Rowing back the years to build the body of someone 40 years younger

Senior features writer

Monday 13 August 2012

THE physique of an octogenarian can be rebuilt to compare to the body of a 40-year-old with the right training, according to a 93-year-old body-builder and expert in ageing.

AGELESS: Until his 60s, Charles Eugster was a couch potato but now rows in veterans' regattas, above, which requires training four times a week. until his 60s Charles Eugster was a 'couch potato' but now rows in veterans' regattas, which requires training four times a week.

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Rebecca McQuillan

Former dentist Charles Eugster claims the athletic capabilities of the elderly are overlooked and there should be a greater emphasis on competitive sports among retired people to combat unhealthy sedentary lifestyles.

Mr Eugster is a speaker at the Worldwide Congress on Active Ageing, which opens in Glasgow today.

The self-styled "world's fittest nonagenarian" is a competitive rower, currently training for the World Rowing Masters Regatta in Germany next month.Born in London in 1919 but now living in Zurich, he quit rowing in his 40s only to return to the sport in his 60s and now competes in the over-80s category. Despite being at least 10 years older than the rest of the competitors he has won dozens of medals.The grandfather of two joined a body-building class at 87 to stave off the loss of muscle mass and tackle weight gain. After losing 12kg in a year he now rows and trains four times a week for up to two hours at a time. With the help of personal trainers, he has made an experiment of himself after discovering there was barely any research into athletic training for the over-70s.He believes chronic disease in old age is "unnatural" and due only to lifestyle.Mr Eugster said: "The huge potential of the mental and physical capabilities of the aged is completely unexplored. What my coach and I have discovered is that the body can be completely rebuilt at any age; its composition can be completely changed."Older people have loose skin because they have lost muscle mass. An 80-year-old might have 50% less muscle mass compared to a 20-year-old, but we can get rid of the fat, rebuild the body and have a body composition that, at 80, is comparable to someone 40 years younger."He denied he was exceptional, saying he had been a couch potato before resuming rowing in his 60s and added: "Anybody can achieve the same thing."Speaking in Glasgow, he will stress the importance of being active, both mentally and physically after retirement, insisting "retirement creates invalids". Dawn Skelton, professor in ageing and health at Glasgow Caledonian University, and one of the conference organisers, said: "We have worked hard to ensure a progression of events and initiatives across the UK leading up to the Commonwealth Games in 2014, so that older people can reap the body and mind benefits of being more active."Mr Eugster, who divorced at 72, remarried and was widowed at 81, joked: "One of my aims is that I want to have a beach body at 94, because I want to turn the heads of the 70-year-old beach beauties."

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Rowing back the years to build the body of someone 40 years younger

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