This 83-year-old grandmother has got the world in awe with her amazingly fit body that belies her age. Ernestine Shepherd’s incredible story is proof that you can never be too old for anything, not even exercise. Born on June 16, 1936, and hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Ernestine never set foot in a gym until she turned 56. She wasn’t always into exercise, she told BBC. “I was always too prissy to work out – and you couldn’t get me away from chocolate cake. But the year I turned 56, my sister Velvet and I went shopping for swimsuits. Neither of us had worn one for years. We looked in the changing room mirror, and made a pact to get in better shape.”
The sisters started off with aerobics to stay in shape, and then they eventually started lifting weights before trying out bodybuilding. Ernestine said, “One day, Velvet turned to me and said, ‘We should try and get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest bodybuilding sisters in the world!’ It became our goal.” However, Velvet would not live to see her dream come true. She suffered a brain aneurysm and sadly passed away.
