Mavis Mannall is proving age is just a number as she continues to go to the gym at 94.
Mavis has been going to the gym for about 20 years and is a member of the Papanui Club Ignite Fitness Gym in Christchurch.
She said she had always been active,
Christchurch pensioner Mavis Mannall still working out at the gym aged 94
By Briar Allen
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“I pay them to pick me up, bring me to the gym and then go shopping, then buy them a cuppa as well and have a bit of socialising.”
She said everyone at the gym was wonderful and one could not wish for a lovelier group of people.
“You walk through the door, and you feel like you’ve come home and it’s the people as well as the exercise. They are there to help if you need it.”
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Ignite Fitness Gym manager Eddie Kerrigan said she had been a member of the gym since it opened in 2016 and “everyone just loves her”.
“Mavis is an amazing person. She just wants to do everything that everyone else is doing. She doesn’t want to take anything easy. She wants to do all the hard ones,” he said.
Kerrigan said he gave her exercises that were watered down to make sure that she was able to do them safely.
“That’s the big thing. She does things that a lot of other people and a lot of younger members don’t. She pushes more weight. She’s just really focused and determined and quite inspirational.”
Mavis said she did not have a particular favourite exercise; she tries to do five minutes on each for about an hour to an hour and a half, but she does have an exercise she loathes.
“The box. You put the weights in the box and then you push the box along the carpet. I do it about eight times. Nobody likes doing the box.”
She said the secret to longevity was to have a good sense of humor, be kind, learn to compromise and, lastly, to not mess with Mavis.
“My mummy used to say ‘don’t tell me you can’t do it, just get on and do it’. That’s how I was brought up. Don’t think about it, just do it.”
