Photo by Peter Schumacher, Times-News.
Katherin Carman, 74, leg presses 760 pounds Friday at Body Unlimited under the guidance of gym owner Daryl Laws.

After 1 1/2 years of training, Katherin Carman reached her goal of legpressing 750 pounds before she turned 75 -- and she's not shy about it.

"How many little 75-year-old ladies can do that?" she says.

Carman will be 75 on March 13. She reached her goal almost two months ago, said her trainer, Daryl Laws who writes a weekly column for the Times-News.

Carman started going to Laws' gym, Body Unlimited in Burlington, in April 2006, almost six months after she had surgery.

"I had no energy," she recalls, adding that she also suffers from asthma. But instead of sitting idly, Carman decided to do something about it. She had been reading Laws' fitness column so she decided to give him a call.

At first, she didn't know if her doctor was going to recommend her training at the gym, considering her age and recent surgery. After getting the green light from her doctor, she started going to the gym regularly.

Then, one morning during summer 2006, she heard former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright say on TV that she could leg-press 400 pounds. "I thought, I can do better," she says with a chuckle.

Then 73, Carman set the goal to leg press 750 pounds by her 75th birthday after checking with her trainer.

Laws said he knew she had the potential to do it, so he laid out a program for her. "She dove right into it," he says.

When she started in July of that year, Carman was leg pressing 315 pounds. Six months later, she was doing 550 pounds. She kept increasing the weights until she finally reached her goal.

"She has actually done 790 (pounds)," Laws says. "She is full of energy. She enjoys working out and she has a good time with it."

Besides strengthening her legs, Carman has also lost a lot of weight -- 75 pounds to be precise.

Before she started training, she weighed about 265 pounds. She now weighs 190 pounds. "I had to buy a new wardrobe," she says with a laugh. "I was forced to."

Now that she has reached this goal, she has set a new one: "To be carded every time I ask for senior citizen's discount until I am 80," she says.

Carman encourages people of all ages to exercise. She said that age alone should not be an excuse to sit around and do nothing.

In her case, her biggest challenge was her asthma. She has been able to work around it by modifying her routine depending on how she feels.

"The day she has a bad day we just work around it and jump right back into it," Laws says, adding that there is a usually a way to work around health issues.

"It is just a matter of being persistent and looking for a solution," he said. Carman says that Laws was an essential part in her reaching her goal. "I thank God for the fact that he gave me the health that I can do it," she says. "There are an awful lot of people who can't and it is not because they don't have the determination; they just physically can't do it." "I've been blessed."

By Keren Rivas Times-News, Burlington, NC Link to original article

Here's a link to a video from the newspaper's web site: She did it! 75 Year Old Leg Presses 750 pounds.