magazine & Resource Directory. Interview with Jack LaLanne Legendary Fitness Expert, Health Pioneer, Diet and Nutrition Innovator (1914-2011). Interview by Janice Hughes and Dennis Hughes, Share Guide Publishers. and a pescatarian diet that included lots of egg whites and fish. He also took vitamin supplementsJack LaLanne's 10 Health Habits. The Daily Beast. Published 24 January 2011. Accessed 31 January 2011.Jack Lalanne: 81 Going On 60 . The Sun Sentinel. Published 14 March 1996. Accessed 31 January 2011.CNN Transcript – Larry King Live: Jack La Lanne Discusses a Life of Health and Fitness . Aired 17 July 2000, 9:00 p.m. ET. Accessed 31 January 2011. and protein supplements.