• Ginny MacColl, 73, got fit in her 60s and now competes in American Ninja Warrior.
• She started by aiming to do one pull-up, which took her a year of strength training to achieve.
• MacColl set herself an achievable goal and was consistent with her workouts.

At 73, Ginny MacColl, an actor and former dancer in North Carolina, is stronger and fitter than ever.

Since achieving her first pull-up at 63, she has been a regular participant in American Ninja Warrior competitions, and in 2022 she bagged the Guinness World Record for being the oldest female Ninja Warrior competitor in the world.

For the uninitiated, the sport, which originated as a Japanese gameshow, involves completing extreme obstacle courses that include hurdles such as running up a warped wall, crossing a body of water using moving steps, and swinging on a spinning rope from one platform to another.

To prepare herself for competitions, MacColl works out six days a week, doing a combination of strength training at the gym, obstacle course practice, and swimming. She also prioritizes mobility and balance.

Although she retired from her day job at 62, MacColl is still a working actor, and her fitness has seeped into the roles she's landed in recent years. She was a stunt actor in Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrel's new movie "You're Cordially Invited," played tennis as a supporting actor on the "Sex And The City" sequel "And Just Like That," and did the splits in "Poms," a 2017 movie about a senior cheer squad starring Diane Keaton.

MacColl told Business Insider that she wants people to know it's never too late to get fit.

"If I'm doing this at 73, you can too," she said.

She shared the three things that helped her get so strong.

Have an attainable goal

MacColl's daughter, Jessie Graff, is also an American Ninja Warrior, and seeing how strong she is inspired MacColl to build some muscle herself. MacColl first saw Graff, who has been a Ninja Warrior since 2013, compete live in a televised Las Vegas competition in 2015.

When MacColl was growing up, the conversation around women lifting weights was non-existent, she said, but seeing Graff "flying across the stage" changed her perspective.

"I saw her muscles, I was like, 'wow, she's beautiful and curvy and strong.' I love that. And so I asked her how could I get stronger?" she said.

MacColl had never stepped into a gym at this point, so she set herself a goal of doing one pull-up. "I've always felt that you need to have an attainable goal," she said. And achieving it, motivated her to set a harder goal of five pull-ups.

"I think every time you reach a goal, you just set it a little bit farther, and so you keep trying to get stronger and stronger," she said. "I enjoy the satisfaction of getting through an obstacle and the learning process as I keep at it."

Be consistent (and patient)

After you've set yourself a goal, you have to be consistent if you want to achieve it, MacColl said, and don't expect to reach it overnight. It took her a year to do her first pull-up at 63: "that's a long time to stay committed," she said.

You want to form a habit, which might look like working out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, she said, even when you don't feel like it.

But you can start out slowly, for example, by committing to walking for 30 minutes a day, or doing some exercise with resistance bands.

"Then just keep getting better and better and better and get stronger and stronger," she said.

Find a class or personal trainer

MacColl recommends signing up to a class, or finding a personal trainer, particularly when you're first starting out because it'll keep you accountable.

"When you're paying for it, you tend to go," she said. "I'm not sure I have the discipline to make myself do the things if I didn't have the personal trainer and the appointment to go to."

Plus, if you're lifting weights, it's important to learn the correct posture otherwise, you can injure yourself.

• Tom Simek got fit at 59 after being diagnosed with osteoporosis and high cholesterol.
• Now 72, he's competed in "American Ninja Warrior" and won medals in the National Senior Games.
• Getting fit has improved his life in many ways, including by giving him a sense of purpose.

At age 59, Tom Simek was out of shape.

The retired building contractor based in Santa Fe had spent his working life prioritizing his family and business over his health. After he was diagnosed with osteoporosis, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea 13 years ago, he decided to make some healthy lifestyle changes, he told Business Insider.

Simek made small changes at first: he stopped working weekends, ate healthier, and started exercising daily.

"It was gradual," he said. First he started walking, then incorporated bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, crunches, dips, and jumping jacks.

"And then I found a sport that I loved to do: track and field," he said.

Now aged 72, Simek has competed on the TV competition "American Ninja Warrior" twice, is sponsored by Senior Planet, a program that encourages older adults to exercise, and works out for about an hour each day. Some days, he spends the hour doing boot camp classes at his daughter's fitness club, while others he does short sprints and weights in his home gym.

In 2012, Simek entered his first National Senior Games, a state and country-wide competition for athletes over 50. Every year since, he has competed in the long jump and the 50-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter sprints, consistently winning medals for his state, New Mexico.

Simek shared four ways getting fit has improved his quality of life.

1) A sense of purpose

Track and field has become Simek's passion. "And if you're passionate about something, then you will look forward to your workouts in order to improve yourself. It gives me a reason to wake up in the morning," he said.

Spurred on by his 12-year-old granddaughter, he also keeps up his training for "American Ninja Warrior," which he appeared on in 2019 and 2022, in case he's chosen to compete in future seasons. He does bodyweight exercises such as pull-ups to maintain his strength, practices gymnastics, and works on his balance.

Having a sense of purpose has been linked to longevity in multiple studies. In one 2019 study by researchers at the University of Michigan, US adults aged over 50 who had a strong sense of purpose were less likely to die within four years.

2) Making new friends

Simek loves that sports help him meet lots of new people. At track and field competitions, "younger people come up to me because they see my age, and say 'you inspire us,'" he said.

And he's made friends across the country at the Senior Games. "I think it's very important, in the senior years, to stay connected with people," he said.

A 2023 study found that older people who had more social interactions were likely to live longer than those who were more isolated.

3) Better mobility

Because he's fit and mobile, Simek can do activities with his grandchildren, whether playing or competing in track and field competitions alongside his granddaughter. This is particularly important to him because he wants to show her the importance of a fit and active lifestyle as she grows up, he said.

Mobility in older age is a predictor of living longer. A 2017 study published in BMC Health Services Research on 1,005 people aged 65 and above still living at home found that the longer it took participants to leave a chair, the greater their risk of dying within the next 11.8 years.

4) Better sleep

"When you're fit, your mind works better, and you sleep better," Simek said.

In a 2021 study published in Experimental Gerontology, people over 65 who were more physically fit — meaning they were able to perform more actions such as standing from a seated position and doing bicep curls — were more likely to have a better health-related quality of life.

And research shows that being physically active is linked to better sleep quality, according to Dr. Charlene Gamaldo, the medical director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep.