America lost a pioneer yesterday, Jack Lalanne. He utilized his chiropractic knowledge to revolutionize health as it’s seen in the US. He is a San Francisco native who opened a string of gyms in Oakland after he finished chiropractic school, and from there he went on to be a national voice for health.
The Examiner stated:
“LaLanne was a pioneer in fitness before it became an industry.
LaLanne was a chiropractor who opened his first health spa (what we’d now call a gym) back in 1936. Many of the things we see in gyms today came from the mind of Jack LaLanne. He is credited as the inventor of the leg extension machine, weight selector devices and several cable and pulley machines that are standards. Even the most hardcore bodybuilder who thinks pulley machines are only for soccer moms and newbies still has to thank LaLanne for the Smith machine that they likely use…
Jack LaLanne was, in many aspects, ahead of his time. He was a trailblazer in the fitness industry and should be remembered as such. Although some of the things he encouraged people to do and how he did it have been supplanted by better techniques and equipment, one of his core principals will always remain: Just get up and do something.”
It’s important to realize that although he is teaching basics that he learned at chiropractic school, his proactive approach to health was against the mainstream at the time. He said, “People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me—they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive,” according to Wikipedia. Of course, now it’s mainstream to have a focus on exercise and nutrition — but at the time that was not the case. Thank you Dr. Jack Lalanne for shifting the thought process.
Most of his old videos are still relevant, I would encourage you to spend a few minutes on Youtube checking them out.