Bonnie Prudden ( Ruth Alice Prudden; January 29, 1914 – December 11, 2011) was an American physical fitness pioneer,

rock climber Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and ...

and

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

. Her report to

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

on the unfitness of American children as compared with their European counterparts led to the formation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness. Prudden authored 16 books on physical fitness and myotherapy for all ages and abilities including two best sellers, ''How to Keep'' ''Slender and Fit After Thirty'' (1961) and ''Pain Erasure: The Bonnie Prudden Way'' (1980). She produced six exercise albums, hosted the first regular exercise spots on national television, had a syndicated television show, and wrote a regular column for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. Schools, prisons, summer camps, factories, hospitals, clubs,

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

s, universities, geriatric homes and facilities for the physically and emotionally challenged all used and benefited from the many physical fitness programs she provided for them. Prudden also designed the first fitness fashions and developed numerous pieces of exercise equipment that could be built in the average garage and used by the family. She also coined the term and developed the practice of myotherapy in 1976, described as, "A method of relaxing

muscle spasm A spasm is a sudden involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ, such as the bladder. A spasmodic muscle contraction may be caused by many medical conditions, including dystonia. Most commonly, it is a musc ...

, improving circulation, and alleviating pain. Pressure is applied, using elbows, knuckles, or fingers, and held for several seconds to defuse ' trigger points.' The success of this method depends upon the use of specific corrective exercises of the freed muscles." Bonnie Prudden 1925

Early life

Born Ruth Alice in New York City, Prudden began her climbing and dance career at age four when she ventured out the second story nursery window of her Mt. Vernon home to go night walking. After three such escapades a doctor told her mother, "There is nothing wrong with this child that discipline and exhaustion won't cure. Put her in the

Russian Ballet Russian ballet () () is a form of ballet characteristic of or originating from Russia. Imperial Russian ballet Ballet had already dawned in Russia long before start of the 17th century as per the previous publications by certain authors. In this ...

School." During her growing up years she trained in the Koslov, Magna and Alviene Schools of dance, drama, elocution and gymnastics. She attended German

Turnverein Turners (, ) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics. Turners, especially Francis Lieber (1798–1872), were the leading sponsors of gymnastics as ...

gymnastic clubs and Finnish exercise, took piano, violin, voice, riding, and writing lessons and studied anatomy. In 1931 she was enrolled at

Horace Mann School Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...

where she excelled in English, art, sports, music, and drama, and taught dance to her classmates. After graduating in 1933 she took extension courses in art at the Grand Central School of Design and journalism and psychology courses at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. At the same time she began studying

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th ...

with Charles Weidman and Doris Humphrey and became part of the Weidman/Humphrey concert/theatrical dance group performing on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

Mountaineering

In 1936, she married Richard Hirschland, a

and

skier Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International ...

. Their honeymoon in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

was marked by a climb on the

Matterhorn The , ; ; ; or ; ; . is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the Main chain of the Alps, main watershed and border between Italy and Switzerland. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, ...

following one day of training and the purchase of a new pair of boots. She first climbed in the Gunks of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in 1936 with her husband, along with Fritz Wiessner and Hans Kraus. In the winter of 1937, however, she badly fractured her pelvis in a

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

accident, which was followed by three months in traction and a doctors' prediction that she would always limp and would no longer be able to ski, climb, dance, or be able to have children. Nevertheless, daughter Joan Ellen was born in May, 1939 and Susan Ann in August, 1943. She rehabilitated herself with chair exercise and aqua-exercise to music. Prudden went on to become the first woman to hold a

National Ski Patrol The nonprofit National Ski Patrol (NSP) is the largest winter education organization in the world. The NSP provides education, outreach, and credentialing related to outdoor recreation and safety. It is currently composed of more than 31,000 memb ...

