Nelson Horrell, who worked in collaboration with his local gym Crossfit Southern Lights, said he hoped the feat would inspire others to get into the gym.
‘‘I just felt with the health issues that I’d been through, it’d be great if I could target myself to have a go at it when I turned 80.’’
He said it could be a progression to get to that point and he had ‘‘the girls at the gym instructing me to get up to 65kg then 70kg then 75.’’
‘‘I just told myself that it’s 80 I need to lift. So 80 you lift.’’
He turned 80 in February but had issues with a knee and a pulled muscle, ‘‘but eventually everything settled down and I was able to do it’’.
He did a lot of preparation, training two to three times per week for three months leading up to the event last month, but said he felt pretty confident.
‘‘I’ve never had any joint problems or replacements. I think that shows that gym work doesn’t do any harm.’’
He did pull a hamstring about halfway through the event but he did not let that stop him.
‘‘I could’ve done them quite easily, but it would’ve been easier without that.’’
His fitness background includes more than 20 years of crossfit, which he did with his daughters.
‘‘I was always the old bugger in the gym.’’
‘‘Once I’d come out of that, I just had no muscle ... I remember walking into my bathroom after the heart surgery and looking at my arms. I saw all this skin hanging down — there was no muscle.’’
He was so desperate to get back into the gym, describing it as ‘‘like a drug’’.
‘‘After talking to [cardiologist], she said to get back to the gym, you’ll get your muscle back.’’
Building back his muscle and being able to complete his 80 for 80 challenge has been a major achievement.
‘‘Too many have these sort of surgeries and plenty of men have prostate problems and they just sort of throw the towel in.’’
He hoped to inspire others with a similar experience to get back into the gym, acknowledging many ‘‘feel like they can’t but they can’’.
The event was also a fundraiser for the gym to encourage people into crossfit who could not otherwise afford it.
Mr Horrell raised more than $1000 with event organiser and gym coach Tash Hamilton, who said they already had a potential beneficiary for that money.
‘‘We have a lady interested who wants to get back into healthy ways and start a fitness journey,’’ she said.
Ms Hamilton co-ordinated on the day and said they prepared a deadlift plan which he followed ‘‘reasonably closely’’.
She found the community response to be really good, with a large crowd coming to watch and a lot of support from people in Invercargill and Winton.
Having previously worked for Mr Horrell at a local tyre shop for nearly 12 years, she was familiar with his passion for crossfit.
‘‘He introduced me to crossfit originally and we’ve gone from there.’’
Gym owner and coach Rachel Anderson-Evans said she loved having Mr Horrell at the gym and described him as ‘‘brilliant’’.
Expectations are high for his next big lift.
‘‘People have asked me already if I’m going to try 81 next year,’’ he said.
