Guinness World Records: “Oldest Living Yoga Teacher” and “Oldest Living Female Competitive BodyBuilder”
Age really is nothing but a number! Guinness World Records proves that statement to be nothing but true, by the recent rewarding of two extraordinary senior women, 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch and 77-year-old Edith Wilma Connor. Check these two amazing women out!
GWR Recognizes Mother’s Day With the Oldest Female Competitive Bodybuilder and Oldest Living Yoga Teacher
Proving that age is nothing but a number, two remarkable women have been recognized by Guinness World Records for their amazing feats.
77-year-old Edith Wilma Connor from Denver, Colorado is the Oldest Female Competitive Bodybuilder, while 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch from White Plains, NY is the Oldest Living Yoga Teacher.
Great-grandmother Edith Wilma Connor started pursuing fitness in her late sixties.
Along with her husband, she ran a data entry company where the ten-hour days stuck stagnant at her desk began to severely deplete her of energy.
Edith then decided to begin a gym routine along with her eldest son, in which she described the euphoric feeling of bodybuilding as her “salvation”.
She entered her first competition on her 65th birthday when she won first place at the Grand Masters in Las Vegas. The win motivated her to pursue a career as a certified personal trainer with emphasis on training the mature body.
Edith works out a minimum of three times per week and does not strictly “diet” but prefers to follow nutritional guidelines that she’s developed over time for her body.
Her advice to other mature women interested in weight training: “Start with setting reasonable goals and educating yourself on what foods cause an increase in body fat. Remove the word ‘diet’ from your vocabulary.”
While her husband of 57 years passed last year, he lived long enough to see Edith pursue her Guinness World Records title.
Weight training now runs in her family. As the mother of three sons, grandmother of seven, and great-grandmother of six, Edith has encouraged the entire brood live a health conscious life.
On the other end of the spectrum, the new Oldest Living Yoga Instructor, Tao Porchon-Lynch has 400 students she considers her own children.
Her interest in yoga stems from her childhood. At eight years old, she observed a group of young boys practicing yoga on the beach in her hometown of Pondicherry (a French colony on India on the Bay of Bengal).
“As a child with a zest for physical activity, I wanted to do the amazing things that they were doing with their bodies,” she explains.
Initially working as a cabaret dancer in London during the war, she became a model in Paris after winning the contest for the ‘best legs in Europe.’
Lever Brothers eventually sponsored her travel to the US. In 1950, she worked at MGM as a starlet and later pursued an acting career, followed by script-writing and documentary producing.
At age 73, she embraced her passion for yoga, making it her primary career after the death of her husband, Bill Lynch.
She currently teaches yoga classes four days a week at the JCC midWestchester in New York where she briefs her students on everything from vinyasanas to meditation exercises to vegetarianism.
Her other hobbies include ballroom dancing, writing (both yoga articles and her autobiography) and leading wine travel tours in Southern New York.
Commenting on her unique talent, Tao says: “I believe that we can always reach just a little bit further. I’m inspired to bring yoga into others’ lives along with helping people unearth new talents”.