Elaine LaLanne’s morning exercises often begin before she’s even out of bed. “Twenty minutes a day gets me on my way,” she said at her home on the Central Coast of California. Ms. LaLanne’s habit of speaking in aphorisms (“It’s not a problem, it’s an experience”; “You do the best you can with the equipment you have”) is a product of a lifetime of trying to inspire people to move more and better themselves. For nearly six decades, she was both wife and business partner to the television personality Jack LaLanne, who is widely considered the father of the modern fitness movement, and whose exercise show ran for 34 years, from 1951 to 1985. “She was the guiding force behind Jack,” said Rick Hersh, Ms. LaLanne’s talent agent for more than 40 years.

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Persons: Elaine LaLanne’s, she’s, ”, LaLanne, Jack LaLanne, Jack, Rick Hersh, Ms Locations: Coast of California