Jim Arrington is the newest member to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. Age related segregation should never exist when people like Jim are proving how aging can be put on hold!

Jim is 85-years in chronological age and a great-grandfather! He usually exercises two to three times a week for about an hour, and it is a full body workout.  He told PEOPLE magazine from his home in Venice, California, that he doesn’t lift a whole lot of weight and can’t lift the same as when he was a “young buck!”

He fell in love with weight training when he was 13. He decided that he was interested in girls at that time and thought working out would be a helpful concept.

Turns out, he liked exercising so much, that hanging with the ladies became an afterthought. Within a few months he had put on more than ten pounds of muscle.  His early days in weight training eventually led him to compete on the amateur stages of muscle beach and in professional settings such as the Pittsburgh Pro Masters Championships. He has competed in more than 60 competitions and has won 16.

During his most recent competitions for age 70 and older, Arrington says he has found himself alone on the stage. He says, “I have small bones and I would never be able to put in the size to become Mr. America, so I guess my strategies would be to outlive or outweigh everybody by waiting until everybody grew up or died!”

His prize when he wins these solo competitions Arrington says, “to get his $200 entrance fee back.”

This extraordinary senior currently trains at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California which he calls the “Mecca of Bodybuilding.” When he is training for a competition he follows a strict and meticulous high-protein, high fat and low carb diet a month before competition.”

Then there is Tao Porchon-Lynch. While yoga isn’t considered an athletic event, Tao Porchon-Lynch is a Master Yoga teacher. At 98 she synthesizes  the most positive aspects of her Indian, European and American thought processes. She appeared on our morning talk program recently. While on Kelly and Ryan Tao demonstrated the type of exercises she does and teachers. Extremely flexible. Bending her legs in a crossed sitting fashion, she can hold any leg position for a long time.

Tao has trained and certified hundreds of yoga instructors, since founding the Westchester Institute of Yoga in 1982. Tao has over 70 years of yoga practice and more than 45 years of teaching yoga to students in India, France and the U.S. She has made over twenty-seven trips to India with her students because she believes that such visits offer enlightenment about the true spirit of Yoga.

Tao believes that following the principles of yoga can heal individuals and by extension, help heal our planet. At ninety-eight years-young she is the embodiment of many profound Yoga principles. She exemplifies the positive “can-do-spirit” that can accomplish anything.

Before teaching yoga, Tao had a long and varied career. She was an actress in England, France and the USA (under the contract to MGM) in the 1940’s and 50’s wrote screenplays and made documentaries in the 60’s and 70’s. She made several documentaries in India including, “To Light a Candle,” about 100 year old philanthropist, Dr. Welthy Fisher and her work in education and literacy in Lucknow.

Tao’s newest book is titled “Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master.” This book has won a 2016 IPPY Award and 2016 International Book Awards in three categories including Autobiography, Spirituality and Best Cover Design: Non-Fiction.  I will definitely want to read this one!