We’re often sold the idea that we have to live while we’re young: that there is a finite window in which to be strong, adventurous, energetic and free, before age inevitably starts taking things away. And though ageing does change the body, it doesn’t have to mean shrinking your life along with it.
Training has become less about aesthetics, and more about building what the body needs for the long haul: muscle mass, bone density, mobility. Longevity is the real goal. For May Cotting, this strength has given her the freedom of autonomy. “I don’t want my world to kind of shrink, right with age and and an injury,” says Cotting. “As I’m getting older, I think about longevity. I want to keep on doing things as long as possible—to keep my mobility, my flexibility and my strength. To keep my independence.”
“I don’t want my world to shrink, with age and injury.”
Progress, however, is rarely linear: motherhood, injuries, and—simply—life, all can interrupt even the best intentions. For Rohini Rao, a personal trainer working with women through perimenopause, that has meant learning to slow down after knee surgery. Paula Lopez De Mollein, a yoga instructor, went straight from our interview to compete in the world championships for dragon boat racing. Maricarmen Ortega only started working out after 45, while Cotting has continually lived life on the edge—skiing, freediving, calisthenics—even as she now recovers from a traumatic ACL injury and has osteopenia. And as for Nadia Randriamirado, a self- described “ordinary woman” who has never had an innate love for exercise, she is simply seeking ways to make movement something she can actually enjoy. What binds these five women, however, is the persistence to keep moving, to keep trying, and to keep building a life they want to live.
“We, the women, were so focused in our younger years to take care of everybody—the family, the kids, the husband, the friends, now our parents. We are not used to taking care of ourselves,” muses Ortega. “This is a special age—when we realise that the people around us don’t need as much, and that we need to focus more on taking care of ourselves.”
Through play, patience and perseverance, the narrative around ageing is changing. “Luckily, we are alive, and we have each other. We have children that are now going away. We have 50 more years to help each other, to find a new life for us. We can start from scratch,” says Lopez De Mollein excitedly. There is still so much of the world to see, and so much life yet to be lived. Ageing has never been something to outrun, but a chance to define new experiences and possibilities—and, in doing so, threading your own silver lining.
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Maricarmen Ortega
What has strength training come to mean to you as you’ve gotten older?
Maricarmen Ortega: Actually, I only started training after I turned 45. I had started playing tennis. I tried many times before when I was younger, but I found the gym very boring and I didn’t like it. But when I started with tennis, I noticed that I was not only sweating but having a lot of fun.
I wanted to learn more, and I realised that I needed more stamina. So I started running—and then everything related to exercise became easier, and I became more confident to try new things. Lately, I’ve picked up boxing, padel, and now I go to the gym because I know that it’s necessary, especially at my age, to grow muscle. Now, I’m not suffering. I’m really enjoying it. Everything was about starting with play.
Did you ever feel daunted when you first started at the gym?
MO: We, the women, were so focused in our younger years on taking care of everybody—the family, the kids, the husband, the friends, now our parents. We are not used to taking care of ourselves. This is a special age—when we realise that the people around us don’t need as much, and that we need to focus more on taking care of ourselves.
Outside of just fitness, how else has sport opened up your world?
MO: The best part is that as I am learning tennis not from a young age, so my level is not so “wow”. I’ve been able to play with people of different ages—younger people that are beginning or older people that have been training all their lives, but maybe now their movements cannot be so fast. So I have friends of every age, women and men, and in different clubs here. For one season, I participated in one championship, but now I prefer socials. It’s more relaxed, so it’s drama free. I play socials and I really have fun and I’m active and I think that’s the most important thing.
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May Cotting
How did you get involved in free diving?
May Cotting: Ten years ago, when my kids were younger, I had a near drowning experience in Komodo. Although I’m a good swimmer, it resulted in me panicking quite a bit because of the children. I realised you cannot fight the ocean and its currents. After this, I had ocean fear for many, many years.
