A Life in Fitness

bring stationary cardiovascular train- ing into the fitness mainstream.

Two passionate fitness pioneers

Ray Wilson (above) and Augie Nieto

BY KATHRYN KORCHOK

factor of Dimick’s brilliant mind. A chemist by training, Dimick was a researcher

O

and inventor who was a leader in his field. And, as some- one who suffered from chronic back pain, he relentless- ly sought ways to ease his physical ailments and live a healthy and pain-free life. In 1968, Dimick developed the first stationary bike and called it The Lifecycle. Health club owner and entrepreneur Ray Wilson (a

contemporary of notables like Jack LaLanne and Vic Tanny) discovered the machine and bought the rights to it for $50,000. He spent several years and about a million dollars perfecting it. Then, in 1977, he met and formed a business partnership with a young California college student and budding entrepreneur Augie Nieto, who also saw promise in the pedals.

A tough sell

But it wasn’t easy to get others to share their vi-

sion of improved health by riding a bike that went nowhere fast. But Nieto was determined to suc- ceed, and he took the machine on the road – lit- erally – selling the bikes out of a mobile home and taking orders from health clubs across the U.S. for the world’s first electronic (it origi- nally monitored the user’s heart rate) cardio machine. It took a couple of years, lots of salesman-

ship, total commitment to the idea, perse- verance and timing before The Lifecycle finally went into mass production. Capitalizing on the potential

Treadmill testing at Life Fitness EMC chamber ensures the product meets emissions standards.

March/April 2009 Fitness Business Canada 47

utside of certain scientif- ic circles, the name Keene P. Dimick doesn’t ring too many bells. But anyone who has ever exercised on a sta- tionary bike has been the bene-

of aerobic fitness equipment and tapping into the emerging fitness boom, the company and its name- sake, The Lifecycle Exercise Bike, led the way in defining the way people exercised and set the stan- dard for high quality, computerized equipment that helped people achieve their workout goals. Though they didn’t know it at the time, Nieto,

Wilson and Dimick were at the vanguard of the fit- ness revolution, and they would come to be recog- nized as pioneers of the modern fitness movement. They revolutionized the industry, changing the way people experience cardiovascular exercise and activity.

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