73-year-old Rosalind Umar speaks to VICTORIA EDEME about her love of workouts and how she started her fitness journey

could be Can you give us a brief overview of your background?

My name is Rosalind Umar. I am 73 years old and hail from Warri in Delta State. I have been living in Lagos since 1966. I travel outside the country occasionally but I am mostly in Lagos. I have been married for 51 years. I have five biological children including twins. I had my first two children from my first marriage and the last three from my current marriage. For my husband and I, this is our second marriage and in total we have 10 children and 16 grandchildren. The eldest is 52 and the youngest is 37. Our eldest granddaughter will be 21 in November and is in her third year of college.

What sparked your interest in weightlifting and other physical activities?

I would go back even further before I started lifting weights because I started lifting weights about two years ago. Almost 25 years ago I started having very debilitating pain in my knees and had to go to an orthopedic surgeon. After x-rays I was told that my cartilage had deteriorated, resulting in arthritis. It is a degenerative disease that would get worse over time, but I was too young to have surgery at the time. Eventually I would need a total knee replacement. My doctor advised me to do exercises to delay the need for this surgery because the lifespan of those implants, once they are placed, is typically not more than 20 years. If I had surgery then, it would mean that I would need another surgery at the age of 70 unless I wanted to experience bone rubbing on bone, which is excruciatingly painful. My knees continued to swell and I had to continue to drain what he called synovial fluid. He gave me steroid injections, which was a temporary solution. He advised me to learn to swim and to do light exercises for my knees.

Could you swim then?

I learned to swim when I was 51. I was overweight at the time. My stomach looked like I had a brain tumor and my buttocks looked like they had a pillow stuck to me. My feet were so grotesque that when I first started learning to swim at the swim club, I only went in the evenings because I looked terrible in my swimsuit. But I persevered. It took me a long time to master the art of swimming. Once I learned to swim, I swam a mile a day, five days a week, for almost 15 years. I also went to the gym, ran on the treadmill and rode my bike. It was the best we knew at the time. There were no modern gyms where I lived and no certified personal trainers studying the science of exercise. You just did your best.

A few years ago, my knees were ruined. By then, I had become a recluse at home. I even stopped going to the gym because no amount of exercise could help those knees. Eventually, I had surgery. After I recovered from the new knee implants, I felt great. I had no more pain, so I stopped going to the gym. I even stopped swimming because I felt I was doing fine.

What made you want to get back to the gym?

Due to my sedentary lifestyle of just sitting at home, watching TV and reading, my weight started to increase little by little. I got my medical reports done two years ago and the results were not good. My blood sugar, body mass index and visceral fat were too high. That’s when I was advised to change my lifestyle because I was slowly killing myself with inactivity. This was when my husband and I were abroad. Five of our children live in the United States and Canada and we usually spend three to four months there every year. When we got back, my husband without even consulting me went straight to a gym in FESTAC where we live. He paid and registered me for three months and paid for a personal trainer. My husband is 73 and has been playing tennis for over 60 years since he was in high school. So one day he just came back from playing tennis and told me that he had registered me at the gym and that I should start. I went and started.

How was your first day at the gym?

On my first day at the gym I met my trainer who I still work with today. I consider him the best personal trainer I have ever met. He motivates me and has trained me on my own to get to where I am today. He has taught me most of what I know about weight training. When we first met he suggested that I gather information and facts about my body. We used a special scale to check my body composition and I saw a concerned look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he explained that my muscle mass percentage was alarmingly low. This explains why older people sometimes have trouble opening a new bottle while others can do it effortlessly in one go. He mentioned something called sarcopenia which is the loss of muscle mass that can occur after the age of 40. So my trainer recommended that I start weight training to build muscle strength.

I was proud of my old-fashioned treadmill walks, but he advised me not to focus on that alone. Treadmill walking is primarily a cardiovascular exercise, good for the heart and lungs. So that’s how I started. On the first day, I lifted minimal weight, stepping on the board repeatedly. Within 30 minutes, I started hearing the lyrics to “Someone Please Call 911” by Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige in my head, like an ambulance. I felt insane and almost gave up. Somehow, I made it through the first and second weeks. The third week, it got easier. The fourth week, the rest is history.

When did you incorporate boxing into your routine?

