Remembering Jack LaLanne

By Brent Fairbanks

On 1/24/2011

Thank you Jack LaLanne!

I know that this is not the usual time frame for another article but this is something special. One of the great inspirations to the world on health and fitness has passed. I'm talking about the absolutely unequaled Jack LaLanne. A true hero and a leader in the fitness world before there even was a fitness world.

Jack first came into my life in the early 1960's where I would sit back on the couch and watch my mom exercise with Jack on our black and white TV set. He was on every morning leading the nation on towards health and fitness. I remember vividly after every exercise the show would have that organ music playing where you needed to take a deep breath, as the music rises in pitch, then exhale as the music falls in pitch.

Notice now how every exercise program includes a set of "resistance bands?" Back in the 1960's Jack had them, he called them "glamor stretchers." Maybe this is where the seeds of fitness were planted in me? It just took 40 years and a heart attack to grow and mature.

I remember all of his fitness "stunts" that he would do. Like swimming several miles with his hands tied behind his back, towing a boat, in his 60's! He is truly a godfather of fitness and will remembered fondly and missed dearly!

To honor Jack LaLanne what can we learn from him? I think the most important aspect of health that can be learned, as Jack would say, is that this is that health is a way of life, not a diet or exercise.

Thanks for listening, leave your own remembrances of Jack
Brent

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