Meet one of the world's toughest grandmas - an international powerlifting champ who says she looks and feels better than she did 30 years ago.<br /><br />Mary Duffy, 71, took up gym work outs aged 59 in a bid to lose weight, and soon got hooked on lifting weights.<br /><br />Now she spends around 20 hours a week pumping iron and exercising, and has more than 30 state and world records to her name.<br /><br />The pocket rocket can lift more than many men a quarter her age - but is regularly told she's "too old" to be hitting the gym. <br /><br />But she's proved the doubters wrong, and holds world records for deadlifting 250lb - more than a baby elephant - as well as benching 125lb and squatting 175lb.<br /><br />The gran-of-one said her up to six hour daily gym sessions means she feels better than she did aged 40.<br /><br />She has no intention of swapping her lycra leggings and training vests for a twinset and pearls any time soon.<br /><br />Mary, from Trumbull in Connecticut, USA, said: “I started seriously going to the gym ten years ago when I realised I’d put on a lot of weight - I remember it hit me when I looked in the mirror and thought ‘that’s not me’.<br /><br />“I quickly lost weight, and realised the more I trained, the more I enjoyed it - and that’s the way it’s been since then.<br /><br />“I’m 71, but I’m the fittest I’ve ever been - I look and feel better now than I did when I was 40.<br /><br />“I do get people telling me I’m too old for this, but my motto is ‘you can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it back up’.<br /><br />“Sometimes I ask myself ‘why am I doing this?’ but the negative comments are outweighed by the people who tell me I inspire them - and that’s what keeps me going.<br /><br />“I’m not the average 70-year-old - and I have no intention of giving up now!”<br /><br />Retired Mary dabbled at the gym in younger years, but didn’t begin taking it seriously until she hit 59, when her mother died.<br /><br />Mary “sat around feeling sad” for two years following her mother’s death in 2007, and put on weight, reaching 12st 8lb, which she said felt uncomfortable for her small frame.<br /><br />Within a year she’d lost nearly 4st, and her personal trainer Bobby Calabrese suggested she take up weight lifting.<br /><br />Thanks to two weight-lifting sessions a week, plus cardio and general strength training every day, she got the courage to enter her first powerlifting competition in 2014, aged 64.<br /><br />She loved it and began entering international competitions run by the International Powerlifting Association twice a year.<br /><br />Mary has racked up more than 30 state and world records with the International Powerlifting Association, in her age and weight category.<br /><br />Super-fit Mary trains for more than twenty hours per week at the gym, doing three fitness boot camps and two personal training sessions.<br /><br />She also does daily cardio sessions on the rowing machine and cross trainer, as well as additional weight lifting sessions with friends.<br /><br />Despite training up to six hours a day, she said people often judge her for her age.
