At 73, Ginny MacColl, an actor and former dancer in North Carolina, is stronger and fitter than ever.
Since achieving her first pull-up at 63, she has been a regular participant in American Ninja Warrior competitions, and in 2022 she bagged the Guinness World Record for being the oldest female Ninja Warrior competitor in the world.
For the uninitiated, the sport, which originated as a Japanese gameshow, involves completing extreme obstacle courses that include hurdles such as running up a warped wall, crossing a body of water using moving steps, and swinging on a spinning rope from one platform to another.
To prepare herself for competitions, MacColl works out six days a week, doing a combination of strength training at the gym, obstacle course practice, and swimming. She also prioritizes mobility and balance.
Although she retired from her day job at 62, MacColl is still a working actor, and her fitness has seeped into the roles she’s landed in recent years. She was a stunt actor in Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrel’s new movie “You’re Cordially Invited,” played tennis as an extra on the “Sex And The City” sequel “And Just Like That,” and did the splits in “Poms,” a 2017 movie about a senior cheer squad starring Diane Keaton.
Ginny MacColl
MacColl told Business Insider that she wants people to know it’s never too late to get fit.
“If I’m doing this at 73, you can too,” she said.
She shared the three things that helped her get so strong.
Have an attainable goal
MacColl’s daughter, Jessie Graff, is also an American Ninja Warrior, and seeing how strong she is inspired MacColl to build some muscle herself. MacColl first saw Graff, who has been a Ninja Warrior since 2013, compete live in a televised Las Vegas competition in 2015.
When MacColl was growing up, the conversation around women lifting weights was non-existent, she said, but seeing Graff “flying across the stage” changed her perspective.
“I saw her muscles, I was like, ‘wow, she’s beautiful and curvy and strong.’ I love that. And so I asked her how could I get stronger?” she said.
MacColl had never stepped into a gym at this point, so she set herself a goal of doing one pull-up. “I’ve always felt that you need to have an attainable goal,” she said. And achieving it, motivated her to set a harder goal of five pull-ups.
“I think every time you reach a goal, you just set it a little bit farther, and so you keep trying to get stronger and stronger,” she said. “I enjoy the satisfaction of getting through an obstacle and the learning process as I keep at it.”
Ginny MacColl
Be consistent (and patient)
After you’ve set yourself a goal, you have to be consistent if you want to achieve it, MacColl said, and don’t expect to reach it overnight. It took her a year to do her first pull-up at 63: “that’s a long time to stay committed,” she said.
You want to form a habit, which might look like working out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, she said, even when you don’t feel like it.
But you can start out slowly, for example, by committing to walking for 30 minutes a day, or doing some exercise with resistance bands.
“Then just keep getting better and better and better and get stronger and stronger,” she said.
Ginny MacColl
Find a class or personal trainer
MacColl recommends signing up to a class, or finding a personal trainer, particularly when you’re first starting out because it’ll keep you accountable.
“When you’re paying for it, you tend to go,” she said. “I’m not sure I have the discipline to make myself do the things if I didn’t have the personal trainer and the appointment to go to.”
Plus, if you’re lifting weights, it’s important to learn the correct posture otherwise, you can injure yourself.
