Remembering a Fitness Legend, Jack LaLanne

We woke up yesterday morning to the news that Jack LaLanne had passed away at age 96. To many of us, that doesn't mean a heck of a lot when you're groggy, half-listening and barely watching the TV (that would describe me...who was brushing her teeth in the bathroom with the TV on as background news when I heard). But if you did a little research, like me, then you'd learn that Jack LaLanne helped mold fitness into the activity it is today. And the more I dug, the more I learned about his developments that were ahead of his time. Fitness TV before the era of workout tapes and DVDs. Introducing women to weight training. Creating workouts for the physically disabled. Working out and watching his food intake on a daily basis into old age, which likely helped him look far less than his 90-plus years. And on. And on. And on.

It's sad that it took his death for me to realize all the cool ways Jack LaLanne inspired us to get fit, but I guess you could say that it's better late than never. Reading about him in memoriam not only inspired me to stick with my Monday night workout when I really didn't want to, but it also became my topic for this week's Buzz article. Check it out here--all the ways LaLanne shaped fitness as we know it.

Photo grabbed from Wikimedia Commons and by Cliff Riddle.