Denise Kirtley, 52, is a bodybuilder running the Instagram account @fiftyfitnessjourney, which has 166k followers. The reason for all those fans is Kirtley’s astounding journey of physical transformation: going from a perimenopausal 49-year-old who lived a sedentary lifestyle to a 52-year-old now competing in bodybuilding competitions and squatting 165 pounds.
According to a recent Instagram post, Kirtley decided to change her life one step at a time: with baby steps and progress markers like lifting more weights or finishing training sessions faster. She passionately preaches that action begets action and action often precedes motivation. In other words: do the thing first, think about it later.
Currently, Kirtley does weight training five times a week — two days devoted to her upper body and the remaining days to her lower body. As far as nutrition goes, Kirtley sticks to a no-carb diet and has five, protein-powered meals per day (including salmon, zucchini fritters, and banana protein oats).
Many claim her progress makes her look like she’s aging backward, and Kirtley agrees that her fitness journey has truly made her reconsider notions relating to women getting older.
“I’m aging, but I’m strong, vibrant, and spirited,” she told The Mirror. “Old and aging are very different – there’s nothing wrong with aging.”
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In fact, throughout these past few years of gaining recognition and coverage of her weight loss/bodybuilding methods, Kirtley has been an advocate for middle-aged women — motivating them to take health into their own hands.
“There is nothing special about me — I have no special athletic abilities, but you have to be consistent and disciplined and you have to want it. We get to choose how we age,” she told Women’s Health this July.
Currently, Kirtley is training for another bodybuilding competition by working with Jean-Jacques Barrett at the Tulum Strength Club. She’s specifically focusing on one of her weak points — her glutes — and, besides the targeted strength workouts, continues to meet her daily step goal of 10k steps. Her goal is to hit a 200-pound squat this year.
“I want women to know that they can do what I’ve done,” Kirtley says, proud of how far she and her fitness community have come.
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