Power-lifting seniors find a home in a California garage

From the Los Angeles Times:

A huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of a group of Chatsworth athletes when Bob Evans opened up his garage to them. The half a dozen veterans of a lifetime of muscle building found themselves without a place to work out two years ago when their friend Kevin Meskew was forced to close the fitness center where they all congregated twice each week. The power-lifters — most in their 60s and 70s — discovered that health clubs filled with young people doing aerobics and Pilates and taking spinning classes were wary of senior citizens coming in and hoisting 500-pound barbells over their heads. That’s when Evans shoved his tools and storage boxes to the side of his three-car garage on Shamrock Place and invited the oldsters in to flex their muscles. “When the gym closed, we decided to do it ourselves,” explained Harry Packer, a 76-year-old retired mortgage broker who lives in Porter Ranch and pumps iron despite undergoing triple-bypass surgery last year. Evans, 64, a retired computer analyst, has lifted weights since he was 15. So he didn’t hesitate when someone suggested that his garage might make a perfect workout room.]]>