94-year-old gymgoer shows there’s no age limit to fitness
Posted July 7, 2023 3:34 pm.
For the last two decades, seven days a week, three times a day, 94-year-old Vic Downs has been working out at the Scarborough YMCA.
“I’ve been coming to the YMCA for about 25 years now,” Downs tells CityNews. “I come at 6 a.m. and I do my weight training.”
“Around 7 a.m., I go home. I have breakfast and I sleep and then I come back here by 9 a.m.”
His meal plan is also consistent. For breakfast, he enjoys six eggs. By lunchtime, he indulges in a container of cottage cheese, a can of tuna and yogurt. By dinner, he eats either chicken breast or sardines.
“You have to put the effort into it to get the return,” said Downs. “I was in the army and in the army, the first thing they told you to do was exercise in the morning before breakfast so that’s what got the whole thing rolling.”
The 94-year-old fitness enthusiast was born in London, England, on June 12, 1929 and immigrated to Canada in 1952.
“Way back then, this would be in the 1950s, there wasn’t very many health clubs around. In fact, there was only one or two and then some people from the USA brought some health clubs and then they expanded it and they asked me if I would come work with them and that’s where I really got into it then.”
In the 1960s, Vic got into body building. Competing against familiar faces like Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 1966 NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London.
He was on the front page of a fitness magazine and also picked up a number of titles including “World’s Most Muscular Man” title from the International fitness and body building federation.
Now, he inspires everyone else to keep motivated through his daily fitness routine and his life stories.
“I know Vic for around 12 years now. He comes every morning and I always saw him coming working out he’s very smiley and happy. And then for a period of time he wasn’t here,” said Avelina Acosta, General Manager of Scarborough YMCA.
“I gave him a call just to check on him and then he told me the whole story about how he works out.” She added “The part that really inspire me is to see him coming and inspire others to workout.”
