A 60-year-old woman has revealed she can deadlift double her body weight – and believes her lifestyle will keep her thriving until she’s 100.

Jacqueline Hooton, from Bognor Regis in the UK, has been a personal trainer for over 20 years and started serious strength training in her late 30s.

Despite being a grandmother and having osteoarthritis, Jacqueline can perform incredibly impressive fitness feats – including deadlifting twice her body weight and motivating people of all ages to get in the gym.

In a YouTube video published on Shera, (@sherasocial), a digital platform dedicated to empowering women, she revealed her exercise regime and why it is so important to her to stay fit – no matter what age.

Jacqueline, who runs a personal training company, Her Garden Gym, told Shera: “I'm exercising now for my current health, but also my future health.

“I know that all the time I invested in exercise is going to be paying back in years to come because it’s going to help me maintain my strength, my function, my ability to move around and my zest for life and just to be able to enjoy the things I do.

“Whilst we can't absolutely minimize every risk, we can certainly go a long way to improving our health and promoting active and healthier ageing.

“My sole focus around training is about function and about health promotion.

“I think one of the benefits of exercise is that it can have aesthetic benefits as well, but that's not my primary goal.

“My primary goal is to be as healthy and well as I can be, especially as I'm 60 years old [and] because I have osteoarthritis.

“It'd be very easy to sit down and think, ‘I can't do anything’, but it's even more important as we get older if we've got underlying medical conditions and things to invest that time.

“For me, it's definitely about health, it’s definitely about function, and it's definitely with an eye on the prize – of getting to 100 years old or more and still feeling healthy and well.”

While she enjoys a youthful look and has even been mistaken for being half her age, Jacqueline says it isn’t all about looks.

She said: “Growing older and ageing are two different things – so growing older is literally about your chronological age – we're all growing older every minute, every day, every week that's from the date you were born but ageing is something different.

“Ageing is where various systems in the body are starting to not function so efficiently, and there is a natural tail off of some of these things, like our bone health and our bone density and our cardiovascular health and various other systems in the body that don't work as well as we get older.

“There’s an awful lot we can do to promote that, though, and to sustain a good level of general health for as long as possible.

“So, yes, whilst it's true that bone health diminishes rapidly for women post-menopause if we're engaged in strength training, that can help promote bone health and offset that rapid deterioration.

“That's why it's important to understand the difference, because we can’t do anything older about growing older, and we should all be jolly grateful if we are growing older because the alternative is not being here.

“So we can't do anything about that, but we can all do something about ageing and ageing better.

“It’s nothing to do with how we look; it's how we can function and enjoy the world and actually enjoy whatever it is.

“The things that we enjoy doing, we can carry on enjoying and doing those for longer.”

The grandmother has managed to build an impressive physique thanks to her commitment to her regime, which includes deadlifting, strength training, dynamic exercises, and daily walks, runs or cycles.

Jacqueline, who shares her fitness tips on Instagram (@hergardengym), said: “There's something very empowering about lifting up a weight and feeling strong and capable and able to move that weight, and then seeing yourself getting stronger and picking up a heavier weight than you did last week.”

She insists that she isn’t infallible to feeling less than eager for a tough workout, but discipline has proved to be key.

She said: “I don't think it's anything to do with motivation. I think it's primarily about embedding healthy habits.

“There are days when I really don't feel like exercising or I'm not quite with it and it's very easy then to have a day off and then another day.

“But the thing that keeps me going is that I've got a habit. And it's become part of my lifestyle.

“So, it isn't difficult for me to do it because it's just one of those things I do, like brushing my teeth every day.

“There are days when you don't really feel like it and there might be times when I need to back off, exercise a bit or modify it, particularly if I'm struggling and I've got a bit of knee pain with the osteoarthritis.

“But I always know that I feel better for doing something.

“So even if it's a modified or shorter session, I do try and maintain my exercise and through times like holidays and Christmas and time away and birthdays, it just becomes a lifestyle and a habit.”