Badge and formed the Addlepate Ski Club, the first dry ski club in the country. It was for children eight to eighteen and became the basis for the first Jr. Ski Patrols. For more than a decade, she taught children ages eight to eighteen without incurring even one fracture. For her work, she was awarded the Eastern Amateur Ski Association award for ski safety. Seven years after her injury, Prudden returned to the Gunks, partnering with good friend Hans Kraus. From 1946 to 1955 (mentored by Hans Kraus) she became one of the most prominent female climbers of the time with a documented 30

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

s in the Shawangunks Mountains. In 1952, Prudden and Kraus attempted a new climbing route on the cliff known as the Trapps. After attempting the

crux CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system ...

overhang, Kraus backed off, handing the lead to Prudden. She was able to find a

piton A piton (; also called ''pin'' or ''peg'') in big wall climbing and in aid climbing is a metal spike (usually steel) that is driven into a crack or seam in the climbing surface using a Rock climbing hammer, climbing hammer, and which acts as an ...

placement that had eluded Hans at the crux, and went on to claim the first ascent of "Bonnie's Roof". Since then, she stated that she and Kraus always climbed as equal partners, always swapping leads. She stopped climbing in 1959 as she said she was working fourteen-hour days and no longer had weekends off. After the Hirschlands divorced in 1954, she changed her name legally to Bonnie Prudden. She never remarried.

Youth fitness

After watching her daughter's gym class in 1947, she started "Bonnie Hirschland's Conditioning Classes" for her two daughters and ten neighborhood children. In a matter of weeks the class size had grown to 75. The schools offered their gyms for classes as long as she accepted all applicants. In 1949, new students entered her classes. To gauge the effectiveness of her program she borrowed and applied to practical use a fitness test devised by Kraus and Sonja Weber of

New York Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (abbreviated as NYP) is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City. It is the primary teaching hospital for Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The hospit ...

. The Kraus–Weber test involves six simple movements and takes 90 seconds to administer. To her surprise, 58% of the new students failed the test, while only 8% of the students who had been in the program failed. For the next seven years Prudden and her volunteers tested 4,458 children between the ages of 6 and 16 in the United States. The failure rate was 56.6%. While climbing in Europe, Prudden and Kraus arranged to test children in Europe. In

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

, the children tested exhibited an 8% failure rate, averaged over the three countries. In 1952, Bonnie (still known as Ruth Hirschland) and Kraus began writing papers for medical and physical education journals concerning their findings (e.g., "Role of Inactivity in Production of Disease Hypokinetic Disease"), and various media outlets began to pick up the story. Bonnie Prudden leading class

Prudden bought an empty elementary school in White Plains, NY in 1954 and after renovating it opened The Institute for Physical Fitness''.'' It housed three gyms, two

dance studio A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose. Overview A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used ...

s, a

Finnish sauna The Finnish sauna (, ) is a substantial part of Culture of Finland, Finnish and Culture of Estonia, Estonian culture. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists at the 17 December 2020 meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmen ...

, a medical unit, two massage rooms, lockers, showers and an office. Taking classes barefoot was a requirement. Equipment, painted in bright colors, was designed after curbs, boulders, fences, railroad tracks, and walls of a less mechanized day. Chinning bars were built in every doorway. Every child used the 42 stairs between basement and top floor for conditioning, discipline and special muscle building. Outside was an obstacle course that included America's first

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is often termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constr ...

cargo net A cargo net is a type of net (device), net used for transferring cargo to and from ships. It is usually square or rectangular, but sometimes round, made of thick rope, with cinch ropes extending from the corners, and in some designs, the edges. ...

hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today ...

parallel bars Parallel bars are floor apparatus consisting of two wooden bars approximately long and positioned at above the floor. Parallel bars are used in artistic gymnastics and also for physical therapy and home exercise. Gymnasts may optionally wear ...

