PUSH FACTOR

More seniors are hitting the gym as they realise the importance of strength training to guard against frailty and improve their health span

- Stephanie Yeo

Dr Charlotte Lim stands at a petite 1.58m and weighs 49kg, but she pulls her own weight in the gym. At 79 years old, she can do a 50kg barbell back squat and dead-hang for over 3½ minutes. Her training includes up to 100 pull-ups.

Besides making friends with younger gym users, she has also picked up fitness lingo such as "jacked", which has been used to describe her well-honed muscles.

"A total stranger came up to me, fist-bumped me and said, 'Well done, gym bro.' That was quite cute," she says of an encounter in a gym in Perth, Australia, that she used while visiting her sister there. She never stops working out, even on holiday, rain or shine.

Dr Lim's strength training journey started at age 72. Her children—health and fitness coaches Yan Lin, 42, and Tiat Lim, 53—invited her to join the gym they run together, Bespoke Fitness, so they could train as a family. It was then at one-north, but has since relocated to a space under Dr Lim's 1,600 sq ft condominium unit in Farrer Road.

Dr Lim, a widow who holds a PhD in anthropology, had exercised on her own since retiring from her job in human resources at age 57. She would run on a treadmill and do light weights, but her training was unfocused, she says. She was then "skinny fat", with a body fat percentage of about 29, which is within the average range for women her age. But after starting the gym's FitRX training programme, she could do unassisted sit-ups within a year.

"Before that, I had to anchor my legs down before I could do a sit-up," says Dr Lim, who turns 80 in December.

It took her four years to do her first chin-up, using an underhand grip that is easier than a pull-up's overhand grip.

Today, her body fat is 15 per cent, according to the InBody machine, which measures body composition. She does FitRX three times a week, with each workout containing calisthenics, strength training and a cardio burst. The programme covers her whole body over a two-week cycle.