Four years ago, my two boys wanted to learn free diving and scuba diving. So I decided to organise training—I realised that training is the answer, right? If you’re well trained, then you can handle things safely. I could overcome my ocean fear. It’s a profound feeling of peace once you can relax and let the waves wash over you. That has really taught me to calm down and go with the flow.
I wanted to talk about your recent ACL injury and your osteopenia diagnosis. What have these injuries and diagnoses have taught you about your body, strength and resilience?
MC: After a ski accident in December, I totally tore my ACL, my MCL, and some meniscus tear. It was a pretty traumatic injury, according to the doctors. I’ve always led such an active life. With an unstable knee, my life was on hold. I was used to walking fast, and had plans to go scuba diving and free diving with my family. It’s certainly taught me a lot about being patient, because I couldn’t just force it and go back to my previous lifestyle.
I decided to bite the bullet and get my ACL reconstructed, so I can start rebuilding again. Certainly it’s been a humbling experience. From my surgery two months ago, it’ll take another 9 to 12 months before I can get back to sports and any semblance of my normal self.
Osteopenia and menopause do not help because there’s a lot of healing involved, after they drill bone tunnels to reconstruct the knee. I mean, rebuilding this whole … it’s not just a knee, it’s all the supporting muscles to keep the knee protected and the graft protected. I see it as a challenge, and I hope that I come out stronger than before. Now I’m doing so much strength training. So, I’m actually gaining more muscle mass and strength. And I stay positive.
What does strength mean to you now while your body is in a period of recovery?
MC: I don’t want my world to shrink, with age and injury. I love free diving and scuba diving with my two boys. Out there, you’re responsible for your own safety—you cannot have someone doing things for you. That is what drives me now. I need to have that strength to manage independently.
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Rohini Rao
Congratulations on the success of your knee surgery. How did you feel returning to strength training, and how did you persevere through that?
Rohini Rao: This was something that I had been told that I needed for a while, and it got to a point that it was actually hindering a lot of the things that I was able to do.
I was very nervous going into it, because this is my knee and I wanted to make the right decision. But thanks to the skill of the surgeon, physiotherapy, determination, and the grace of God, it has been a really big success and I couldn’t be more pleased. I still have swelling and a huge scar down the middle of my knee. Aesthetically, it initially gave me a sense of insecurity, but now, I really look at it and go, “Well, you know what, I survived this, and I conquered it.”
It’s a war wound now. I’m encouraged by the progress and I hope that I can go further than what I was doing even before the surgery.
How has entering perimenopause changed your relationship with your body and training?
RR: It’s made a huge difference in the way that I train, as it’s been actually a shift in how I think. I no longer go into the gym thinking: I ate a lot of calories on the weekend, I drank a lot, or I’ve been eating junk food. I don’t feel like I need to go into the gym and punish myself, to do extra cardio. I don’t chase skinny anymore. I am chasing strength.
I am going to the gym so that I can work on being strong, being mobile, and mobility. I’m working on grip strength. It’s been a big shift in terms of how I look at it. I don’t punish myself or I say I didn’t hit my 10,000 steps. You start to give yourself a lot of grace—it’s not that I’m not capable. I simply choose to spend my energy on the right things now.
In your experience as a personal trainer, are women given enough information about the importance of maintaining muscle and strength as they age?
RR: I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and it is really changing. I’ve seen so many trends come and go. Unfortunately, now the skinny trend is back on and I’m seeing a lot of that. Overall, the message is out there, but I don’t know if a lot of women are getting it. When I come back from a holiday and somebody tells me I’ve lost weight, I don’t take it as a compliment. I know that I’ve lost muscle.
Muscle is so important to have, because this is what’s going to carry you through the rest of your life. This is what’s gonna help you stand up straight, your posture. This is what’s going to protect you when you fall.
As a personal trainer, what led you to specialising in this audience of older women?
RR: I started getting injuries, and that kind of forced me into strength training. I even saw an improvement with my rounded shoulders, because my back muscles were starting to strengthen and I thought, “Wow, okay, now I’m actually seeing things in my body that I had issues with getting fixed.”
