from cat litter to barbells
an assessment of what she could do. She remembers that she couldn’t complete a single sit-up or get off the floor without using a box to pull herself up. She started a program of lifting light weights, and within a couple of weeks, she felt her strength returning. She was Several years ago, Edie Edmundson stood in a store, able to do sit-ups, and getting off the floor was becoming staring down a 25-pound bucket of kitty litter. There was a easier. A year in, she’d lost fat, gained muscle, and felt she problem—she couldn’t get it into her cart. looked better in her clothes, although that was just a fringe “I asked a customer to take it down,” she says. “I thought, benefit. “I was starting to feel more energy,” she says. ‘This is ridiculous. I can’t depend on other people to do “I really liked being able to do the day-to-day things better, simple things for me.’” like pulling a suitcase through an airport, and going up and Now 83, the Burlington, Washington-based retired down stairs.” businesswoman was always active growing up and had been Once she could lift 25 pounds, she went for 35, and then the captain of the drill team. But no one back then for 50. On her 81st birthday, she deadlifted 121 BY HALEY lifted weights, not even the boys. She never really pounds, a fact that lights up her face to share. In SHAPLEY considered it an activity she might like to try until fact, the deadlift—a movement where you lift the that wave of frustration came over her in the grocery store weight from the floor to hip level—has become her favorite aisle. exercise in the gym because it shows just how much her In a case of serendipitous timing, she found her solution strength has improved. when she won a one-month membership to a gym, CrossFit “The body is meant to work, and when it doesn’t work, Skagit, around that same time. They started her off with it gets really lazy,” she says. “The more you sit, the more you want to sit.” As much as Edmundson understands the gravitational pull to want to sit (how lovely it is to curl up with a good book!), it’s worth it for her to keep moving. Edmundson can do all those things that aren’t always easy as one gets older such as walk to the mailbox, stand on her feet to cook, and get out of a chair. And of course, that bucket of cat litter is no longer a problem. In fact, she now finds herself helping others get items into their cart at the store. “There’s so much we take for granted—walking, running, zipping around in the stores, putting our groceries into the back of the trunk,” Edmundson says. “People don’t expect older people to be able to do things like that, but that’s not a problem for me. I’m able to move.” Haley Shapley is a freelance writer based in Seattle. This article is adapted from her book, Strong Like Her: A Celebration of Rule Breakers, History Makers, and Unstoppable Athletes, published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books in 2020.
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3rd Act magazine | fall 2021
www.3rdActMag.com
