How I Got This Body: Lifeguard is 'always rescue-ready'

When Signe Rudrud learned to swim at age 4, she remembers watching the lifeguards at Lake Nokomis and thinking, "Wow, they get to be at the lake all day." Now she's entering her senior year at South High School, and lifeguarding at Lake Nokomis is her job. Even as a longtime swimmer, her responsibilities have given Rudrud a new perspective on the water, and a new appreciation for the type of endurance required on the job.

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How I got this body: Taking to the skies

When Gerry Uchytil and a friend heard about a hang-gliding club starting up in southern California in the early '70s, they sent for a kit and built a glider. Uchytil has been flying ever since.

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How I Got This Body: Rolling on the river

Audrey Mundstock performs with the Twin Cities River Rats, a water-ski show team that wows crowds on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis every summer.

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How I got this body: Still waving her magic wand

Annette Fragale, 76, shares her passion for fitness by teaching yoga, Pilates, Chinese Wand and hula hoop, and she hosts a TV show, "Yoga on the Go!" Oh, and in the summer, she works as a magician.

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How I Got This Body: The stair master

She's marching her way to fitness

How I Got This Body: You'd be surprised at the physical demands it takes to be a part of a drum and bugle corps. Musical athlete Jackie Bechtold explains how she keeps fit by performing with the Minnesota Brass.

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How I Got This Body: A skier for all seasons

Gene Kay has been hooked on skiing since he was 6, when a neighborhood mom taught him how to glide down a hill near his home in upstate New York.

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How I Got This Body: Happy together

For the past four years, Don Potter and his German shepherd, Reina, have raced up and down hills on an almost-daily basis. They are, he says, "a perfect match" as workout partners.

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How I Got This Body: Hula-hooping helps keeps her fit

Kathleen Cancilla recently rediscovered the hula hoop and adapted it to her adult lifestyle -- with surprising results. But the reason she keeps on hula-hooping, she says, is simple: It's fun.

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How I Got This Body: Care to dance?

Inspired by her late brother, Karen Bushee is fulfilling her dream to dance around the world.

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St. Paul curler is cool as ice

Cassie Potter -- the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of curlers -- picked up the sport at a young age and went on to represent the United States at the 2006 Olympics.

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Diving right in to fitness

How I Got This Body: Scott Smith's diving career began at 7, when he started jumping off houseboat roofs. Today, he coaches and competes.

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He's climbing to success

How I Got This Body: For 23 years, Paul Jirik has been climbing trees for a living. It keeps him physically and mentally fit -- and, he says, it offers a welcome respite from his day job.

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She's taking care of fitness

How I Got This Body: Before her son was born, Erin Arifin worked a sedentary office job. But staying home with her son, Matthew, now 20 months, has been a surprising fitness and wellness boost.

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He's getting into the swing of things

How I Got This Body: When the National Senior Games of racquetball come to Minneapolis in 2015, Dave Hart plans to be one of the 15,000 athletes competing.

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She's on a year-round roll

How I Got This Body: Mara Larson is a year-round bike commuter who rides 17 miles to work. She credits exercise for keeping her mentally and physically fit.

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Lots of miles behind the smiles

How I got this body: Salon owner Jason Deavalon's life was "a mess" until he learned about a friend's nonprofit organization, which eventually changed everything.

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Mpls. principal is tops in her class

HOW I GOT THIS BODY: Carol Markham-Cousins, principal of Minneapolis' Washburn High School, says, "Energy creates more energy." She shares her twice-daily workout routine.

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How I got this body: At 69, he's still on a roll

Dave Siskind's "new" bike has 25,000 miles on it. Another that he saved from the trash has 40,000. An older road bike has 116,000. Altogether, he has logged more than 500,000 miles over a lifetime of cycling.

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She's riding to good health

In this week's How I Got This Body, Lori Keith, a jockey at Canterbury, says people don't realize how physically demanding her job can be.

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How I Got This Body: Fit for life

Louis Hauser, once afflicted with polio, started riding his bike around the lake every morning about 40 years ago and has rarely missed a day of exercise since.

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How I Got This Body: Fencing for fitness

After 15 years and one bout of breast cancer, Mary Newstrom still fences three times a week as her main source of exercise. She also rides her bike, does yoga and lifts weights.

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Edina man focused on plank record

How I Got This Body: If you've ever done the plank to strengthen your core, you'll appreciate Jim Ogg's accomplishment.

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How I Got This Body: Retired, but not from sports

From pitching for the Brooklyn Dodgers farm teams in the '50s to flyfishing in the Rocky Mountains to skiing in Worldloppet races to winning a volleyball championship with his 75-plus team, Cal Schadel is rarely idle.

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How I Got This Body: Jody's journey

Jody Orfield reconnected with her best friend from high school at their 25th reunion and got inspired to train for a triathlon. Now she has six triathlons under her belt.

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How I Got This Body: Nothing but open water

A self-described nerd, Dr. Brett Oden wasn't athletic in the least until he turned 40. Now, he swims across Buffalo Lake nearly every day in warmer months and in the open ocean every winter in Hawaii.

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Pastry chef now living the sweet life

For 20 years, Michelle Gayer nibbled her way through her work days as a pastry chef. Now, she's the mom who drops her kids off at school and runs around the lake before 8 a.m.

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911 dispatcher makes a good call

How I Got This Body: For years, Heidi Meyer noshed on baked goods and fast food with her co-workers as a 911 dispatcher. But when two of her co-workers had heart attacks, she committed to getting in shape.

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A student's twist on health

Helen Lin arrived for her first year at the University of Minnesota from Missouri knowing exactly what she wanted to do in college: break dance. She helped transform the U's club from a loose group of six or seven students to a thriving group of more than 100 that performs all over the cities.

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Dad gets fit one step at a time

A fluke membership to a gym provided the spark to Cullen Hayes' weight loss.

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How I got this body: Shaking and showing the world her rolls of fat

Tiffany Sudduth, a bank employee by day, is showing and shaking her rolls of fat before the world at all hours while wearing nothing more than a two-piece bathing suit, a rainbow wig and a never-ending smile.

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Taking it one game at a time

How I Got This Body: Larry Teckenbrock had been avoiding scales since turning 60. Now 64, he has has lost 25 pounds, which he attributes mostly to plugging in to "Wii Fit."

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