, ladders, ramps, balance maze,

tightrope Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

, slalom poles and a rappel roof. In 1955, armed with statistics and a personal invitation to the Eisenhower White House, Bonnie Prudden and Hans Kraus presented their findings on the fitness level of American public school children compared to that of their peers in Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. This became known as "The Report that Shocked the President" or the "Shape of the Nation" and was the beginning of a change in American attitudes toward physical fitness. Kraus's presentation followed with the medical implications of insufficient physical activity, including elevated risks of

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

back pain Back pain (Latin: ''dorsalgia'') is pain felt in the back. It may be classified as neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar area ...

high blood pressure Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms itself. It is, however, a major ri ...

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

coronary heart disease Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), or ischemic heart disease (IHD), is a type of cardiovascular disease, heart disease involving Ischemia, the reduction of blood flow to the cardiac muscle due to a build-up ...

, psychiatric problems and muscle tension. Following this, President

issued an

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...

establishing the President's Council on Youth Fitness (now the President's Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition). Prudden served on the advisory committee for three years. Prudden and Kraus are credited as co-founders of the council. In 2007, Prudden was awarded the council's Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award''.'' The

decided to adopt Prudden's methods of teaching exercise and follow her advice to admit women to their buildings for morning classes. Representatives were sent to Prudden's White Plains Institute to be taught Kraus–Weber testing and exercise teaching. They went back to their respective states and set up the Prudden Program in their YMCAs. Prudden became a much sought after speaker, and the YMCAs became the place to go for the Prudden Programs, with "diaper gym and swims", pre-natal classes, and toddler-, mixed teen- and family-oriented classes. ''Is Your Child Really Fit?'' was published in 1956. It enlarged on the President's report and outlined the solution to the problem. From 1957 through 1960 Prudden served as a columnist for ''

,'' introducing her fitness program and appearing on the cover in a full-length

leotard A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870). There are sleeveless, short-sleeved, and l ...

of her own design. Fitness fashions were born. Attracted by the fitness fashions, ''The Home Show'' with Arlene Frances and Hugh Downs booked her for a weekly family fitness TV spot. Following the end of ''The Home Show'', she moved to the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' with

Dave Garroway David Cunningham Garroway (July 13, 1913 – July 21, 1982) was an American Celebrity, television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's ''Today (American TV program), Today'' from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing and relaxing style ...

, where she remained for two and a half years. She left the show when they started advertising a diet pill in connection with her spot and watchers thought she was endorsing it. At the same time she had regular spots on two radio shows, ''Tex and Jinx McCrary'' and ''

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days ...

''. From 1955 through 1975 Prudden continued her crusade for better bodies. She wrote 13 books, countless manuals, set up pilot programs, designed fitness clothing and equipment for home and school, lectured nonstop throughout the country, made six records, two films, and one film strip, established five-day training workshops, and wrote and taped 35 half-hour segments of '' The Bonnie Prudden Show.'' These last were so successful that she was contracted for 165 more segments. In 1962 ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

'' began underwriting the Prudden Program''.'' This partnership lasted through the mid-1980s.

Later life

Here's a description of her later life from the Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy website:

In 1992, Bonnie moved her work and business to
Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
,
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
, where she ran the Bonnie Prudden School for Physical Fitness and Myotherapy and Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy Inc. Refusing to retire, she continued her fight for more fit and pain-free bodies. For the next eighteen years she continued to teach people of all ages how to take responsibility for their own bodies and to erase muscle related pain for themselves, their friends, family, and pets. She continued to write, lecture and travel, teach at her school, see patients, and conduct exercise classes and pain erasure seminars, serve on boards and garner national and local awards. Despite a pelvis broken in four places in a skiing accident, heart attacks, reconstructive
hip surgery In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint on t ...
on her left hip,
stent In medicine, a stent is a tube usually constructed of a metallic alloy or a polymer. It is inserted into the Lumen (anatomy), lumen (hollow space) of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open. Stenting refers to the placement of ...
s, by-pass surgery (age 92) she continued to use each seemingly adverse situation to learn and teach.

"You can't run back the clock," Prudden said, "but you can rewind it."

