A new start after 60: I always battled with my body image – until I became a bodybuilder at 64
60岁后重新开始：我一直有身材焦虑，直到64岁成为了一名健美运动员
In 2021, at 64 years old, Marlene Flowers entered her first bodybuilding competition. Oiled, tanned and wearing a bikini, she found herself under bright lights on stage, twisting and contorting to show off her taut muscles alongside people half her age. Once the flexing was over, she then performed a one-minute posing routine to the theme song from Flashdance, one of her favourite films.
2021年，64岁的玛琳·弗劳尔斯参加了她的第一次健美比赛。站在舞台上的明亮灯光下，她全身涂油、皮肤黝黑、身着比基尼，扭动着身子展示紧实的肌肉，其他参赛者只有她年龄的一半。在肌肉伸展结束后，她进行了一分钟的姿势表演，背景音乐她最喜欢的电影之一《闪电舞》的主题曲。
If you had told Flowers when she was in her 50s that she would be inviting people to judge her figure, she would have laughed in your face. She had a natural aptitude for freestyle swimming as a child, but struggled with her body image. Self-conscious and often shy, Flowers went on to marry and divorce twice. “It all affected my self-esteem and I ended up with an eating disorder for many years,” she says. “It was getting worse and worse until I was hospitalised for issues relating to my weight loss at 58. That was my wake-up call.”
如果你在弗劳尔斯50多岁时告诉她主动让别人来评判她的身材，她会对此嗤之以鼻。她从小就擅长自由泳，但一直有身材焦虑。弗劳尔斯过于在乎别人看法，生性害羞，曾结婚和离婚两次。“这一切都影响了我的自尊，我最终患上饮食失调症多年，”她表示。“情况越来越糟，58岁的时候因体重下降住院，那次经历让我幡然醒悟。”
Once she had built up some strength and was discharged, the youngest of her two sons, Ryan, encouraged Flowers to start taking care of her body through exercise and to see food as a way of keeping fit. He directed her towards home workout videos and after noticing that the instructor on one of the DVDs was older than her, she decided to give it a try.
等她恢复了一些体力并出院后，她最小的儿子瑞恩鼓励她通过锻炼来关爱自己的身体，并将饮食视为保持强健的一种方式。他向她推荐了家庭健身视频，在注意到其中一张影碟上的教练比她还年长后，她决定尝试一下。
After five years of home routines, Ryan eventually managed to convince Flowers to try out his local gym. Slowly building her confidence by working out with Ryan every day, Flowers started to gain muscle mass. “I wanted to push myself,” she says. “I felt stronger and other people started to notice too. They would come up and say that they wished they could have guns like mine!” The compliments sparked an idea. Ryan decided to film some of their sessions and upload them to TikTok and Instagram. After a video of Flowers flexing those guns went viral, her growing online following flooded her accounts with positive comments.
在居家健身五年后，瑞恩最终说服弗劳尔斯去当地健身房试试。每天和瑞恩一起锻炼，弗劳尔斯慢慢建立了自信，肌肉量也开始增加。“我想挑战自己，”她表示。“我感觉自己更强壮了，其他人也开始注意到了。他们会走过来表示在希望自己也能有像我一样的手臂肌肉！”在这些赞美的激励下，瑞恩决定拍摄他们的训练视频，并上传到TikTok和Instagram。弗劳尔斯拉伸手臂肌肉的视频在网上走红，粉丝量越来多，账户充斥着积极的评论。
She decided to enter a bodybuilding contest as a target for her exercise regime. Now 67, Flowers has won four more bodybuilding trophies, boasts more than 1 million Instagram and TikTok followers and has gained sponsorship from clothing brand Young LA, making her the oldest sponsored female athlete in the US. She still works out every day, starting with a 10-minute ab routine and 130 pushups at home before heading to the gym for a two-hour session with Ryan, who has since left his job in business development to train his mother full-time.
她决定参加健美比赛以此作为她锻炼计划的目标。现年67岁的弗劳尔斯又赢得了四座健美奖杯，在Instagram和TikTok上拥有超过100万粉丝，并获得了服装品牌Young LA的赞助，成为美国最年长的受赞助女运动员。她仍然每天锻炼，先在家里做10分钟的腹部锻炼以及130个俯卧撑，然后去健身房和瑞恩一起进行两小时的训练，瑞恩后来辞去了业务开发工作，全职训练他的母亲。
