How to be a ‘super ager’

Today, we revisit one of our favorite episodes from this past year, about super agers: people who continue to thrive into their 80s and 90s. One of them lives just down my block.

Ednajane Truax, who is known to friends and neighbors as “E.J.,” can often be found on her hands and knees in the dirt, working in the garden at the Sherwood Recreation Center in Northeast Washington. She also has an impressive garden of her own and helps out with other neighbors’ gardens. She works out several times a week, sometimes while wearing a shirt that says, “You don’t stop lifting when you get old — you get old when you stop lifting.” She can bench press 55 pounds and leg press 250.

Truax has never married — “just lucky, I guess,” she jokes when I ask her about that — but she has remained social her entire life. She volunteers, goes to the gym, throws parties, knows her neighbors and their children by name. Truax says her secret to thriving as she ages is simple: Be active.

It turns out that research backs her up.

If you’re looking for more surprising, delightful stories about the best of humanity, check out The Optimist from The Washington Post. We also have a newsletter: Subscribe to get stories from The Optimist in your inbox every Sunday morning.

Today’s show was produced by Maggie Penman with help from Ted Muldoon, who also mixed the show. The Optimist’s editor is Allison Klein.

If you liked hearing this story on “Post Reports,” send us an email at podcasts@washpost.com. You can email Maggie directly at maggie.penman@washpost.com.

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