Bonnie Prudden equipment

* Outdoor obstacle course: First such course included first

in the country along with a rappel roof. Other equipment included

s, balance track, large and small

, rope climb,

tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...

s, ramps, Weaveit, balance ladder, slalom poles, balance maze,

. * Build-it-yourself playground: balance track, double trapeze, balance maze,

fixed rope In climbing and mountaineering, a fixed-rope (or fixed-line) is the practice of installing networks of in-situ anchored Climbing rope#Static rope, static climbing ropes on climbing routes to assist any following climbers (and Porter (carrier), po ...

s, hurdles, stationary parallel bars, movable parallel bars, tires, ramps. * Large equipment:

sawhorse In woodworking, a saw-horse or sawhorse (saw-buck, trestle, buck) is a Trestle support, trestle structure used to support a lumber, board or plank (wood), plank for sawing. A pair of sawhorses can support a plank, forming a scaffold. In certa ...

s, jumping ramps,

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

s, ladders with instructions on how to build. * Bonnie Prudden's Underwater Slalom Course: designed by Bonnie Prudden. Produced by Argo Industries Corporation, Jackson Heights, NY. * Prudden/Porter Gymster: A children's portable gym for use in schools, houses, churches. Designed by Bonnie Prudden. Produced by Porter Gym Equipment, 1963. Shown in their products brochure 1964. Instructional booklet written by Bonnie Prudden. * Doorway gyms * Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy aids:

pulley Sheave without a rope A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft enabling a taut cable or belt passing over the wheel to move and change direction, or transfer power between itself and a shaft. A pulley may have a groove or grooves between flan ...

, Bodos,

Shepherd's crook A shepherd's crook is a long and sturdy stick with a hook at one end, often with the point flared outwards, used by a shepherd to manage and sometimes catch sheep. In addition, the crook may aid in defending against attack by predators. Wh ...

. * Small equipment: Exer-Weights, Exer-Wands, Exer-Rug squares, blocks, Exer-straps, Exer-paddles, Disk-o-tek, Surfer, small parallel bars.

Last years & death

In an interview in 1997, Prudden said, "Every once in a while I have a conversation with

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. I say I'm tired. This work is just too hard. Can I retire? The answer is always no. The reason is that whatever I have in here", she says, pointing to her head, "to give about the importance of fitness, must be given until I can't give anymore." Prudden died in 2011. A eulogy for her in the ''

Arizona Daily Star The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is an American daily newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, and owned by Lee Enterprises. It serves Tucson and surrounding districts of Southern Arizona in the United States. History 1877–1925 L. C. Hughes was the ...

'' reads, "Despite suffering a bone-crushing accident,

joint replacement Joint replacement is a procedure of orthopedic surgery known also as arthroplasty, in which an arthritic or dysfunctional joint surface is replaced with an orthopedic prosthesis. Joint replacement is considered as a treatment when severe joint pai ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

and

heart bypass surgery Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage"), is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest p ...

, the international fitness pioneer, TV personality and adviser to presidents remained healthy and active for all of her 97 years. She was still exercising from her

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

bed, just days before her death, December 11, six weeks shy of her 98th birthday." Prudden died in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

Television

* ''The Bonnie Prudden Show'' (1963) – 35 half hour daily shows on exercise consisting of three segments, Mail Bag, Exercise and Interview. They were filmed in Canada, Australia and Singapore. They were syndicated in Canada and the United States. * '' The Bonnie Prudden Show'' (1965) – 165 half hour daily shows. Syndicated in Canada, Australia and Singapore. * ''The Flabby American'' (May, 1957) – ABC, 30 minute special. *

Grape-Nuts Grape-Nuts is a brand of breakfast cereal made from flour, salt and dried yeast, developed in 1897 by C. W. Post, a former patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Post's original product ...

cereal commercial (1950s)

Film

* ''Keep Fit Be Happy'' (1971) * ''Your Baby Can Swim'' (1974) * ''Alive and Feeling Great'' (1974) – Girls Clubs of America

DVDs

* ''Bonnie Prudden Myotherepy: How to Get Started'' * ''Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy: Quick RX for Headaches'' * ''Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy: Quick RX for Back Pain'' These were produced in 1985 by Bonnie Prudden Inc. (videographer: Donald Hamilton) on VHS and converted to DVD in 1991.

