\n<\/p>\n
I see people 30 years younger than me and they\u2019ve given up,\u201d Jean Stewart, 96, says. It\u2019s not an attitude she relates to. \u201cI like to do things for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart was very active in her youth: she played hockey and softball at school and worked for the Girl Scouts for years. As she got older, however, everyday tasks became harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to the point where I didn\u2019t have the strength to prune my roses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Becoming frailer was frustrating. Worse, she was tired of being treated as incapable by those around her. Aged 81, she read about a\u00a0local CrossFit gym and went along to ask for help \u2013 it was the start of what would become 15 years of on-and-off training with its owner, Cheryl Cohen. Back then, Stewart was her only client older than 60. Today, she specialises in classes for older adults, helping them stay independent.<\/p>\n
Stewart was nervous and excited during her first session. Training focused on movements that would support her day to-day life, including getting up and down from the ground, and walking while carrying 4kg kettlebells. Each session, the weights increased gradually.<\/p>\n
Soon, she was doing full-body press\u2011ups, keeping pace with women 10 years younger. She could hold a plank long enough for another member of the senior group to tell a two-minute story. By 83, she could deadlift 70kg. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u00a0thought it was light.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Stewart, 96 at the Desert Fitness Collective in Palm Springs.<\/span> Photograph: Nolwen Cifuentes\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As she reached 90, her progress was interrupted by a bout of MRSA and \u201ca serious car accident \u2013 I was almost demolished\u201d. Stewart lost feeling in her feet and lower legs, and spent two months in rehabilitation. Soon after, she fell again while walking her dog: \u201cHer leash got twisted in my legs.\u201d At 91, she required surgery for a\u00a0broken hip. \u201cI continued with exercise and got the strength back,\u201d Stewart says. What\u00a0kept her going? \u201cI\u2019m stubborn.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, she can\u2019t deadlift due to spinal stenosis, but still trains twice a week. Her sessions include elevated push-ups, kettlebell squats and pushing a weight-loaded sledge. \u201cThe older I get, the more I tell myself I\u2019ve got to keep going,\u201d Stewart says. Cohen recalls a story of her carrying a heavy pail of cat litter at the store. \u201cThey say, \u2018Ma\u2019am, would you like help with this?\u2019 And she goes, \u2018No!\u2019 and walks away.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart can now get down to prune her plants, rise easily from a\u00a0chair, and is strong enough to help herself up if she falls. \u201cWithout strength training I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be alive,\u201d she says. She\u2019s evangelical about exercise to friends who think they\u2019re too old to start. To younger people who say they are too busy, her advice is simple: \u201cMake time. Do what you need to do to live longer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/em>Jean Stewart is a member of Desert\u00a0Fitness Collective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I see people 30 years younger than me and they\u2019ve given up,\u201d Jean Stewart, 96, says. It\u2019s not an attitude she relates to. \u201cI like to do things for myself.\u201d Stewart was very active in her youth: she played hockey and softball at school and worked for the Girl Scouts for years. As she got<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5161,22243,36,10637,6296,753,2640,910,668,2832],"class_list":{"0":"post-41975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-80s","9":"tag-crossfit","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-gym","12":"tag-joined","13":"tag-strength","14":"tag-survive","15":"tag-training","16":"tag-woman","17":"tag-wouldnt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}