Step 6: I Decided That Age is a State of Mind

I have been going through the steps describing how I went from overweight and in pain to a fit powerlifter. This week I will go over step 6. I decided that age is a state of mind. Let me start this post with a rather funny story. So there I am, in all my glory, doing a heavy deadlift day at the gym. Unbeknownst to me there was a young, MAYBE 20 year old guy watching me and my workout partner. He eventually comes up to us in awe and asks how old we are. We both curiously reveal our ages. To this he says “wow, you are such an inspiration, I hope I can still be lifting heavy at your age!” We thanked him for his comment, but honestly I was not sure if I should be flattered with that statement or offended! Of course I decided to be flattered, because it’s a choice, right? He has since watched us lift in jaw dropping awe! I’d like to think that it is merely our impressive lifting that he is watching, but really I think he is amazed watching the two old people lift.

So we all have an expiration date. Some of us unfortunately go before our time, some live to be over 100. It seems as people get older, a mindset starts to kick in that we need to accept getting old. I hear friends saying “I’m too old for this” at the young age of 30! With how terrible my back was getting before I started lifting, I think I started to slip into that mindset as well.

What changed my mindset you ask? Well, when I started working out at Liberty Gym, I noticed a rather large amount of older people lifting there! There is a sweet gentleman there who is in his 90s and he is at the gym almost every day! I met a man who is rather fit and found out that although he looks MAYBE 60, he is actually 78! I met women in the locker room who are ex body builders and are still lifting every day. I had the aha moment that all these people had one thing in common….age is just a number, and it doesn’t limit what they can do. It was a very big contrast to what I was seeing outside the gym, the people who are accepting getting older and acting like it! My workout partner, Tim, has been working out most of his life and doesn’t plan on stopping. He is hitting the gym 6 days a week with me at the young age of 54, and plans to go til he’s 100. Considering he broke his pelvis in 4 places at the age of 50 AND has hardware in his ankle, he is doing pretty darn good and healed amazingly well! Age is a matter of mind, if you don’t mind, it don’t matter! He is pictured below.

When I first started researching lifting records, I noticed that people were divided by age, and the age range went rather high, and there were records for those ripe old ages. People were out there competing in powerlifting from children to people who were 60, 70, 80 and even some in their 90s.  My favorite lifter when I go to my meets is a sweet strong woman who is 74. She has National records. At the last meet she was limited to doing bench press and curls because of a back injury, but she was still there and took even more National records! Another fellow competitor named Rodney from TNT Garage of Excellence Gym is competing at the age of 62. He has had surgery for severe scoliosis and has metal rods in his back. As you can see in the picture below, as he lays on the bench to press, he has to block his head because he can’t physically lay his head flat…yet there he was competing in powerlifting!  I myself am making some rather impressive gains, even though I started lifting at 40, the age when many people would consider slowing down because of age. I am just getting started!

Another inspirational athlete is my friend Christina Imbronone. She is an amazing body builder and just turned 50. She started training at the age of 34, an age when most of us might be letting the muscle decrease under the excuse of getting older. She has taken 3rd at the NCP National contest and is still competing strong today! I get the pleasure of watching her train, and she is inspirational because she is chasing her dreams, and catching them! Below is a recent picture of her, and a progress picture showing her before she started training (having had 3 kids) and after. Amazing!

I am going to end with an awesome old folgie story. At my last meet, there were some pretty strong girls, and some pretty strong young girls. When deadlift time came around, I was expecting a lot of pulls over 300 pounds…but there weren’t many. I pulled 320 pounds that day, and a girl from my gym, who is 12 years younger than me upped me by 5 pounds. But, I was the oldest woman deadlifting and I pulled ALMOST the biggest deadlift….short 5 pounds, which she did of course to beat my number, and that’s ok because she is an awesome lifter. I was so proud of myself that day. My kids are so proud that their mommy is a powerlifter and are my biggest fans. I am glad that I am teaching them that they can do whatever they put their minds to, and that there are no limits. So in conclusion, age is merely a number. It’s what you do with that number that makes you old…….or makes you spectacular!