MUSCLE NAN!
WOMAN'S OWN|September 16, 2024
Renée Landers, 72, was in her 60s when she lifted her first dumb-bell
ELAINE HAYWARD, JADE BEECROFT
MUSCLE NAN!

After putting my three-month-old son Garrett down for his nap, I glanced at the clock, then at my trainers by the front door. I wondered if I could squeeze in months pregnant. Leaving a friend to watch my son, I dashed out.

Then, two miles in, I hurt myself. I yelped, as an excruciating pain flashed across my lower back. Somehow, I managed to hobble the two-mile journey back home.

I was petite, at 5ft 2in, and I’d always been fit and healthy. Although I’d had niggling back pain for a few years, I’d ignored it but now the pain wouldn’t go away. I went to my GP and, although he didn’t know the exact cause, he advised me to stop running. Disappointed, I switched to walking and aerobics to keep fit. When Garrett was two, his dad and I divorced, and I became a busy single mum.

Juggling childcare with running my own building consultancy business, I still kept up my fitness, but missed going for runs. During the next two decades, as Garrett grew up and became an adult himself, Nothing helped, and some days I could hardly walk from the pain.

Finally, at 57, I was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, a condition where multiple vertebrae in your spine slip forward. Shortly afterwards, in October 2009, I had eight-hour surgery, which fused two vertebrae together with titanium. I was still warned off running, but the operation gave me a new lease of life. Garrett had just become a dad, and I wanted to be an active gran.

Before the operation, I'd been a gym regular and when I returned, after six months of physio, my back pain had completely disappeared. Then, a year later, nearing my 60th birthday and going through the menopause, I went to see my doctor, who prescribed me HRT.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 16, 2024 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 16, 2024 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.