Jack Lalanne Died

Jack Lalanne

Sad news to report Jack Lalane has died at age 96. He espoused bodybuilding and the virtues of lifting weights, at a time when few had access to them. 

The cause, said Hersh, was respiratory failure due to pneumonia. LaLanne had been ill for the past week.  His wife, Elaine, was at his side, along with his family and friends, Hersh said.

His physical feats included completing 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 chin-ups in 86 minutes in 1959, and in 1984, when aged 70, towing 70 boats 1.5 miles in Long Beach harbour, while he was shackled and handcuffed. Nearly 30 years earlier he swam from Alcatraz island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, also in handcuffs.

At 21, he opened his first gym in Oakland, California. It was 1936, and most doctors at the time warned against working out with weights, believing it could cause a heart attack or ruin a man’s sex drive. Considered a crackpot at the time, La Lanne eventually became America’s foremost authority on fitness. His gym grew into a chain of fitness clubs, with no reports of members dying or losing interest in sex. To add variety to his customers’ workouts, he devised such now-standard equipment as leg-extension machines and weights on pulleys for lifting. Over subsequent years, La Lanne was among the first to produce protein supplements and nutrition bars.