I started running on the treadmill again. The only other person I used to talk to at the gym at the time told me that there was another cardiovascular exercise that would double the benefits of the treadmill: boxing. I asked him if he knew how old I was. He explained that I wouldn’t learn to box to be like Tyson Fury; I would just do enough to get my heart rate racing. He said that the calories you burn in an hour on the treadmill can be burned in just 20 minutes of boxing. That sold me on the idea. He said he would teach me boxing and aikido. Aikido is a Japanese self-defense art. So I took it as a challenge and bought boxing gloves and all the rest of the gear. I started doing that in addition to running on the treadmill and doing my bodyweight training. The only thing that will encourage you now is when you start seeing results in your body. My weight started melting away. And I was still eating everything. I wasn’t dieting. I drank red wine every night with dinner. I enjoyed my cocktails and alcohol, but I also exercised regularly. That protruding waist of about 40 inches shrank to 36, 35, and 34. I was surprised. My body started to firm up.

How long did it take before you noticed changes?

It was around the third or fourth month that my husband also noticed that I was changing physically. That became my motivation. When the three months that he had paid for were up, I didn’t ask him to pay for the fourth month. As I continued, I started to enjoy working out every day. It’s kind of an addiction now. I got pretty involved and worked out all the time. I had to take a break for about three to four months when we went to the United States or Canada to visit our kids. Again, I couldn’t imagine sitting around without working out. In every city we went to with our kids, they signed us up at their local gyms. Some even hired personal trainers for us. So we didn’t have a break. When we came back, we just picked up where we left off.

Did your husband actively participate in your sports activities?

In December 2023, my husband noticed that he was always panting and getting tired easily when he played tennis. He developed cardiovascular problems. He noticed that when he ran around the court, he would stop, go to the side, bend over and take a deep breath before he would start playing tennis again. He wanted to join a gym but I knew he would not tolerate the unstructured approach in Nigerian gyms where there is no one-on-one training with your trainer. Trainers often have multiple trainees at a time and cannot focus on one person. So we decided to set up a gym at home and bought the necessary equipment. Since they were expensive, we prioritized buying only the essential items. We gradually bought items and even imported some from abroad. Luckily, my trainer who had brought me to an advanced stage also resigned from the gym around the same time we were looking for a personal trainer to come and train us at home. So we hired him and became his first clients. So we started our home gym and he started training us at home.

Will you continue to go to the public gym now that you have one at home?

For about two months, I was still combining the gym with home workouts. I would work out at home from 9 to 11 and then go to the gym, where I would work out until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. But that was too much for me at my age. I was exhausted all day long. So I decided to stop doing both, because I was getting too thin. I don’t want to lose weight; I just want to be fit. So I reduced the intensity of my workouts. I no longer train three hours a week; I do maintenance sessions. One day a week I focus on lower extremity exercises. On another day we work on the upper body, and on the third day we do intense boxing for cardiovascular fitness.

Has your husband noticed any changes after he started boxing?

Within six months, the difference was like night and day. He can now play for two or three hours at his age. Even his colleagues at the club, who don’t know what he does at home, are surprised that his stamina has improved. This is because he does exercises to strengthen his arms and lifts weights.

Which of all your activities is your favorite?

I like lifting weights. I don’t know why. My husband’s favorite activity is boxing.

What are the effects of your training on your daily activities?

I climb the stairs and clean the house. I do my household chores. I haven’t had a cleaning lady for 10 years. I cook extensively in the house. I cook for my children.

What is the usual reaction of younger gym goers when they see you in the gym?

They are always in shock and awe. I am the Methuselah of the gym. Because I am in my 70s, the next youngest male will be in his 50s or 40s. The ladies are all in their 20s and 30s. I have always had a thing for color and fashion. So the ladies are not just interested in my workouts; they are more interested in the fashions that I display. They look at my color coordination, the matching shoes, socks, wristbands, sneakers, headbands, and gloves. I have every color of gloves and sneakers imaginable. I must have over 40 pairs of sneakers.

How much weight can you currently lift?

I started with very small 5 pound dumbbells. I gradually increased that until I was using two sets of 28 pound each, which is 55 pounds total. When using barbells, the bar can weigh up to 45 pounds and the weights on the ends add another few pounds. I lift a variety of weights. For kettlebells, I use 45 pounds.