Rosalind Umar, 73, speaks to Victoria Edem about her love for working out and what inspired her to start her fitness journey.
did it Could you briefly tell us about your background?
My name is Rosalind Umar. I am 73 years old and originally from Warri, Delta State. I have lived in Lagos since 1966. I occasionally travel outside the country, but I am mostly in Lagos. I have been married for 51 years. I have five biological children, including twins. The first two were from my first marriage and the last three from my current marriage. My husband and I are from our second marriages, and together we have 10 children and 16 grandchildren. My oldest grandchild is 52 and my youngest is 37. My oldest granddaughter turned 21 in November and is in her third year of college.
What first got you interested in weightlifting and other physical activities?
I go back even further before I started weightlifting. I started weightlifting about 2 years ago. About 25 years ago, I started having severe pain in my knees and had to see an orthopedic surgeon. After an x-ray, I was told that my cartilage had deteriorated and I was developing arthritis. This is a degenerative disease that gets worse over time, but I was too young at the time to have surgery. I ended up needing a total knee replacement. The doctor advised me to exercise to delay the need for this surgery, since when you put in an implant, the implant usually lasts no more than 20 years. If I had surgery then, by the time I was 70, I would need another surgery unless I avoided the excruciatingly painful bone-on-bone rubbing. My knees continued to swell and I had to keep draining what doctors call synovial fluid. The doctor gave me steroid injections as a temporary solution. So he advised me to learn to swim and do exercises that are gentle on the knee.
Were you able to swim then?
I learned to swim at 51. I was overweight at the time. My belly looked like a brain tumor, my butt looked like I was carrying a pillow stuck to it. My legs were so grotesque that when I started to learn to swim at a swimming club, I only went at night because I was scared of wearing a swimsuit. But I persevered. It took me a long time to master the technique. After I learned how to swim, I swam a mile a day, five days a week, for almost 15 years. In addition, I went to the gym, walked on the treadmill, and rode my bike. At that time, that was the best we knew how to do it. There were no modern gyms where I lived, and no certified personal trainers who studied sports science. I just went and did the best I could on my own.
A few years ago my knee was shattered. By that time I had become very housebound. I even stopped going to the gym because no matter how much I worked out it wasn’t good for my knee. I ended up having surgery. After recovering from my new knee implant I felt better. The pain was gone so I stopped going to the gym. I also stopped swimming because I felt ok.
What prompted you to get back into the gym?
My weight slowly started to increase due to my sedentary lifestyle where I just sit at home watching TV and reading books. I had a medical checkup 2 years ago and the results were not good. My blood sugar, BMI and visceral fat levels were too high. I was slowly killing myself with lack of exercise so I was advised to change my lifestyle. This happened when my husband and I were abroad. Five of our children live in the US and Canada and we are usually there for 3-4 months every year. When I came back, my husband went straight to the gym in FESTAC where we live without consulting me. He paid me for 3 months to register and also paid for the personal trainer. My husband is 73 years old and has been playing tennis for over 60 years since he was in junior high school. One day he came back from tennis and told me to start as he registered me at the gym. I went and started.
What was your first day experience at the gym like?
On my first day at the gym, I met my trainer, who I still work with. I think he is the best personal trainer I have ever met. He motivated me and trained me specifically to help me achieve where I am today. He taught me most of my knowledge about strength training. When we first met, he offered to gather information and facts about my body. We used a special scale to check my body composition, and I noticed a worried look on his face. I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that I had a shockingly low percentage of muscle mass. That is why older people sometimes have a hard time opening a new bottle, while others can do it with just one twist. He mentioned something called sarcopenia, which is the loss of muscle mass that can occur after the age of 40. For this reason, my trainer recommended that I start with strength training to build muscle.
I was bragging about my good old treadmill walking, but he advised me not to focus on it. Treadmill walking is primarily aerobic, good for the heart and lungs. So I started that way. On the first day, I lifted minimal weights and repeatedly stepped up and down on the board. Within 30 minutes, I started hearing the lyrics to “Someone Please Call 911” by Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige in my head, as if I was hearing an ambulance. I became delirious and nearly gave up. Somehow, I held out for the first two weeks. By the third week, it started to get easier. By the fourth week, the rest is history.
When did you start incorporating boxing into your routine?