A 60-year-old woman has revealed she can deadlift double her body weight – and believes her lifestyle will keep her thriving until she’s 100.

Jacqueline Hooton, from Bognor Regis, has been a personal trainer for over 20 years and started serious strength training in her late 30s.

Despite being a grandmother and having osteoarthritis, Jacqueline can perform incredibly impressive fitness feats – including deadlifting twice her body weight and motivating people of all ages to get in the gym.

In a YouTube video published on Shera, (@sherasocial), a digital platform dedicated to empowering women, she revealed her exercise regime and why it is so important to her to stay fit – no matter what age.

Jacqueline, who runs a personal training company, Her Garden Gym, told Shera: “I'm exercising now for my current health, but also my future health.

“I know that all the time I invested in exercise is going to be paying back in years to come because it’s going to help me maintain my strength, my function, my ability to move around and my zest for life and just to be able to enjoy the things I do.

“Whilst we can't absolutely minimize every risk, we can certainly go a long way to improving our health and promoting active and healthier ageing.

“My sole focus around training is about function and about health promotion.

“I think one of the benefits of exercise is that it can have aesthetic benefits as well, but that's not my primary goal.

“My primary goal is to be as healthy and well as I can be, especially as I'm 60 years old [and] because I have osteoarthritis.

“It'd be very easy to sit down and think, ‘I can't do anything’, but it's even more important as we get older if we've got underlying medical conditions and things to invest that time.

“For me, it's definitely about health, it’s definitely about function, and it's definitely with an eye on the prize – of getting to 100 years old or more and still feeling healthy and well.”

While she enjoys a youthful look and has even been mistaken for being half her age, Jacqueline says it isn’t all about looks.

She said: “Growing older and ageing are two different things – so growing older is literally about your chronological age – we're all growing older every minute, every day, every week that's from the date you were born but ageing is something different.
“Ageing is where various systems in the body are starting to not function so efficiently, and there is a natural tail off of some of these things, like our bone health and our bone density and our cardiovascular health and various other systems in the body that don't work as well as we get older.

“There’s an awful lot we can do to promote that, though, and to sustain a good level of general health for as long as possible.

“So, yes, whilst it's true that bone health diminishes rapidly for women post-menopause if we're engaged in strength training, that can help promote bone health and offset that rapid deterioration.

“That's why it's important to understand the difference, because we can’t do anything older about growing older, and we should all be jolly grateful if we are growing older because the alternative is not being here.

“So we can't do anything about that, but we can all do something about ageing and ageing better.

“It’s nothing to do with how we look; it's how we can function and enjoy the world and actually enjoy whatever it is.

“The things that we enjoy doing, we can carry on enjoying and doing those for longer.”

The grandmother has managed to build an impressive physique thanks to her commitment to her regime, which includes deadlifting, strength training, dynamic exercises, and daily walks, runs or cycles.

Jacqueline, who shares her fitness tips on Instagram (@hergardengym), said: “There's something very empowering about lifting up a weight and feeling strong and capable and able to move that weight, and then seeing yourself getting stronger and picking up a heavier weight than you did last week.”

She insists that she isn’t infallible to feeling less than eager for a tough workout, but discipline has proved to be key.

She said: “I don't think it's anything to do with motivation. I think it's primarily about embedding healthy habits.

“There are days when I really don't feel like exercising or I'm not quite with it and it's very easy then to have a day off and then another day.

“But the thing that keeps me going is that I've got a habit. And it's become part of my lifestyle.

“So, it isn't difficult for me to do it because it's just one of those things I do, like brushing my teeth every day.

“There are days when you don't really feel like it and there might be times when I need to back off, exercise a bit or modify it, particularly if I'm struggling and I've got a bit of knee pain with the osteoarthritis.

“But I always know that I feel better for doing something.

“So even if it's a modified or shorter session, I do try and maintain my exercise and through times like holidays and Christmas and time away and birthdays, it just becomes a lifestyle and a habit.”

ENDS

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