In 2019, the arthritis in Sybil Kretzmer’s thumb had become so bad she couldn’t lift a plate of food from the kitchen counter to the table. At 68, she believed that being strong was now out of the picture. So the fact that a couple of years later, at 71, she can shoulder press with 10kg dumbbells and deadlift 50kg has come as quite a surprise.
“I wasn’t thinking about my health when I signed up to the gym – it was pure vanity,” says Kretzmer. “I walked past a [gym] advertisement in which there was a photo of a woman who had a body that looked exactly like mine next to a photo of her with the body that I wanted. I thought, ‘I have to check this out.’”
The first workout wasn’t what Kretzmer was expecting. “I thought I’d have to be moving really fast to get fitter, but instead I was told I’d be picking heavy things up very, very slowly. I never thought I’d be a weightlifter, but now I feel a sense of euphoria when I finish a set,” she says.
Kretzmer has seen physical changes, but that’s not the only thing she’s gained from lifting weights. Now she trains three times a week, favouring lower-body exercises such as hack squats [standing on a plate with the weight placed on top of you] and the hip abductor machine, “because when you get older your hips really need to be strong.”
Her newfound mobility means that she can sit on the floor with her legs crossed, and touch her toes, both of which leave her friends aghast. Kretzmer also believes the breath work done during weight training has helped “get rid of some residual asthma on my lungs” from when she was younger. “My breath power is so much stronger now.”
Kretzmer adds: “I also have the confidence and strength to travel, go sightseeing and go to the theatre by myself and I have much younger friends because I can keep up with them.” And as for that arthritis? “I don’t take pills anymore. I guess the muscles around the joint are so strong now that I can carry full plates with no problem.”
Research supports the fact that lifting weights is one of the best things we can do for our health. Most recently, a study published in September in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people in their sixties and seventies who weight-lifted once or twice a week had a nine to 22 per cent lower risk of dying from any cause, apart from cancer. Those who did both muscle-strengthening exercises and aerobic cardiac activity (such as jogging or cycling) reduced their risk of death by 47 per cent.
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“Weight training promotes heart health, metabolic health (including the reduction of the risk of diabetes and inflammation), and maintains or builds muscle and bone strength,” says sports and exercise medicine consultant Dr Rebecca Robinson from the Marylebone Health Clinic.
“People can reap those benefits at any point in life, and it’s still important to train into later years. While muscle growth rate is slower because the body’s ability to build new tissue is reduced, there can still be a beneficial effect in preventing muscle decline. Conversely, if people don’t strength train after middle age, they can lose around 10 per cent of muscle mass per decade, which can lead to frailty, reduced mobility and falls.”
The latest research also shows a bigger benefit of training on longevity in women than men. One of the reasons for that is because of the way strength training counteracts the impact of the menopause. “Hormonal changes in later life, like lower oestrogen levels, accelerate the muscle and bone degradation process,” explains personal trainer Nancy Best.
“Women can lose up to 20 per cent of their bone density within five to seven years following menopause. Weight-bearing exercise maintains that mass and is crucial to avoiding osteoporosis, but studies also suggest that peri and post-menopausal women who consistently lift weights have improved sleep and reduced menstrual symptoms.”
Best had been trying to get her mother, Dr Kate Nelson, to reap the benefits of weight-lifting for years. Dr Nelson was reluctant. “People of my generation have a certain resistance against the idea of lifting weights,” she says. “We grew up when bodybuilding first came to the fore, believing that muscle-building exercises always resulted in an extreme bodybuilding physique. Plus, there was no education around the why or how, so the idea of lifting heavy things was anxiety-inducing – what if I hurt myself?” she asks.
But then Dr Nelson experienced the menopause, which led to her bones weakening. “My GP told me that my spine had started deteriorating. My mother has osteoporosis, so I knew I needed to get stronger,” she says. So, aged 62, she turned to her daughter for help.
For the past year, Dr Nelson has been regularly lifting dumbbells (as well as boxing, stretching and sweating) at home as part of Best’s online fitness programme, Ladies Who Crunch. “I’ve graduated from very weedy weights to slightly less weedy weights – although still not lots by what Nancy [her daughter] can do,” says Nelson.
“My posture has definitely improved, and the strength I have acquired from weight training has been useful for allowing me to get my mother in and out of her wheelchair. It’s also helped me deal with a lot of the anxiety and stress surrounding my mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which has not been inconsiderable. I just find that I’m just generally a nicer, calmer person after exercise.”
Building strength really does have an impact on mental well-being. “Specifically in the reduction of anxiety and depression, as well as having the social benefits when training with others and reducing social isolation,” says Dr Robinson from the Marylebone Health Clinic.
It is this community element that is most loved by Dr Catherine Walter, a 75-year-old powerlifter who took up the sport 10 years ago. After she complained to her son about feeling unfit but not having time to exercise five days a week, he told her to try lifting weights. “He told me I’d only need to do a few repetitions of each exercise, twice a week – as long as they were heavy. I thought that sounded perfect,” she says.
She now holds the world record for her age and body weight categories, but that’s not as important as the relationships she has formed through the sport. “I started and maintain a club for women where all are welcome – cis, trans and people with a fluid gender identity.
“Our friendly, supportive group meets twice a week to be coached. Some of us lift in order to compete. Some lift in order to help them with another sport. Some do it because they just want to be stronger in their bodies. To have kept that club together, to see women grow and be supported by one another in being stronger in their bodies, is my greatest achievement.”
Kretzmer has also found a huge psychological element to the training. “My trainer has become my therapist really. I was going through some tough times – my husband was very ill and eventually died [Kretzmer’s husband was Herbert Kretzmer, journalist and lyricist for the English-language musical adaptation of Les Misérables] – and sometimes there would be tears in the session. The coaches knew just how to help me and what to say in a very sympathetic and supportive manner.
“Now, on the days I train, I hop out of bed because I can’t wait to get to the gym. I have an hour of working out filled with fun and laughing, and after I fly up the stairs and march up the hill back home with wings beneath my feet. My heart is pumping, my mood is good, my muscles have been strengthened and I’m ready for the day. Bring it on.”
