SANTA \u2060SUSANNA, Spain, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Nonagenarian Japanese bodybuilder Toshisuke Kanazawa took to the stage on \u2060Spain’s Costa del Maresme on Friday, aiming to prove that age is no \u200cbarrier to peak physical fitness.<\/p>\n
The 90-year-old travelled to the coastal town of Santa Susanna to compete against rivals decades his junior in the masters category for athletes aged 50 and older in a competition held by the International Fitness and \u200bBodybuilding Federation. <\/p>\n
Backstage, Kanazawa mirrored the preparations of younger competitors, warming \u2060up with his team and applying \u2060spray tan before flexing under the stage lights.<\/p>\n
“I like to try doing things that nobody else \u2060has \u200cdone, and more than anything I want to pursue bodybuilding for the rest of my life,” Kanazawa said. <\/p>\n
Kanazawa credits his longevity and conditioning to strict dietary habits, saying that \u2060a routine established decades ago has kept him robust.<\/p>\n
“This is \u200bsomething I’ve been researching and \u200cwant to learn more about. But ever since I turned 50, I’ve been building \u2060muscle by eating a \u200bpurely Japanese diet: brown rice, natto (a fermented soya bean dish)), and miso soup,” he said. <\/p>\n
“It’s really the classic Japanese way of eating. And thanks to that, I’ve gone 90 years without ever getting sick.”<\/p>\n
Though he \u2060did not finish on the podium, Kanazawa remains focused \u200bon pushing the sport’s boundaries, outlining plans for one final appearance before stepping away from competition. <\/p>\n
“I’m thinking I might give it one more go at 93. After that, I’ll probably have to retire,” he \u2060said. <\/p>\n
“As you get older, you start developing wrinkles, quite a lot of them. In Japan, there’s this idea that once you get those wrinkles, it just doesn’t look very good anymore.”<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Kanazawa hopes his perseverance inspires older generations to remain active and challenge conventional limits.<\/p>\n
“Once you set your mind \u200bto something, you need to develop the mental strength and determination \u2060to see it through no matter what,” Kanazawa said. <\/p>\n
“I want people to work hard just as \u200bI have. I believe that if they do, we’ll see \u200cmore people like me even as they get older. \u200bThat’s what I hope for, and I want to be a good role model.”<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Horaci Garcia and Nina Lopez; Writing by Rory Carroll; Editing by Tom Hogue)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA \u2060SUSANNA, Spain, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Nonagenarian Japanese bodybuilder Toshisuke Kanazawa took to the stage on \u2060Spain’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[499,103,61,60,9338],"class_list":["post-670563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-na"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}