Edith Connor was looking for a hobby in her early sixties, something she could do to stay active outside of the data entry company she and her husband owned and worked for. She began fitness training with her youngest son, taking it out “on the weights instead of the employees.”
At the age of sixty-five she’d entered her first bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas and won first place. “At that point,” she says, “I was hooked.”
She’s 77 now, and though she is recovering from shoulder surgery, started lifting again in April, and plans to compete in the future, though not this year. But even last year, her age was enough to get her crowned World’s Oldest Female Competitive Bodybuilder by the Guinness Book of World Records. Says Connor:
At my age, I still like to move. I’m not the sedentary type. [Bodybuilding] gave me a good way out. Something I can enjoy, something I can pass on. And I am passing it on.
My youngest son was my first trainer. Now my oldest grandson [a certified personal trainer] is my trainer and my great-granddaughter works out with me.
Connor is also a certified personal trainer, specializing in “the mature body.” Her clients are all over fifty. She sounds like exactly the kind of person who could get you motivated about getting into shape, and my opinion on that has nothing to do with how I rolled over and reset my alarm this morning instead of getting up to run.
(via Reuters.)
