Be positive, don’t procrastinate, just do it!
For most elderly people getting down on the floor is a thing of the past, but not for 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch who has been named Guinness World Records’ oldest yoga teacher.
Ms Porchon-Lynch first became interested in yoga after seeing boys practising on the beach when she was just eight years old and lived in Pondicherry, in southern India.
She now lives just outside of New York City, and has been teaching others yoga for 61 years.
Ms Porchon-Lynch, who was once a Hollywood actress and model has no plans to stop, even after a hip replacement!
“I’m going to teach yoga until I can’t breathe anymore, then I’ll just fly away to the next planet,” she said.
Her doctor once told her she would have to give up after she had a hip replacement, but she refused and eventually proved him wrong.
“I said I don’t want to know what I won’t be able to do because I don’t believe it,”
“So I sent him a photograph in lotus, lifting off the ground, and he called me the miracle woman,” she said.
She still teaches 16 yoga classes each week, and said she pushes them to achieve the hardest positions and expects the same standards of herself.
Her philosophy on life is “Be positive, don’t procrastinate, just do it!” She is living proof with a positive mental attitude, anything is possible.
If you’re still looking for some fresh motivation to get into the gym, all you have to do is take one look at Ruby Carter-Pikes.
The 64-year-old mother of four and great-grandmother’s rock-hard body is no illusion — those six-pack abs, chiseled legs and honed arms are real. What’s also real are the numerous fitness awards she’s been racking up while competing against women less than half her age.
Ruby credits her fitness obsession to a reaction to a long family history riddled with health problems. Although her relatives have always been active, a lack of nutritional knowledge resulted in the family eating fried foods and meals made with lots of salt, sugar and white flour.
On her BodyPROUD.org profile, Ruby shares that her grandmother died at 57 years old, after being diagnosed with a heart problem and high cholesterol; her mother battled diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease; and her sister’s leg was amputated as a result of diabetes. And if that wasn’t enough, Ruby’s niece was diagnosed with diabetes at the tender age of 11 years old.
As Ruby continues to show off her age-defying body in fitness competitions across the country, she definitely serves as a shining example of what self-discipline and personal health can look like for future generations.
These two ladies are living proof that you are never too old to exercise and although at the extreme end of the fitness spectrum, maybe we could take a bit of inspiration from them?
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