--- title: 78-Year-Old Woman Deadlifts 225 Pounds With Ease description: Shirley Webb had never done any weightlifting until she was 76 years old. Now, at the age of 78, she can deadlift 225 pounds. canonical: https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-29T18:05:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:13.007Z og:title: 78-Year-Old Woman Puts Everyone to Shame by Deadlifting 225 Pounds og:description: Three times in a row og:url: https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 78-Year-Old Woman Puts Everyone to Shame by Deadlifting 225 Pounds twitter:description: Three times in a row twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch This 78-Year-Old Woman Put Everyone to Shame by Deadlifting 225 Pounds > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 29, 2016 6:05 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 29, 2016 6:05 PM UTC Shirley Webb had never done any [weightlifting](http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/latest-fitness-trends-body-weight-training-takes-centerstage/) until she was 76 years old. Now, at the [age of 78](http://time.com/3953605/aging-affects-athletic-performance/), she can deadlift 225 pounds. Webb joined the Club Fitness gym in Wood River, Illinois, at the request of her granddaughter in 2014, and soon found that she had a talent for powerlifting. “At the time, I couldn’t walk up the stairs unless I held on to the handrail, and if I got on the floor, I couldn’t get up without a chair,” she told [Today](http://www.today.com/health/powerlifting-grandma-78-can-deadlift-245-pounds-t83016). “Now I can come right up off the floor. The harder I [work out](http://time.com/4047061/fitness-apps/), the better I feel.” **Read More:** [The Best Workout Move You’re Not Doing](http://time.com/3675558/best-workout-move/) The grandmother of two deadlifted 237 pounds at a competition in Belleville, Ill., in November to set the state record for her age group and has maxed out at 245 pounds. “I’ve seen such a remarkable difference in myself,” she said. “I’m glad that people are getting inspired by me doing this. I had one lady come in the gym and say, ‘I saw your video and I decided to come down and join this club.’ That makes me feel good.” Webb hopes to beat both her personal best and own state record by lifting 260 pounds at her next competition in June. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/"},"headline":"Watch This 78-Year-Old Woman Put Everyone to Shame by Deadlifting 225 Pounds","datePublished":"2016-03-29T18:05:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:13.007Z","description":"Three times in a row","url":"https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/","keywords":["Newsfeed","women","fitness","viral","health","Working out"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4275204/78-year-old-woman-deadlift-225-pounds/","name":"Watch This 78-Year-Old Woman Put Everyone to Shame by Deadlifting 225 Pounds"}}]}] ```