Pensioner manages 140 push-ups: Her 4 tips for getting fit in old age
Marlene Flowers only started bodybuilding in her late 50s.
Now, at 67, she is a fitness influencer and can do 140 push-ups in a row.
Patience and the right attitude have helped her to stay fit even in old age, she says.
At 57, Marlene Flowers’ knees hurt when she walked up and down hills. Now, almost ten years later, she can lift over 91 kilos on the leg press.
Flowers told Business Insider that her life was tough, with difficult relationships and eating disorders.
In 2015, she had to undergo colon surgery due to her eating disorders. “That’s when I realized I had to change something because I was destroying my body,” she said.
At age 58, she began working out at home by doing bodyweight workouts on fitness DVDs. As she got stronger, she began incorporating weights into her home workouts and fell in love with weight lifting.
The DVDs quickly became too easy for her, so Flowers started bodybuilding at home to keep herself motivated.
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“It’s good for the mind”
Flowers wanted to join the gym to take her training to the next level, but was worried that people would judge a woman her age. With the encouragement of her son, she overcame her fear and worked out in a gym for the first time at age 63.
Today, nearly four years after she first stepped foot in a gym, she can do 140 push-ups, 25 pull-ups and 100 sit-ups in a row. She does ab exercises every morning when she wakes up, goes to the gym seven days a week and follows a “carb cycling” diet that she hopes will improve her performance.
Flowers says she will continue lifting weights as long as she feels good about it.
“I feel so much more confident and better about myself. I can look in the mirror and be happy with what I see. I haven’t been able to do that my whole life,” she says.
Flowers believes everyone should do something to stay fit. “If you keep fit physically, you’ll be healthier in the long run and you’ll live longer, and it’s good for your mind,” she said.
A 2023 study found that older adults often think they can’t do strength training. They have trouble with mobility, fear getting injured, or believe age is a barrier to strength. However, building and maintaining muscle mass is beneficial for people of all ages. It counteracts the loss of muscle that occurs over time, known as sarcopenia. In the long term, sarcopenia can make it difficult to perform everyday tasks and increase the likelihood of falls.
Additionally, a 2022 study found that resistance training reduced the risk of death by nine percent, and by as much as 41 percent if participants also did cardio exercise.
Flowers shared four things she’s learned to get fit at any age.
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Mentality is the most important part of getting fit
Flowers said her determination helped her most in getting fit.
“You have to have the desire and the drive in your head and in your heart,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you do or what your goals are, but you have to start doing it to develop a habit.”
Experts agree that it takes a lot of repetition to form a habit. Rachel Hosie of BI has previously written that you need to build fitness into your lifestyle to make it stick.
Nutrition is important for building muscle
Flowers found that her diet had the biggest impact on her body.
“You’re not going to build muscle if you don’t eat what you need to achieve your goals,” she said, even if you do the “perfect” workout.
Jamie Wright is a registered dietitian. He explained to BI that eating plenty of protein is important for building muscle and losing belly fat. Meanwhile, adding extra carbohydrates to meals can provide more energy for workouts.
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Do not rush
Progress comes slowly, Flowers found.
“You shouldn’t overdo it, because then you can get injured and be set back,” she says. “It took me quite a long time to get to where I am now, but with time, perseverance and discipline you can achieve anything you set your mind to.”
Kristin Haraldsdottir, Ph.D. is Director of Exercise Research and Innovation at Hydrow. She told BI that it can take 12 weeks to see results from strength training to build muscle. She recommended training three times a week and increasing the weight to make faster progress, and taking a full day’s rest between workouts.
Promotes community
Not only did weightlifting help Flowers get fitter, but it also helped her meet the friends she calls her “fit family” at the gym and through her work as a fitness influencer.
“These are the friends I haven’t had my whole life because I was isolated with my husbands and my work. I love being part of this group. It’s a community. It makes me feel good and gives me the confidence to keep going. They are very, very supportive,” she says.
Working out with friends is a great way to motivate yourself. It provides accountability and the joy of socializing at the same time as exercising, Daniel Lieberman told BI. Lieberman is a Harvard paleoanthropologist and author of a book on exercise.
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