I started using the treadmill again. The only person I always chatted with at the gym told me that there was another cardiovascular exercise that doubled the effects of the treadmill: boxing. I asked him if he knew my age. He explained that I wasn’t learning boxing because I wanted to be like Tyson Fury, but just doing it to the point where my heart was pumping. He said that the calories I burned in an hour on the treadmill could be burned in just 20 minutes of boxing. That’s why he sold me the idea. He said he would teach me boxing and Aikido. Aikido is a Japanese form of self-defense. So I took this as a challenge and bought boxing gloves and other equipment. I started walking on the treadmill and doing bodyweight training in parallel. Now the only thing that motivates me is that I start seeing results on my body. My weight started to come off. And I was still eating anything. I wasn’t on a diet. I was drinking red wine every night with dinner. I also enjoyed cocktails and alcohol, but I was working out regularly. My protruding waistline, which was about 40 inches, went down to 36, 35, 34. I was amazed. My body started to tighten up.
How long did it take you to notice a change?
Around the third or fourth month, my husband also noticed the changes in my body, which motivated me. When the third month fee he paid expired, I didn’t ask him for the fourth month fee. As I continued, I started to like working out every day. It’s like an addiction now. I got pretty into it and I was always going to work out. When I went to visit my kids in the US or Canada, I took about three to four months off. Again, I couldn’t imagine sitting down without working out. In each city we stayed with our kids, they signed us up with the local gyms. Some of them even hired personal trainers for us. So, we never had a break. When we came back, we just picked up where we left off.
Was your husband an active participant in your athletic activities?
In December 2023, I noticed that my husband was always out of breath and tired easily whenever he played tennis. He had cardiovascular problems. I noticed that every time he ran around the court, he would stop, step to the side, bend down, take a deep breath, and then resume playing tennis. My husband wanted to go to the gym, but I knew he couldn’t stand the unstructured approach of Nigerian gyms, where you don’t train one-on-one with a trainer. Trainers often have multiple students at a time and can’t focus on one person. So I decided to open a gym at home and buy the equipment I needed. It was expensive, so I made it a priority to buy only what I needed. Gradually, I bought equipment, sometimes importing it from overseas. Luckily, the trainer who got me to the advanced stage also quit the gym around the time I was looking for a personal trainer to come and train at home. So we hired him and became his first client. So we started our home gym and he started coming to our home to train.
Will you continue to go to public gyms even after you’ve created one at home?
For about a month or two, I combined gym and home training. I would train at home from 9 to 11 am, then go to the gym and train until 1 or 2 pm. But at my age, it was too much. I was exhausted all day. So, I decided to stop both because I was too skinny. I don’t want to lose weight, I just want to be healthy. So, I lowered the intensity of my training. Now I don’t train 3 hours a week, and I do maintenance sessions. One day a week I focus on lower body training. Another day I do upper body training, and the third day I do intense boxing for cardiovascular fitness.
Have you noticed any changes in your husband since he started boxing?
Within six months, the difference was night and day. He can now play for two to three hours at his age. Even his colleagues at the club, who don’t know what he does at home, are amazed at how much stamina he has improved. This is because he does arm strengthening exercises and lifts weights.
What is your favorite thing about what you do?
I love weightlifting, I’m not sure why, my husband’s favorite sport is boxing.
How does your training impact your day-to-day activities?
I go up the stairs and clean the house. I do the housework. I haven’t had a maid for 10 years. I cook a lot in the house. I cook for my kids.
When young gym-goers see you in the gym, how do they typically react?
They are always in amazement and awe. I am the Methuselah of the gym. I am in my 70s, so the next youngest guy would be in his 50s or 40s. The women are all in their 20s and 30s. I have always been into color and fashion, so not only are they interested in my training, they are also interested in the fashion I show off. They see my color coordination, and the matching shoes, stockings, wristbands, sweatshirts, headbands, gloves. I have gloves and sweatshirts in every color imaginable. I must have over 40 pairs of sweatshirts.
How much weight can you lift at the moment?
I started with very small dumbbells of 2.5 kg. Gradually I increased the weight and eventually I was using two sets of 12.5 kg dumbbells for a total of 25 kg. If I use a barbell, the weight of the bar can go up to 20 kg, with weights on the end that add a few more kilos. I lift a variety of weights. For kettlebells I use 20 kg.
