Grandfather of American fitness still spry at 90

From Yahoo! News:

At 90, American fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne is still preaching what he practices: a sensible diet and regular exercise.

LaLanne, who has spent his life urging Americans 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."

LaLanne turned 90 Sunday, an event marked by nine hours straight of reruns of his 1960's fitness show by a cable sports channel, and numerous appearances on television and radio talk shows.

"Most people work at dying. I work at living. It's a pain in the ass," 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 American fitness trends that saw membership gyms sprout up all over the United States 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, snapped up by politicians, Hollywood celebrities and others.

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.

Read more...