77-year-old weightlifting grandmom is an inspiration
If you’re looking for a reason to stay home from the gym, you might not want to look to Ms. Willie Murphy. The 105-pound 77-year old can dead lift 215-pound weights. She’s won a boatload of trophies from the World Natural Powerlifting Federation World Championships, and she only began training a few years ago.
It all started for her when she saw a sign for a weight-lifting competition at the Y. She asked an employee at the gym if she could participate, and they responded, “Go for it, granny.”
“I never say I can’t; I say I will try,” she told the Democrat and Chronicle.
She started working out with 5 pound weights and then gradually moved up. She’s proud of the fact that she doesn’t use any substance and that her weightlifting abilities are all natural. “None of those steroids for me,” Murphy said.
She’s become a fixture and a source of inspiration at her local gym. She works out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. She easily won her division in the dead lift at the WNPF World Championships as well as nabbing first place in the bench press, bench press repetitions, power curls and the World Natural Powerlifting Federation 2014 Lifter of the Year award. She also recently picked up awards at the WNPF New York Powerfest.
Murphy recognizes that not everyone will want to be a weightlifter, but she offers advice that everyone should heed. Just do enough so that “you are moving something and the blood is flowing in your body.”
She hopes to be a motivation to woman of color who are more likely to battle diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.
She takes pride in the fact that she can lift her grandkids and groceries with ease as well as doing other physically strenuous chores. “I can shovel my own snow. And I can push my car if it gets stuck in the snow… I’m almost 80 years old and I am still living life,” she said.
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