‘Super’ Mario... still down the gym aged 94
A GREAT-GRANDAD dubbed Super Mario pumps iron at the gym he calls his second home and has no plans to stop... even at 94.
Mario Sanna even celebrated his birthday with a two-hour workout with his “second family”.
The former railway engineer said his job laying train tracks kept him in good shape.
But he fell in love with the gym after retiring.
Thirty years on, Mario still visits the I-Motion Gym in Rotherham, South Yorks, twice a week for a routine including exercise bikes, rowing machines, leg presses and bicep curls.
He said: “When I retired,
I had nothing to do so I decided to join the gym. It was my intention to be as fit as I possibly could be.
“The body needs to be moving. I probably keep moving even when I’m asleep. It’s a machine itself. If you leave it idle, it begins to deteriorate.
“I used to come more often. But I have a friend who picks me up on Tuesday and Friday now.” Mario, who has four grandchildren and two children, began working for British Rail in 1954 after arriving in the UK from Sardinia two years earlier. Only an eye condition prevents him driving to the gym as often as he would like, but he is hoping to go more regularly after an operation. He said: “I always think I need to stretch my legs as they’re carrying the rest of my body, and that’s one thing I’ll treat as the number one.
“I’ll normally spend between one and two hours at the gym. But if the coffee machine is working, I might stay for two and a half hours.” And Mario said of his gym buddies: “They all wish to see you all the time. It’s like a family. “For my birthday they had a party, and this is the place. They celebrated it here.”
I probably keep moving even when I’m asleep
MARIO SANNA SAYS HIS BODY IS LIKE A MACHINE