00:03I never done any sports. I didn't know anything about powerlifting. I never even
00:09heard about powerlifting. I feel strength when I powerlift. It tells me I can beat
00:20the world. I just want to inspire other women to take care of themselves. My name
00:28is Nora Langdon. I'm 78 years young, and I'm a professional powerlifter.
00:39This is my protein drink. This is what I take after my workout. This is my free
00:45workout, which I'm going to drink. I can lift 338 pounds. Nobody could beat that
00:51record in my age group. I'm ready to go. I was born here in Michigan, the number
00:57seven of 10 children. My father was a steel worker. He was a workaholic. One of the
01:05things that my father told me was, everything that you want in life, you have
01:10to get up and do it yourself. And that's what I've been taught all my life. This
01:16Sunday is my first world competition this year. This is my last workout before the
01:21competition, wondering what my training is going to put me through. I started powerlifting
01:29in 2006. I was in real estate for about 35 years. Before I retired, I was selling a lot
01:35of big homes. And I got halfway up the stairs and I could not breathe. I said, oh no, this
01:41is not going to happen. And because a lot of my friends was a little overweight, I used to
01:46say, oh no, why don't you lose that weight? And I said, I'm talking about somebody else. I should be
01:50talking about me. It's time for me to go and get some exercise. I had a birthday
01:56party. And at the birthday party, a friend of mine, she came and she brought a husband.
02:00That's where I found and met my trainer. You're going to break a thousand estate
02:05meat. Yeah, I think you're going to have lost your mind. Nope. It's time to kick it up a notch.
02:14I remember when we first came here, they weren't familiar with us and we were getting ready
02:17for a meet and I had 350 on the squat bar. And the guys were like, is that for you?
02:23I said,
02:24no, it's for her. And they were, oh my God. You get a 70, 80-year-old lady squat, 300
02:28pounds,
02:29squat, doing any kind of squatting. It's amazing. But to do that type of weight, half the guys
02:34in the gym can't do that. And I'm talking about young, 18, 20-year-old. So yeah, that's impressive.
02:40The very first day that I got started, he put me on a bench and gave me a broomstick,
02:47told me to lift his broomstick. Then he put me on other exercises and I did that.
02:53The following day, I woke up, I said, I am not going back. This is too much for me. I'm
02:59getting
02:59too old for this. I heard something in the back of my head that says, look, go back. And that
03:07was
03:07the Holy Spirit. God told us to be consistent in everything that we do if we want to achieve
03:14something. So I went back and here I am today, a professional powerlifter. I'm in the 70 to 80
03:22bracket. And so far, I'm number one.
03:29That's it? You can work it out today.
03:33Good session. Good session.
03:34That's it. I'm through.
03:39Every year, it's three competitions. The state, the national, and then you have to be
03:45invited to the world. And I've been doing this now quite a long time. All in all, I have
03:54maybe 20 or 25 medals. This one's 2009 World Championship and 2007 Powerlifting Championship.
04:04Getting ready to pack all my gear for this world competition. Every time I go to a competition,
04:12if it's out of state, I have to pay my own way. My squat suit cost me over $300. My
04:19bench
04:19suit cost me over $200. Then you have to buy this belt, which is over $100. I have to buy
04:26a new
04:27suit for next year. And that's going to cost me $800 almost. Although I get my Social Security,
04:35Uber Eats help supply my suits, my travel, and my extras. I average about $70 to $80 a day. Depends
04:46on how long I stay out.
04:48Now all I do is wait for a call. Some of them says I won't go because that's my squat
04:54day. I'll just go in and pick it up and come right back out.
04:59If I had sponsors, yes, I wouldn't do Uber Eats. I'd take more rest in between my workouts. The men
05:09can get a sponsor real quick because it's more of a male sport. The women just don't get out there
05:17enough to get their sponsorship.
05:22It's a beautiful rainy day. Ready to rock and roll. I'm just excited about the world because everybody's not invited
05:33to the world competition.
05:35Everybody in my age group, I can outlift them because I don't have a whole lot of competition because women
05:42just don't go in my age group.
