Proof that it’s never too late to get fit — and perhaps enter the record books

Have you ever done a dead hang from a pull-up bar? Probably not. Neither had Bonnie Sumner. Now, the 81-year-old Colorado resident holds the world record. The New York Times recently profiled Sumner, who began working out in earnest in 2016 and ramped it up when her longtime husband, Mark, died of cancer in 2023. Sumner, who is 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, began hanging after reading about its health benefits, and lasted 21 seconds the first time she tried it. She recently lasted 3:03, besting the world record by — get this — more than a minute. “It’s never too late to begin to make yourself stronger,” she told journalist Hilary Achner.