Hi there, it's Martine. I hope you're having a cozy weekend. So all week we have been sharing some of our favorite episodes from this past year. And today, I wanted to share another inspiring one about how to get stronger as you age. If you haven't heard it, I hope you enjoy it. And if you have heard it already,

share it with someone you love. So this is a story from Maggie Penman. She's a reporter for the

optimist here at the post. And she came across this research that basically found aging doesn't

have to mean decline. Lots of people can and will get stronger and healthier

in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. It's incredible. All right, here's Maggie.

When Florian Schuber was in her early 80s, she had an experience a lot of older people have.

She started falling.

The one thing that old people don't realize when they fall is they don't know they're falling

until you're about this far from the ground.

And I found it pretty frightening.

Florine fell two or three times.

Thankfully, she didn't get hurt. but she did realize something had to change.

So there was a small gym near where I lived, and I had passed it for 13 years.

I'm embarrassed to tell you, and never went in.

But I thought, okay, I've got to do something about this.

So I walked in, told them my problem, and they introduced me to a young trainer, and I'm still with him.

Florine is 91 years old now, and she spent a lot of time over the last decade working on her strength and flexibility and balance.

She says she feels younger now than she did 10 years ago. So you can improve, and I see it

in myself for sure. I'm much, much stronger than I was 10 years ago. So I know that's possible.

I'm surprised at how much interest I have in the world and in courses and it's exciting.

Many of us might think aging is a straight line.

We get older, we get weaker, we need more help, but that's actually not always the case.

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