WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE? Great-grandmother pushes some serious weight
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 94-year-old southeast Houston great-grandmother is proving that you're never too old to lift weights.
"It was totally different from anything that I've ever done," laughed Jean Gaines.
Gaines is a Houston Texans season ticket holder. But at the start of last season, she began worrying about falling while attending games.
So, her doctor recommended the Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Performance Lab.
"If you know her at all, it doesn't take much to get her motivated," said Chris Juneau, physical therapist with Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine Institute. "And once she's motivated, get out of the way. It's getting done, whether you want to or not."
Gaines has two children, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Working with weights helps her play with all of them, especially the youngest.
"He weighs 25 pounds. I can pick him up now," Gaines said. "I couldn't do it when I was there many months ago."
Gaines has always been tough.
She started working for HISD back in 1948, when schools were segregated. She started as a teacher, and then became an administrator, and remained there for 40 years.
"If she can do it, there are no excuses. It's got to get done," said Juneau. "Everybody works a little harder because she's over here pushing a sled around."
"(It) just gave me things that I had no idea that I would ever do or could do, and I gained a lot of confidence in doing that," Gaines explained.
