Growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I bought into the era’s yo-yo dieting and cardio-obsessed mindset, so for most of my life, my goal was simple: to be thin. I always stayed active and chased different fitness goals—teaching aerobics in my 30s and 40s and running a marathon in my 50s—but by my mid-60s, my outside didn’t match my inside. I felt physically fit, but as I got older, I became self-conscious about my lack of muscle tone.
So, I started doing reformer Pilates a few times a week because I thought it would be an effective way to build muscle. While I saw improvements in my core strength, mobility, and stability, it wasn’t delivering the muscle gains I was hoping for. So, when I turned 70, I decided it was time to take things up a notch and start lifting weights.
Although I had a solid foundation in fitness, I didn’t have experience with resistance training, so I decided to safely ease my way into it. I turned to YouTube and other online resources to design my workouts, and began lifting light weights three days a week. At first, I started with just 5-lb dumbbells, but after a week or two of getting comfortable with basic movements, like biceps curls, squats, overhead presses, and lateral raises, I moved up to 10 lbs.
A few weeks after that, I was able to increase the weight again to 15 lbs, and eventually 20 lbs for certain lower-body exercises. I loved how strong I was starting to feel, and seeing that progress was incredibly empowering. Around the same time, I also changed up my diet.
I learned to follow the 80/20 method, which involves eating whole foods 80 percent of the time and staying more flexible 20 percent of the time; I also started eating way more protein to build muscle. Within a few months of sticking with it, I saw noticeable muscle definition in my arms and legs, and felt stronger than ever before. Those results motivated me to keep going, and for the first time in my life, I realized that being strong was way better than being thin.
I still strength train three days a week with one lower-body, one upper-body, and one full-body session that I program myself based on my previous fitness knowledge. Each session lasts about 45 minutes, and I typically do two to three sets of four to five exercises using anywhere from 10- to 25-lb dumbbells, depending on the move. Instead of following a strict rep range, I work in timed intervals of 45 seconds on, followed by 15 seconds of rest.
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