I’m 89 and in great shape, this $200 tool is my surprising fitness secret

Fitness

Per David Landsel

When Rachel Williams decided to learn to play ping pong, the 89-year-old could barely hit a ball.

Three years later, the 89-year-old was in the headlines of her local newspaper after placing seventh in the sport for her age group at the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Not bad for a pandemic hobby.

Williams started playing as a way to stay active after the fitness center at her senior living center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, closed due to Covid restrictions in 2020. She heard table tennis was a good way to keep your brain healthy.

Her genius move, she bought a Zxmoto ping pong robot for $200, allowing her to play the sport at any level while stuck in solitude.

It was expensive, but I thought it was worth it, Williams told the Wall Street Journal.

Research has shown that the brain works harder when playing ping pong against a robot, which doesn’t provide body language cues to follow or explore.

Williams’ mechanical sparring partner can surprise her with up to 36 different types of serves and has the ability to drive her crazy with back and side spins.

Not that she wasn’t up to the challenge, the octogenarian had developed a keen interest in keeping her mind active by any means necessary, after seeing her mother-in-law suffer from Alzheimer’s years earlier.

Seeing what the disease did to her loved one encouraged her to enroll in an Alzheimer’s research study at Johns Hopkins University in 2007.

There, she learned the role that being physically active can play in keeping her mind in better shape. Her first stop, before ping pong, was tap dancing, which Williams says requires similar skills.

Gold medal at the Senior Games last summer It was exhilarating to play your heart out for hours on end with such incredible players, Williams recalled, it didn’t happen by accident.

it didn’t happen by chance.

To get there, she maintained a routine of playing six times a week, sometimes with her partner, other times with the robot.

In addition to practicing the sport itself, there is a whole list of other activities that help her stay in fighting shape by walking up to 45 minutes a day, working out on the gym’s rowing machine, lifting weights, squats and her other passion, tap dancing, five mornings a week.

Williams even performs with his gang.

We do an act where we pretend to be old and hobble around the stage with canes, then we start dancing excitedly, she joked.

And finally, unsurprisingly, Williams follows a strict vegetarian diet, eating eggs and grains like quinoa and kamut for protein, as well as lots of vegetables.

I’m very focused on what I put in my body,” she said. When friends push their candy and cookies, I tell them: I don’t put sugar in the gas tank.