I squat 85.5 kilos
I bench press 40 kilos
I dead lift 112 kilos.
It's not much good just fiddling around with one and two kilogram weights.
Something like that you have to actually make your body work.
If you're not using your body your muscles will waste, your bone density will deminish.
We have a pretty sedentary push button world
People have become more aware of it.
And yes, in this town it's really taken off.
Well it's certainly become a craze mostly amongst the older women.
There's a whole bunch of us between sort of 65 and 70 and a couple over 70.
People need to be always made relevant and to be visible no matter the age.
I don't think there is too old.
I think you just kept going.
Castlemaine is a town of about 9000 people in central Victoria.
It's very cold in the winter.
It's extremely hot in the summer.
Castlemaine is filled with people that have been here for many generations.
I'm Teresa Pollard, I'm 68 years old and I've been lifting for seventeen months.
I retired from nursing and I just decided that I needed to keep myself strong and fit and healthy
so I could just enjoy the rest of my life.
I walked in and I thought Nah.
There's no way I can do this.
This isn't me.
Within here, everything's heavy.
You look at the bars, they all weigh 20 kilos, everything's heavy.
My name's Dean Mawby and my gym is called Real Strength.
Our main clientele of people is from 40 plus.
But we range from 11 through to 75.
Therese has been with us for 15 months.
I was hooked after the first time I came, first session I was hooked.
I have definitely proved myself wrong.
I'm now a national champion in powerlifting.
She bettered the previous national squat record in the over 6os
even though she's 68
which is 85.5 kilos.
And at the National Championships she won best female lifter over 60.
You couldn't get any more passionate that Dean.
No way.
He's a fantastic coach, he loves us all and does everything to help us.
I don't know why I love to get the older people moving, I just love it.
They're open and they're great.
You see such big changes with them that impact their life immediately.
I love that.
It's just changed everything.
You just feel so good, and you want to get out and do things.
Since I've been doing it, straight away I started losing weight.
So I've lost a few kilos and it's never come back on
and I eat like a horse probably to feed my muscles.
She is actually one of the older ladies in the group.
And because she's so powerful and so very matter of fact
that she inspires the group and she inspires younger people especially.
I don't really like to put myself up like that.
But it's a good feeling to know that perhaps you inspire someone else
to do something they maybe, might not have even thought of doing.
We talk about older people, now are the baby boomers
they lived maybe a wilder life than we lived.
So they're not ready to be pushed into a dark room, or a carpeted room in a circle.
These are people that have made big changes
that have revolted against things
that have questioned authority and now they're at an age where they go
"Geez, what can I do for myself now to do better?"
Powerlifting works because there are three major exercises.
And with those three exercises you actually use all of your muscle groups
through the squat bench press and deadlift.
My name's Anne, I'm 68 and I'm a power lifter.
It's about becoming stronger, physically stronger
and whatever strength you have will increase.
Having more muscle on your bones in older age does help you with balance
helps your metabolism, it helps with the movement obviously
But you also have to focus.
There's a lot of skills that are in your head,
rather than in your body
Lifting requires you to be 100 percent present with your body.
So you have to show up.
It's like a deep meditation in some levels
and blocks out all of the noise and you're just there yourself with the bar.
It was about four years ago.
and in the subsequent couple of months I needed to help my mom move into aged care and sell a house
I realised that I really wasn't coping and I hadn't really dealt with my grief.
After a while I pretty much fell in a heap.
I stayed on antidepressants then for the next three years.
After my mum died last year I decided that it was time to get off the antidepressants
So I slowly went off the anti-depressants with my doctor's support.
And so powerlifting has become my antidepressant.
And I'm feeling fantastic.
Lifting does have an effect on mental health.
Research fairly recently in Australia with 33000 participants said that very clearly.
Everyday activities feel easier.
Might be getting out of the car, it might be lifting the shopping
it might be putting clothes on the line.
A lot of those kind of things which which seem fairly trivial
they change, and you feel those changes.
I'd be walking along and I'd sort of wobble.
Just through basically improving my posture
improving my core strength and my stability that's gone.
It's just disappeared.
I'm a minister of religion in the Uniting Church in Australia.
I'm 73 and I've recently become a powerlifter.
I did my first power lifting session just after my 72nd birthday.
Which was at the beginning of September last year.
And it was comprised of doing squats with a broomstick.
Ian's the oldest male lifter in here.
He squats more than his body weight and he squats it with a really beautiful technique
which is inspiring to many people.
My working weight would normally be lifting about 40 to 50 kilos.
I challenge anyone over 70 to get that amount of depth in a squat.
Anybody at any age with appropriate training could have a go at what I'm doing.
I mean people kept telling me that it’s just a number.
In a world where aged care is getting close to breaking our medical budgets
Heavy weight training could save a fortune.
You're never too old.
it all depends where you're at and what you want to do
what you want to change, you can change it.
Most people can change a lot about the way they live their lives.
I'm going to keep going as long as I can
I've got every intention of breaking a few more records.
And continuing on.
I'll be powerlifting hopefully until I die.