Discography

* ''Keep Fit , Be Happy'' (1959) * ''Keep Fit , Be Happy 2'' (1962) * ''Fitness for Baby and You'' (1962) * ''Fit to Ski'' (1965) * ''Fitness for Teens'' (1965) * ''Executive Fitness'' (1966)

Books

* ''Basic Exercises, Number I'', self-published (1949) * ''Is Your Child Really Fit?'', Harper & Row, the first book on children's fitness (1956) * ''Bonnie Prudden's Fitness Book'', Ronald Press (1959) * ''How to Keep Slender and Fit after Thirty'', Geiss Associates, a first in women's fitness; a best seller (1961) * ''Testing and Training for Physical Fitness'', David G. Smith Printing-publishing, NB Canada (1962) * ''How to Keep Your Child Fit From Birth to Six'', Harper & Row, a trilogy emphasizing physical, mental, and emotional fitness (1964) * ''Quick RX For Fitness'', Dutton (1965) * ''Teenage Fitness'', Harper & Row.(1965) * ''Physical Fitness for You'', a talking book for the blind available through the Library of Congress (1965) * ''How to Keep Slender and Fit after Thirty'' revised, Pocket books, a division of Simon & Schuster (1969) * ''Fitness from Six to Twelve'', Harper & Row (1972) * ''Your Baby Can Swim'', Reader's Digest Press (1974) * ''How to Keep Your Family Fit and Healthy'', Reader's Digest Press, distributed by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. (1975) * ''Exer-sex, Bantam Books'' (1978) * ''Dollar Fallax (The Elusive Pain)'', self-published (1978) * ''Pain Erasure: The Bonnie Prudden Way'', M. Evans, hardcover ''NY Times'' best seller (1980) * ''Pain Erasure: The Bonnie Prudden Way'', Ballantine Books, softcover (1982) * ''Your Baby Can Swim'', reissued as ''Teach Your Baby to Swim'', Dial Press (1982) * ''How to Keep Your Child Fit from Birth to Six'',Harper & Row, (1964) * ''How to Keep Your Child Fit from Birth to Six'', reissued by Dial Press (1982) * ''Fitness from Six to Twelve'', reissued by Dial Press (1982) * ''Teenage Fitness'', reissued by Dial Press (1982) * ''Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-free Living'', Dial Press, hardcover (1984) * ''Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-free Living'', Ballantine Books, softcover (1985) * ''Bonnie Prudden's After Fifty Fitness Guide'', Villard Books (1986) * ''Bonnie Prudden's After Fifty Fitness Guide'', Balantine Books,soft cover.(1987) * ''Bonnie Prudden's After Fifty Fitness Guide''. reprinted by Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy, Inc. (2011) * ''How to Keep Your Child Fit from Birth to Six'', Ballantine Books, revised and updated with a chapter on Myotherapy (1986) * ''Bonnie Prudden's After Fifty Fitness Guide'', Ballantine Books, softcover (1987) * ''Fitness from Six to Twelve'', Ballantine Books, revised and updated with a chapter on Myotherapy (1987) * ''Teenage Fitness'', Ballantine Books, revised and up-dated with a chapter on Myotherapy (1988) * ''Myotherapy: Bonnie Prudden's Complete Guide to Pain-Free Living'', reprinted by Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy, Inc. (2010) * ''Exer-sex'', reprinted by Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy, Inc. (2011)

References

External links

bonnieprudden.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prudden, Bonnie American rock climbers 1914 births 2011 deaths American exercise instructors American exercise and fitness writers Television personalities from New York City American women television personalities People from Manhattan Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona American female climbers 20th-century American sportswomen 21st-century American women