Powerlifting at Age 82? She's Not Even the Oldest

On a recent afternoon, the white-haired women wearing baby blue T-shirts and sneakers met at the Jackson Springs Recreation Center.

The wives, grandmothers and retirees ranged in age from 70 to 91. They weren't gathered to do the stuff expected of grandmothers. No exchanging of recipes or trading crochet patterns.

They flocked to the gym off the Center's basketball court to begin their routine.

Stretching. Squatting. Lifting weights.

Their purpose? To participate in the Beau Moore Classic Powerlifting Contest at 9 a.m. on March 16 at the Center. The Classic, which is open to the public, is run in conjunction with Raw United Powerlifting Federation and the Wounded Warrior Project, according to Hillsborough County officials.

Competitors range from age 8 to 95, according county officials. Events range from the bench press to deadlift.

Trudy Daxon, 82, smiled before offering an explanation as to why she started powerlifting.

"I'd try anything once."

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Before they became powerlifters, Daxon and friend Edith Traina, 91, line danced twice a week in their Town N'Country neighborhood. One day, Traina, aware of local recreation centers and their programs for seniors, suggested they "do something."

Daxon grew up in Austria swimming, skiing and playing handball. She married a man who served in the U.S. Army. They kept weights in their home over the years, but Baxon admitted she wasn't interested in using them.

"The only way I did something with them," she said, "was to move and dust them."

Even so, Baxon decided to join Traina. The ladies lift in a room enclosed by windows in the Center off Hanley Road. The walls are pale blue, and rectangular fluorescent lights float from the ceiling.

Daxon - who had shoulder replacement surgery in 2011 and participated in a senior games event last year in Lakeland - is preparing a few times a week to do 150-lb. dead lifts for the March 16 competition with trainer Bill Beekley.

"Our thing is to show people you can do things," she said. "Because you are getting old doesn't mean you have to stop."

Carmen Gutwirth, 70, wanted to improve her muscle tone and balance. She saw Beekley, recreation program specialist and meet director for the Classic, if she could use weights in the gym.

"He offered to help me," said Gutwirth. "He offered to help seniors who wanted to use this stuff."

Gutwirth, who has participated in senior games events before, is working on squats, bench press and dead lifts for the competition.

"The important thing Bill is emphasizing with us is you improve," she said. "You compete against yourself. A prize isn't the idea. It's to improve yourself."

Beekley, who has been powerlifting since 1981, helped start the Classic in 2008.

"This sport is wonderful for seniors, as it increases muscle tone and mass, strength and bone density," he said. "In turn, it's a great activity for battling osteoporosis."

Gutwirth, who calls herself a "big watcher" - movies and sporting events - as opposed to a participant, said anyone can become a powerlifter.

"I never, ever did anything that made me sweat or lift anything," she said. "But you can't be too weak to start powerlifting."