From the Guardian (UK).
Joan Macdonald has not always looked like a bodybuilder. At 71, she weighed 90kg (14st 4lb), and had rising blood pressure and kidney troubles. She was also on medication for cholesterol and acid reflux, and her doctor wanted to double the dose.
Her daughter, Michelle, expressed Macdonald’s dilemma bluntly. “You’re going to end up like your mother did in a nursing home!” she told Macdonald. “And people are going to have to look after you. Do you want that?”
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She left her home in Ontario, Canada, to join Michelle and her husband, both fitness coaches, in Tulum, Mexico. Macdonald learned to make protein shakes. She visited the gym. She followed Michelle’s workout programme, using the machines, then light weights – 2.5lb (1kg) – working up to heavier ones. She mimes raising a barbell and lowering it behind her head. She can do this with 25lb (11kg).
“Wow! Your back!” people in the gym told her. “It’s so defined!” They took photos. “I’m going: ‘Wooh! That looks pretty good! I’ve got some muscles here.’” Within nine months, she was off all medication.
“There is a misconception that people over 65 cannot produce hypertrophy [growth] of the muscle,” says Mark Peterson, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan. “Muscle is a tissue that can adapt with stimulus.” The key is to check with a doctor first, and start slowly.
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As a mature woman, she is powering her own rejuvenation. “People need to know, especially women, that you are not finished at 40, definitely not finished at 50 or 60 or 70. You can go on and on until the day there is no more,” she says. “And you should be able to do it with pizzazz.”
On Instagram, Macdonald posts photos of herself in sports tops, or jumping waves in beachwear. She has 1.4m followers and a partnership with the retailer Women’s Best. “I have a tendency to do things that anyone else would say: ‘Oh my God! What’s she doing now?’”
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