Enlarge Ariel Hankin, AP file photo Fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne died Sunday of respiratory failure. He was 96.

MORRO BAY, Calif. (AP)  Fitness guru Jack LaLanne (lah-LAYN'), who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron decades before exercise became a national obsession, has died at age 96.

His agent Rick Hersh says LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast.

Hersh says Lalanne ate healthy and exercised every day of his life up until the end.

LaLanne credited fitness with transforming his life as a teen, and he worked over the next eight decades to transform others' lives, too.

He said, "The only way you can hurt the body is not use it." LaLanne's workout show was a television staple from the 1950s to '70s. He maintained a youthful physique into his 80s.

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