05:44They just don't keep going. But I kept going because I want to be the best.
05:51My top squat is 413. My bench was 180. And my deadlift was 360. So no one has beat those
06:01numbers in my age group. So hopefully I can get close to it.
06:06Whatever I do, I'm a winner because nobody has beat my record. I'm competing against myself.
06:14I'm competing against myself. Oh my God, I know you. I love watching you compete. You rock it.
06:18Thank you. I'm number 15. So I'm going to go on until the 15th. Hopefully this congestion don't affect me
06:27right now.
06:30I need some chalk.
06:33I put the chalk on to keep the reps from slipping.
06:39Keep your knees intact when you're squatting.
06:46One of my favorite things is I say to myself, nobody hears me. It's just me and the Lord.
06:52Great is he that's in me than he that is in the world.
06:55Or I say, give me David strength.
06:59And I'm a little nervous every time I do the first one.
07:03Yeah, Nora.
07:05Seven, eight years old, y'all. Come on. Make some noise.
07:10Yeah, Nora.
07:10Come on.
07:17Come on, Nora.
07:20Come on, Nora.
07:20Come on, Nora.
07:20Take care of her.
07:26The first lift that I did on the squat, the rack was too high. That's the reason why I didn't
07:32make it.
07:33I'm not feeling like you.
07:38In powerlifting, you get three attempts.
07:40It was nerve-wrecked for her, because it was the first time
07:42she's ever missed her first attempt ever in a squat.
07:44I mean, she's a squat machine, but she's fine now.
07:47I know she's not feeling 100%, so once you make your open,
07:50it's all down.
07:50Come on.
07:51All right, y'all, kick some more.
07:57What?
08:07Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
08:18I just finished the squat.
08:20Now I'm going into the bench.
08:27I'll probably go up to 160.
08:48Get yourself.
08:50Now relax.
08:51This is your thing.
08:52The deadlift is your thing.
08:53Good job.
08:54That was easy to work.
08:55Easy money.
08:57I'm going to see the hard one, incredible lift.
09:00I'm going to get over there.
09:03Good job.
09:04You made that look easy.
09:09The deadlift is the hardest lift and weight lifted.
09:11As one of my mentors said a long time ago,
09:14anything with dead in it can't be good for you.
09:18One of my best strengths is my deadlift.
09:21All right, guys.
09:29Now!
09:35Let's go!
10:03When I did that last lift, I felt something coming up, and I said, all right, and I stopped.
10:09You know, so...
10:11But I feel good.
10:14I look at the younger women, the ones 50 or less, and I see them pulling 400, 500 pounds
10:22in squats, and I say, oh, man, I got to get there.
10:28And that motivates me, because I say age is no number.
10:34If you got the strength and the willpower to do it, you can do it.
10:38Nora is an inspiration.
10:40She was at my very first meet, and I thought I was doing something at 315 pounds,
10:45and she came and picked up, like, 315 pounds like it was a feather.
10:48It was great to see an older black woman powerlifting.
10:52I love her every time I see her.
10:54Nora is one of my teammates.
10:55She works really hard every day in training.
10:59She's up in age, but she is inspiring to all, I feel like, little girls, young girls, everyone.
11:06My real goal is to do 500, and if I can do that by the time I'm 80, that would
11:13be wonderful,
11:14because that would be a real world record for an 80-year-old woman to do 500 pounds.
11:20I hope the world recognizes me at that point.
11:25The champ is here!
11:30I'm excited.
11:31I'm not ready to quit.
11:33I'm going to keep going until the good Lord takes me home.
11:37God gave me the strength to do it, so I do it.
11:39I don't want to be in a category by myself.
11:42I want other young women to grow up and lift as much as I'm doing, or more.
11:48And that's exciting to me.
11:50That's one of the things I want, you know, for another competitor to come up and do my lift.
11:56Step up!
11:57Yay!
12:01My priors won is my trophy over here.
12:05This is the Michigan State meet championship, and they gave me this sword.
12:11I was so excited, because I did not expect that.
12:15And I forgot how much I pulled at that time, but that I enjoyed.
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