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View a video about Ernestine Shepherd and her ministry

From United Methodist News Service

Determined. Dedicated. Disciplined to be fit. Take one look at Ernestine Shepherd, 73, and you know it is more than a motto — she lives it.

At 5-foot 3-inches, 150 pounds, she can bench press 135 pounds. She starts her day with prayer at 3 a.m. and heads out the door for a 12-mile run. Then she is off to the gym or Union Memorial UMC in Baltimore where she is a fitness trainer and an inspiration to the women in her classes.

The Guinness World Book of Records recently contacted her because they think she may hold the record for the world’s oldest performing female bodybuilder.

Shepherd won first place in her first bodybuilding competition and has gone on to compete in two more.

“My body fat now is about 10 percent. When I do a body building show it goes down to 5 percent,” she said.

Shepherd, who has been a member of Union Memorial for about 40 years, believes God gives everyone a gift and found hers in exercise.

It was her sister Velvet who first encouraged her to start, and her sister’s death that convinced her to excel.

“At age 56, my sister and I decided to start exercising. The reason was because we had gone to purchase bathing suits. When we went to purchase the bathing suits, we both looked at each other and began laughing.”

Lifting weights came easy to Velvet, Shepherd says. But Velvet started complaining of headaches, trouble seeing and a ringing in her ears. By the time she went to the hospital it was too late. An aneurysm had burst in her brain, and she died.

“I was just devastated,” Shepherd says and for a while, she stopped exercising.

A friend at the gym where the sisters worked out told her, “Now you know your sister wouldn’t want you to do this.” That inspired her to go back to exercising with a vengeance.

“With God’s help we can do anything. I’m a firm believer of that, that faith is what it is all about. You see the results that prayer gives our spiritual bodies. With exercise, you see the results that it does for our physical bodies. What powerful tools — faith and exercise equals results,” she said.

“I really have a strong, strong faith. I believe that God has sent angels out to watch over me. I really believe that because there have been so many things that have happened in my life, and God has come to my rescue.”

She says people stop her all the time, amazed at her physical form, which would be the envy of any 20-year-old.

“I did all the things that I wanted. I wanted to pass it on to other people. I wanted them to know no matter how old you are, it’s never too late to exercise and to try to get fit. It’s not that you need to be a size 2, 4 or 6; it’s to know that you are healthy, able to move around.”

She trains men and women from age 18 to 86.

“I do feel that God has called me for a specific purpose. Little did I know that by me exercising I could touch so many people’s hearts. It’s really amazing.”