{"id":192572,"date":"2025-09-30T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192572\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:39:10","slug":"still-teaching-fitness-at-84-minnesotan-sets-guinness-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192572\/","title":{"rendered":"Still teaching fitness at 84, Minnesotan sets Guinness record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fred Woolman is presented Guinness honors on his 84th birthday.<\/p>\n

ROCHESTER, Minn \u2014 The fitness instructor bounces from side to side, his feet a blur, his arms lifted skyward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAlright,\u201d Fred Woolman shouts into his headset as 50, mostly, seniors lift their arms in unison. \u201cPick ’em up, put ’em down!\u201d he barks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fred is trim. His biceps bulge from beneath the sleeves of his black t-shirt. He pauses, only briefly, so his class can sing \u201chappy birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

The perpetual-motion-machine-of-a-man has just turned 84.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not look 84. He doesn\u2019t act 84, at all,\u201d Sue Davis, a member of Fred\u2019s fitness class, says.<\/p>\n

Fred has the birth certificate to prove his age. A copy now lives in a file at Guinness World Records.<\/p>\n

On Fred\u2019s 84th birthday, Guinness adjudicator Hannah Ortman presented the octogenarian with his certificate for world\u2019s oldest active male personal trainer, a new Guinness category. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

As applause died down at the luncheon honoring Fred\u2019s accomplishment, he quipped to the crowd, \u201cI\u2019m fighting the urge to have you all stand up and do some jumping jacks with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Rigby would have been up for it. The 71-year-old gets personal training from Fred, despite a 13-year age difference between student and trainer. \u201cThat\u2019s why I do it with him, to see if I can keep up,\u201d Tom says with a smile.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Fitness is not new to Fred, whose other activities have included mountain climbing, biking, and running 22 marathons.<\/p>\n

On turning 84, Fred says he adheres to a simple philosophy. \u201cKeep moving and don’t think about that number. I\u2019ve never ever had age be a consideration for what I wanted to do.”<\/p>\n

Fred certainly doesn\u2019t sound like a man who\u2019s pondering another retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I got rid of that class and didn’t replace it with something, then I\u2019d probably just become an old guy,\u201d Fred says before pausing and reiterating, \u201cI\u2019d be an old guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynda Gilbertson, a member of Fred\u2019s fitness class, sees no signs of her instructor slowing down.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us are dragging by the end of the day,\u201d she says, \u201cand he could go again.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Revisit your favorite moments from Boyd Huppert\u2019s Land of 10,000 Stories by subscribing to Land of 10,000 Stories: The Complete Collection on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n

Boyd Huppert is always looking for great stories to share in the Land of 10,000 Stories! Send us your suggestions by filling out this form.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fred Woolman is presented Guinness honors on his 84th birthday. ROCHESTER, Minn \u2014 The fitness instructor bounces from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-192572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}