Every oldie should pump iron — like Sheila and me
As actress Sheila Hancock, 84, reveals she loves lifting weights, ELISABETH LUARD, 75, agrees ...
Fabulous news for us iron-pumping oldies: sheila Hancock hit the headlines last week when she announced she was addicted to weightlifting at 84. she is eight years older than me — well, I’ll be 76 two days after Christmas — but I too am hooked.
I’ve been pumping iron for 15 years (maybe more). Now I go at least once or twice a week.
It took time and dedication to work up to the heavy bar and dumbbells I can now lift in each hand — 4kg either side. but I find lifting up to 18 kilos above my head to loud music the perfect antidote to my largely sedentary life as a food writer.
It’s addictive, no question. I love the buzz, the rush of adrenaline when the instructor gets us all to do more — push the bar a little faster, bend the knees a little lower, hold the weights a little longer — than we think we possibly can. but I admit, while a few of us would qualify as middle-aged, I am the only real oldie in the class.
In fact, my New Year wish is that sheila’s confession will encourage more women to head for the gym and, at the same time, change the attitude to fitness for older women.
It has taken some time for gyms to get their heads around us oldies. While our numbers may be increasing, we are being herded into dedicated ‘over-50s’ or ‘silver’ classes across the country. over-50s, indeed! How absurd that seems when we will all be required to work till we’re 68 or whatever our politicians decide is age-appropriate.
surprisingly, I feel the age-consciousness more in my new home in london than in aberystwyth, Wales, where I used to live. There, the instructors at the university sports centre never questioned my fitness to carry on regardless. In fact, I think they were rather proud of me.
They had no worries about ageing; there were no suggestions I should set my ambitions a little lower, maybe book into the Pilates class for older women.
When I moved to the capital from the wilds of Wales at the beginning of summer this year, the first thing I did was head up the hill to my local gym in acton. It’s called Everyone’s active, the ‘everyone’ sounding encouragingly non-ageist. NEVERTHELESS, I was a little nervous as I approached the muscular young man behind the check-in desk. Not all the receptionists were muscular, I was happy to note, though all were young enough to be my grandchild. Would they ask me to prove my fitness to — well — keep fit, I wondered?
The first hurdle was filling in the form with height, weight, date of birth (always a giveaway). Then came the crunch question (and I don’t mean the sit-ups): what facility did I prefer? The gym or the pool?
The pool was particularly recommended for the over-50s, the young man noted. If not, there were classes for anyone over the age of you- know- what. For instance, Forever Fit.
I checked the brochure. Forever Fit is a ‘fun, low-intensity session for those young over-50s’. That’s me. Zumba Gold, on the other hand, ‘ modifies the moves and pacing to suit the needs of the active older participant’. Me too. Then there’s Water Workouts, a ‘fun and invigorating all-over workout designed to burn calories with minimal impact on the body’. Not yet.
other classes called ‘Insanity’ and ‘body Combat’, not to mention ‘P90X’, sound challenging. I’m thinking about them.
Classes are what suit me best, I explained to the muscular one. Zumba, Pilates, yoga, but particularly ‘bodypump’ — which is lifting weights, to those who don’t know the jargon. He looked genuinely surprised. really? Had I ever lifted weights before?
Indeed I had. Perhaps, the fit one suggested, I might like to start with a demonstration of the machines in the gym and reap the benefit of professional assessment of my level of fitness. Good idea. Turns out I’m pretty fit for my age.
so now I’m a fully paid- up member of bodypump. and yes, if the instructor is the toughie moonlighting from army boot camp, I lurk at the back. but in that roomful of iron-pumpers less than half my age — women and men — some of them are no better at the business than I am.
sheila says lifting great big discs on the end of a pole has restored muscle that had gone — her biceps and lower arms in particular. and yes, it’s good for muscle tone and the ability to heave suitcases into lockers on no-frills airlines. Not to mention hauling the wheelie up and down when the escalator’s not working, or simply humping a book-stuffed backpack on and off the bus on the way to the library.
but most necessary of all, it seems to me, is what physical competence does for us oldies’ self-respect.
of course, I accept a seat on the train when offered (as it usually is), but I need to know I can rely on myself if it’s not.
so no thanks, I’m not yet ready for any over-50 classes. and yes, I expect that if I trip on a cracked london pavement (it happens), I’ll be able to pick myself up, dust myself down and carry on.
at 84, Ms Hancock is an inspiration to us all, women and men, whatever age we are. as a youngster eight years sheila’s junior, I’ll be more than happy if I look halfway as good she as does when (or if) I reach the same age.
vanity is the best motivator. Everything else — and there seems to be no doubt that working out is as good for the brain as it is for the body — is a bonus.
ELISABETH’s new project, Cookstrip, is a cartoon cookbook at unbound.com/books/cookstrip