At 63, Ginny McCall took up her daughter’s challenge to do a pull-up. After nine months of effort, she succeeded, and now, a decade later, she can do 17 in a row. It’s hard to disagree when she claims, “You can get stronger with age.”
McCall has since competed on *American Ninja Warrior* three times. Guinness World Records recognizes her as the oldest person to complete the course and the oldest female ninja athlete. Inspired by her daughter, stuntwoman Jesse Graf, who also participated in the show, McCall wanted to become stronger.
“What should I do?” she asked Graf, who suggested, “Pull-up.”
Although a former professional dancer, McCall, now 73, had never stepped into a gym before, largely due to a diagnosis of osteopenia, which can lead to osteoporosis. Graf’s challenge was more about building mental strength.
“When I was growing up, there wasn’t much encouragement for women to lift weights,” she reflects. “It was always, ‘You don’t want to look bulky; it’s not feminine…’ Watching Graf, I saw such strength and grace—she was muscular!”
As a shy child, McCall found her voice through dance. “Movement is a way of speaking. It’s simply an expression of what’s inside you,” she notes.
Her passion for dance led her from Tennessee to New York at age 20. “The dream was to dance all day. Everyone told me, ‘You won’t make it.'” Yet in 1974, attending *Pippin*, a Broadway show by Bob Fosse, made her feel on top of the world.
She later starred in TV commercials throughout the 70s and 80s, portraying roles such as a housewife. “I was laughing with my products… Folger’s Coffee, Jodash Jeans, Charmin…”
Her personal life mirrored these roles; she got married, had two children, and even filmed a commercial just three days after childbirth. “It was the Golden Age,” she calls it.
However, that chapter closed when she divorced after 13 years and moved her children to a family lake house in the Poconos, surrounded by vast woods. It was a beautiful but challenging place, requiring a different kind of resilience. “We faced heavy snowstorms and bats in the house. It took determination,” she recalls.
Teaching dance didn’t pay the bills, and job opportunities were scarce. Ultimately, she found a sales position at a local radio station. She stayed active, swimming in the lake with her kids and creating makeshift obstacle courses in the woods. “When I return to acting, I’ll come back as a grandma,” she had thought.
After retiring from a 20-year career in radio sales at 62, she remarried and watched her kids graduate. She soon got an agent, auditioned, and even started swimming competitively. Observing her parents becoming sedentary, she sought a different path.
To achieve her first pull-up, she broke it down into manageable steps. Yet, during her debut on *American Ninja Warrior*, she fell at the first obstacle. “I was devastated. Every senior in the world felt like they were let down,” she reflects.
McCall believes her biggest hurdle throughout life has been facing failure. She often felt inadequate in school and during her first marriage. “That feeling of failure resonated deeply,” she admits.
“It took me time to process it,” she says. “There’s a saying I like: ‘Change the way you see things, and change what you see change.’ I try to view failure as a motivation.” Social media offered an escape from her downturn—she began sharing her accomplishments.
Now with over 130,000 followers on Instagram, she’s landed roles in films, including *POMS* alongside Diane Keaton, and has filmed her next segment for *American Ninja Warrior*. Through all this, she even reversed her osteopenia.
McCall is confident she’ll continue to grow stronger in her 80s and 90s. “Muscles are organs of longevity,” she asserts.
Did your life take a new direction after turning 60?
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