Photo Credit: Courtesy Of Ron Ciancutti
I was 16 years old when I watched underdog Rocky Balboa nearly beat heavyweight champion Apollo Creed into submission late in the last round. He broke Apollo’s ribs and the champ was spitting blood. But it was too little, too late. Rocky didn’t win, but he fought a great fight. He met his goal, went the distance, and showed the guts and glory of finishing strong. I stumbled out of the theater, drunk with inspiration, like every other red-blooded American boy and couldn’t wait to start training—showing the heart of a lion, proving I had a little more in the tank than people thought.
As I jogged around my hometown the next morning, I ran into others who must have seen the movie, too. Thus began a phenomenon for many people of getting healthy that never really went away.
A Societal Shift
You must understand how much the country changed around this simple premise of living healthier and getting the body toned and in enviable shape. Suddenly, aging fitness guru Jack LaLanne was a genius. Diet plans and vitamin supplements were everywhere, and the simple tennis shoe became a scientific challenge of unparalleled proportion—running shoe, lifting shoe, cross-training shoe, etc.