BodyBreak! What happened to Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod?

If you know them, these words are like a time machine back to the 1990s. That’s when the hosts of television segments called ‘BodyBreak’ would delightfully pop onto television screens and encourage viewers to keep fit and have fun. The show is a cult classic in Canadian pop culture.

Image: Hal Johnson / Wikimedia

While BodyBreak may no longer be beamed onto your TV sets, with its snazzy music and amazing fades, the very healthy duo is still, unsurprisingly going strong. First, we'll get into their backstories and then you'll get an update on what they are doing now, a question that has undoubtedly kept you up at night.

Image: CBC Life / YouTube

Hal was born in 1956 in the US to Black and Irish parents but grew up in Ontario. He was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child but was a whizz athlete, eventually attending the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship and representing Canada at the World Baseball Championship.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Later in his life, he was almost a sports reporter down in the US. He was hired at TSN, but soon after they called him back to say that the network already had a Black sports reporter, Mark Jones, so they didn’t want to hire him and have two Black reporters.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

But the month after his severely disappointing experience with TSN, he met Joanne at... where else? A gym! And well, the rest is history. Not only did they start brainstorming for a show, they fell in love.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Joanne was born in 1958 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. She was adopted. Unsurprisingly, she also excelled in athletics when she was young and luckily got the chance to train with her high school physical education teacher who had competed in the 1968 Olympic Games.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

She eventually went on to become a four-time national hurdle champion. She represented Canada at events including the Pacific Conference Games, the World Cup, and the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

In July 1988, the duo shot three classic pilots. Here’s an image of one, where they raced on bikes and showed how to do tricep curls. Already, they had their trademark line: "Keep fit and have fun!"

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

The duo certainly had tenacity. Hal later said that the pilot was rejected by 42 TV stations, ad agencies, and other companies, including TSN, which said they would take it only if hosted by a white man and a white woman. Eventually, they took it to Canada, and the Canadian non-profit ParticipACTION agreed to fund the first 65 episodes, which began to air on Canadian TV and eventually TSN.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Remember the programs? The short segments were all about promoting healthy habits across daily life. For instance, here they taught about how to keep your back safe during housework and exercises to strengthen the back.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

While 'Paticipaction' dropped them in 1991, they found new funding and made over 300 segments in total, teaching people how to keep moving and having fun with activities like bowling. "It's not a competition. It's supposed to be fun. And it is!" said Joanne in episode 91.

In this 90-second 'Bodybreak,' the duo showed how to keep fit while traveling. Joanna taught how to do leg lifts on an airplane and Hal added a tip to go to hotels with gym facilities.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

They also advised viewers how to avoid “harmful negative stress.” Hal says he loves to watch his fish tank. Joanna says to put things in perspective and find positive ways to deal with it by doing things you love. She also advocated for "positive stress" which she illustrated by an activity like rock climbing.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Diet tips were also a big part of the show. Like in this one, they slammed fad diets that say to eliminate potatoes and called spuds "powerhouses of nutrition" and a key part of a healthy diet... Well, especially when steamed, baked, or microwaved.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

All the episodes were filmed between 1988 and 1994. In 1995, Life Network also commissioned 13 30-minute episodes, most of which included people with disabilities. But what have they been doing since then?

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

The couple got married in 1999 and had one daughter who they named Sierra. Here, they are seen near their home in Oakville in 2011 with their two Nova Scotia Retrievers Cooper, 14, and Max, 1. Sierra was 11 at the time. Looks like they got the whole family into keeping fit and having fun!

They have engaged in speaking events and other activities, but their most notable TV appearance was on the first season of 'The Amazing Race Canada.' They came in sixth place. This is a snap from their audition tape.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Back in 2017, Hal and Joanne were recruited to Netflix to promote the Santa Clarita Diet, which, as they say, is all about eating the freshest and leanest meats. While eating a young social media influencer was all a joke to promote the TV show, it reveals that a sense of humor is a key part of their brand.

Image: Netflix / YouTube

In 2020, the duo launched a YouTube channel so they could keep sharing fresh tips, share their stories as well as the archive of their hit show. They were the same as ever!

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

The launch of their YouTube channel coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, they were there to do public service announcements (PSAs) like this one, featuring Hal and his parents, where he asks people to stop hoarding toilet paper. They also released episodes on how to combat frailty.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / YouTube

Did you know that the number one reason for the show was to combat racism? That’s what Hal said in 2020 on YouTube. He said it was a response to the many racist incidents in his life. "I thought, how can I change things, and we can all work together and get rid of this attitude that white and Black and Asian and persons with disabilities, males and females, we all can’t be together. And that was the idea for Body Break," he said.

Image: BodyBreak Hal and Joanne / Youtube

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