Proving that age is nothing but a number, two remarkable women have been recognized by Guinness World Records for their amazing feats.
77-year-old Edith Wilma Connor from Denver, Colorado is the
Oldest Female Competitive Bodybuilder, while 93-year-old Tao
Porchon-Lynch from White Plains, NY is the Oldest Living Yoga
Teacher.
Great-grandmother Edith Wilma Connor started pursuing fitness in
her late sixties.
Along with her husband, she ran a data entry company where the ten-hour days stuck stagnant at her desk began to severely deplete her of energy.
Edith then decided to begin a gym routine along with her eldest
son, in which she described the euphoric feeling of bodybuilding as
her "salvation".
She entered her first competition on her 65th birthday when she
won first place at the Grand Masters in Las Vegas. The win
motivated her to pursue a career as a certified personal trainer
with emphasis on training the mature body.
Edith works out a minimum of three times per week and does not
strictly "diet" but prefers to follow nutritional guidelines that
she's developed over time for her body.
Her advice to other mature women interested in weight training:
"Start with setting reasonable goals and educating yourself on what
foods cause an increase in body fat. Remove the word 'diet' from
your vocabulary."
While her husband of 57 years passed last year, he lived long
enough to see Edith pursue her Guinness World Records title.
Weight training now runs in her family. As the mother of three
sons, grandmother of seven, and great-grandmother of six, Edith has
encouraged the entire brood live a health conscious
life.
On the other end of the spectrum, the new Oldest Living Yoga
Instructor, Tao Porchon-Lynch has 400 students she considers her
own children.
Her interest in yoga stems from her childhood. At eight years old,
she observed a group of young boys practicing yoga on the beach in
her hometown of Pondicherry (a French colony on India on the Bay of
Bengal).
"As a child with a zest for physical activity, I wanted to do
the amazing things that they were doing with their bodies," she
explains.
Initially working as a cabaret dancer in London during the war,
she became a model in Paris after winning the contest for the 'best
legs in Europe.'
Lever Brothers eventually sponsored her travel to the US. In
1950, she worked at MGM as a starlet and later pursued an acting
career, followed by script-writing and documentary producing.
At age 73, she embraced her passion for yoga, making it her
primary career after the death of her husband, Bill Lynch.
She currently teaches yoga classes four days a week at the JCC
midWestchester in New York where she briefs her students on
everything from vinyasanas to meditation exercises to
vegetarianism.
Her other hobbies include ballroom dancing, writing (both yoga
articles and her autobiography) and leading wine travel tours in
Southern New York.
Commenting on her unique talent, Tao says: "I believe that we can
always reach just a little bit further. I'm inspired to bring yoga
into others' lives along with helping people unearth new
talents".