In the first little while, it was boring doing repetitive things with weight training. But honest to God, I swear by it, this is the only thing I do. Strength training, weight training, resistance bands and walking. The results will come. You have to take it slow, and know this is the journey that you’re on for the rest of your life.
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Nadia Randriamirado
What does strength mean to you now, as you grow older and balance strength with daily life?
Nadia Randriamirado: I have to admit, when you’re not a very sporty person and you’re not used to it—it’s not easy. For me, as someone who finds it very difficult to get started, and is simply doing my best to stay fit, I need to find that drive. That comes from self-awareness that I need to do something.
Some people have done sports since they were young. For them, it’s easy to go out there, to go for a run, to go for classes—it’s natural. But others, it can be a struggle to get motivated, to find that consistency.
Through training, what have you learned about longevity, not just in terms of living longer, but finding joy in your workouts and staying mobile?
NR: You need to work on your mental health. You need to be happy to work on yourself, to relieve stress, to find joy somewhere. Like everyone, you might have worries, if you have children, work, or relationships. You always have something a little bit stressful. The key, I think, is finding a happy place or something that is an escape for you.
What are some misconceptions you found in your journey surrounding strength training that you debunked through your process of training?
NR: I had a personal trainer, and I said, listen, I’m a mature woman of a certain age, and I’m very out of shape because I probably haven’t worked out in years. You go with some apprehension, some concern about yourself, but what really surprised me was that I could do it. Yes, I struggled. I could feel the pain, trust me. For the first few sessions, the next day was really painful. I couldn’t even move. My whole body was aching.
But what matters is that first step. Sometimes I would go unmotivated. But every time I was really surprised, what it does to your body. Coming from somebody who has never felt that before, I was mesmerised because I felt so energised. To me, it is kind of like magic.
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Paula Lopez De Mollein
How did you go from yoga, to competing in the world championships for dragon boat racing?
Paula Lopez De Mollein: I have always, always been into sports, movement, anything—I grab it. I love it. It keeps me happy, right? Moving makes me happy.
With dragon boat racing, it’s something that I love to do—and in my life, I have done so many different sports. If life brings me somewhere else and then there is no dragon boat around, then I will find something to do as a team again. I will never stop moving. It’s also about finding people—you get to know each other so deeply, so deeply. In good and bad, right? It’s one thing that I get out of all my activities: the people.
How has teaching yoga influenced your understanding of taking care of the body?
PLDM: One of the main things that yoga gives you is body awareness. Imagine you are balancing on one leg—and then simple as that, you stay there forever, and so many parts of your body are working just for you to stay on one leg. It’s about a balance in your mind as well.
I feel that when you are transmitting this energy, you look and feel better. It’s an energy that you expand to anybody you are talking with. You are more interesting. So for me, it’s more about that as I age.
As a yoga instructor, what would you say to women who are afraid of pushing themselves physically as they get older?
PLDM: Start slowly, and try to progress yourselves in ways that will make you feel less afraid. If you’re afraid to do it now, imagine where you will be in 40 more years—you still have 40 more years to live, right? Try to push yourself. Even if you are afraid, go for it.
Find people that make you feel that you can do it, because if you’re around people that are always afraid, you hold each other back. But with more people together, maybe you can find comfort. Find people who are open to trying. Maybe you can start running, even if you are a little slow.
Speak to people who know more about it. If you educate yourself, you can find things that work for you, and what you need to do to not be afraid, right? Education can help you with your own attitude, right? Adopt an attitude so that, okay, I am afraid—but I will try.
Photography Zantz Han
Make-up Sarah Tan using Charlotte Tilbury
Hair Rolana Lim
Beauty direction Aileen Liang
Styling Lance Pielago
Photographer’s assistant Tan Peng Sheng
Stylist’s assistant Anis Nabilah
Talents Rohini Rao, Paula Lopez De Mollein, Maricarmen Ortega, May Cotting, Nadia Randriamirado
The October 2026 ‘Artisanal’ edition of Vogue Singapore is available online and on newsstands.
