Super fit gran who deadlifts double her bodyweight baffles people with her age
The saying 'age is just a number' definitely applies to this super fit gran who can impressively lift double her body weight at 60-years-old, and she believes her active lifestyle will ensure she's thriving until she's 100. Not only is she in good shape, her youthful looks mean she also gets mistaken to be half her age.
Despite having osteoarthritis, grandmother Jacqueline Hooton has been a personal trainer for over 20 years and she loves to motivate people of all ages to get into the gym. As she started seriously weight training in her late 30s, the fitness fanatic can perform some impressive fitness feats and has her eye on the prize - to reach her 100th birthday.
She's been strength training since her late 30s (Jam Press/@hergardengym)
Not only is she doing for her current health, she's doing it for her future health to be as active when she's 100 (Jam Press Vid/@hergardengym)Jacqueline, from Bognor Regis, revealed her intense exercise regimes and shared that she is exercising for her future health. She said: "I know that all the time I invested in exercise is going to be paying back in years to come because it's going to help me maintain my strength, my function, my ability to move around and my zest for life and just to be able to enjoy the things I do. I'm exercising now for my current health, but also for my future health.
"Whilst we can't absolutely minimise every risk, we can certainly go a long way to improving our health and promoting active and healthier ageing. My sole focus around training is about function and about health promotion. I think one of the benefits of exercise is that it can have aesthetic benefits as well, but that's not my primary goal.
"My primary goal is to be as healthy and well as I can be, especially as I'm 60 years old [and] because I have osteoarthritis. It'd be very easy to sit down and think, 'I can't do anything', but it's even more important as we get older if we've got underlying medical conditions and things to invest that time. For me, it's definitely about health, it's definitely about function, and it's definitely with an eye on the prize – of getting to 100 years old or more and still feeling healthy and well."
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Despite being mistaken as half her age, Jacqueline shared it's not all about looks for her. She thinks there is more to promote than our appearance, as ageing is inevitable. She added: "Growing older and ageing are two different things – so growing older is literally about your chronological age – we're all growing older every minute, every day, every week that's from the date you were born but ageing is something different.
"Ageing is where various systems in the body are starting to not function so efficiently, and there is a natural tail off of some of these things, like our bone health and our bone density and our cardiovascular health and various other systems in the body that don't work as well as we get older. There's an awful lot we can do to promote that, though, and to sustain a good level of general health for as long as possible.
“So, yes, whilst it's true that bone health diminishes rapidly for women post-menopause if we're engaged in strength training, that can help promote bone health and offset that rapid deterioration. That's why it's important to understand the difference, because we can’t do anything older about growing older, and we should all be jolly grateful if we are growing older because the alternative is not being here."
Enduring gruelling workouts that include deadlifting, strength training, dynamic exercises, and daily walks, runs or cycles, she claimed discipline is the key to maintaining an impressive figure even when she isn't in the mood for it. Just like most people, she has days where she's tempted to skip a session but knows she always feels better afterwards and won't let her age hold her back.
Jacqueline detailed: "There's something very empowering about lifting up a weight and feeling strong and capable and able to move that weight, and then seeing yourself getting stronger and picking up a heavier weight than you did last week.
"I don't think it's anything to do with motivation. I think it's primarily about embedding healthy habits. There are days when I really don't feel like exercising or I'm not quite with it and it's very easy then to have a day off and then another day. But the thing that keeps me going is that I've got a habit. And it's become part of my lifestyle.
"So, it isn't difficult for me to do it because it's just one of those things I do, like brushing my teeth every day. There are days when you don't really feel like it and there might be times when I need to back off, exercise a bit or modify it, particularly if I'm struggling and I've got a bit of knee pain with the osteoarthritis. But I always know that I feel better for doing something. So even if it's a modified or shorter session, I do try and maintain my exercise and through times like holidays and Christmas and time away and birthdays, it just becomes a lifestyle and a habit."
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