This was the year I grew up. I stopped lying to myself about how fit I was. It was also the year I decided to put myself first. And I believe (assuming I don’t get hit by a bus) that it will transform the rest of my life.
Last year, all was well – superficially. I was, as my grandmother used to say, “going along.” I’d been a member of the same gym for three decades. I swam outdoors. I even did regular yoga – the same online session: “Yoga for strength”. I was a diligent try-hard exerciser.
In reality, if I drove to the gym, it worked out at £100 a visit, as I was so resistant to its dullness. I’d manage a slow 5K treadmill “run” which made my back ache, as I didn’t know not to land on my toes. Or I’d do a bunch of lat pulldowns, ten squats and blither around in the weights room. Despite the yoga, I was as stiff as peanut brittle.
Swimming I loved though. The colder the water, the quicker the swim. And, as I’d heard ad infinitum since my thirties, it was low – or no? – impact, great for the joints. It was a buzz, a boost. I felt hardy.
I would have continued like this, smack-bang in the middle of my fifties, as the oestrogen drained out of me, kidding myself I was doing everything right. But then Matt Roberts, the personal trainer and founder of health club Evolution, who I’d known for years, staged an intervention. He invited me to attend his Knightsbridge branch for a “bone health scan”.
Anna Maxted had been afraid of intense training – now she can deadlift 60kg, more than her own weight (Photo: Teri Pengilley)I wasn’t keen. I was a young 55 – hello? I turned up late, relieved that the specialised ultrasound scan took just fifteen minutes. I was thinking fondly of the last time I’d had an ultrasound scan (“it’s a male”) when the sports therapist broke the news. This time, it wasn’t lovely. I had osteoporosis.
The bone mineral density of my spine was 0.746g/cm2, and my T-score was -2.7. (If you’re over 40 and it’s less than -2.5 you have osteoporosis.). My Z-score (age matched) was -1.6. My left femur was even worse.
I actually felt shame. Partly because our society is so vile about ageing that unless you’re strict with yourself any marker of it invokes self-loathing. But also because I’d been idly thinking of taking up ice skating. (Hm, I still might.)
I was culpable. I knew that lifting heavyish weights was recommended for women my age. And, vaguely, that bone density declined after menopause (up to 20% in the first five or seven years.) Want to lower osteoporosis risk? Regularly “load your skeleton”. What had I been doing? Avoiding gravity in a swimming pool. Plus I worked from home, and went days without walking.
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Now, I had a choice. Sit at my desk and carry on crumbling, until the day I tripped and my hip shattered like a glass bauble – or build myself up. Even then, faced with future frailty or the opportunity to become healthily robust, I hesitated. I felt guilty about taking time off when I could be working.
Friends persuaded me. I had to do this. I wanted to be fit. But I was clueless – I’m not an intuitive or accomplished exerciser. If I try to push it, I hurt myself. I needed help.
A year on, I’m a new woman (and not just in terms of body composition). I can deadlift 60kg, more than I weigh. My posture has gone from scoliotic to upright. I’m faster in the pool. I sprint for a bus and barely raise my heart rate. We had a new wrought iron gate installed in our front garden, and I carried it from the back of our house to the builder who spluttered: “That’s a heavy gate.”
Rebuilding my bones has required commitment. Following Evolution’s bone health programme, which I was gifted (an incentive in itself – a 12-week course costs approximately £3,600), I began doing two hardcore targeted strength training sessions a week (the journey – walking, tube, walking – to central London, adds 7,000 steps, and takes an hour).
The first months, with my trainer Ollie, got me in shape to train. I was weak, and lopsided, with my lower back muscles saying “I’ll do it!” to almost any move because my glutes and core were on a comfort break – it was like trying to get Pinocchio fit for deadlifting.
Strength training is not a treat, it doesn’t have that fun, frivolous feel – unlike ice skating – but it is exciting. Ollie – encouraging, gently merciless – coached me to feats I never imagined I’d be capable of. Each session is intense and gruelling. I sometimes feel sick. Or dream of curling up and sleeping on the gym floor. Single leg glute bridges. Weighted hip thrusts. Weighted squats on a machine devised by someone spiteful. Also – jumping. (Another way to load my skeleton, which I’d not done for 40 odd years.) But afterwards, I feel exhilarated.
In addition, every week I trudge to Knightsbridge (6,000 steps) to use a technologically fancy contraption called a BioDensity machine, under Ollie’s supervision, which enables you to safely lift, push and pull up to ten times’ your bodyweight. It takes five seconds of sustained almighty effort for each static move. So for the “push” – a chest press – I grasp the bar, then, grrr, exert every fibre of force like I’m trying to push a car uphill. The bar barely moves, but somehow, this puts huge load through my bones.
Along with the weightlifting and the jumping, the BioDensity machine exerts a force through my muscles that tells my lazy bones: “The bare minimum will no longer suffice – you need to be tough enough to do this now.” The bones adapt, their bone-building cells are prompted to lay down more mineralised tissue. It takes time to rebuild bone density, but six months ago, I had another scan, and my hip BMD had improved by 4-5%.
While I believe that most people would benefit from one-to-one assessment and coaching to begin with, to perfect technique and train safely, it is possible to slowly build muscle and bone strength at home, with dumbbells, or in the gym, once you know what you’re doing. (The BioDensity machine is terrific – but not essential. For example, studies have shown that hip BND improves if you do 50 hops daily.)
When I speak to Jon Roberts, technical director of Evolution, about (cringe) “my journey,” it’s a familiar story. “People are scared of exercise,” he says. Especially for women in mid-life: “The number one fear is, ‘If I do weights, I’m going to bulk up.’” In fact, “bulking up when you’re fifty plus is really difficult. We’re losing muscle. Our hormones aren’t on our side.”
Anna Maxted says her personal trainer has transformed her body and posture (Photo: Teri Pengilley)What will happen is that your body will become “more athletic-looking”. He says: “It’s the healthy version of you, rather than the overly lean version of you.” It delivers muscle mass and improves bone density. “That’s not a super-skinny body.”
This year has changed my look – and mindset. I’ve faced what I was afraid of – the physical and mental discomfort of intense training, the facts of passively ageing, the guilt that it was selfish to prioritise myself. But the reward is that in my fifties, I feel strong, confident and capable – more than I ever have. Weightlifting empowers you mentally as well as physically. My mind feels sharp and clear.
I cancelled my old gym membership – like binning a safety blanket that was suffocating – and will continue strength training with my PT from hereon. After decades of half-arsing it on fitness – clueless, avoidant, courting frailty – I’m finally being a grown-up, putting in the work, investing in my health and future me.
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