‘I Feel Like I’m 50,’ Says the 93-Year-Old Who Goes to the Gym Five Days a Week

Most people picture a 93-year-old moving slowly, maybe using a cane, definitely not lifting weights five days a week. Cecilia Gomez breaks that picture completely. The New York grandmother has turned her local gym into something closer to a second home, showing up on a strict weekday schedule that plenty of people half her age would struggle to keep up with.

From Monday to Friday, without fail, Gomez can be found at the Gold’s Gym in Smithtown, working out from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. She has kept that exact schedule for decades. “I’m in almost perfect condition. I feel like I’m 50,” she told Business Insider, describing a body that still lets her play soccer and shoot basketball whenever she feels like it.

Gomez does not treat this routine as optional or occasional. She has described the gym as something close to a religious commitment, a description that captures just how central it has become to her daily life. That kind of consistency raises an obvious question: what does a 93-year-old actually do once she gets there, day after day, for three straight hours?

She’s Proud to Be the Oldest Person in Every Class She Takes

Gomez’s actual workouts mix cardio with light strength training. She presses three- to five-pound dumbbells overhead and marches in place, building strength and stamina without needing heavy equipment. Her daughter, Pat Schneider, who is 60 herself, describes her mother as more than a little competitive, a trait that traces back to childhood, when Gomez was reportedly always picked first for dodgeball.

Gomez attends her classes through SilverSneakers, a fitness program for adults 65 and older that comes at no cost with many Medicare plans. The recognition came recently. She was named the program’s Member of the Year for 2025, an honor tied to her sustained commitment to showing up. SilverSneakers instructor Andi Kwapien has said the program specifically trains “balance and stability,” qualities that matter for any age but become especially important for preventing falls in older adults.

None of this happens by accident. Gomez treats her workouts with the same seriousness most people reserve for a job or a doctor’s appointment, rarely missing a session. But exercise is only one piece of what she credits for her energy. Outside the gym, her second explanation for feeling decades younger comes down to something much simpler: what she actually eats.

Beans, Rice, and Vegetables Fuel a Diet Modeled on the World’s Longest-Living People

Beans are a daily staple in Gomez’s diet, usually served alongside rice and vegetables in fairly simple combinations. That specific food choice is not random. Beans are a major food source in what researchers call Blue Zones, regions around the world documented to have unusually high concentrations of people living past 100. The connection between legumes and long life shows up repeatedly in longevity research.

Gomez rounds out her diet with other whole foods, including plantains, a good source of potassium that supports heart health, and oranges, rich in vitamin C that helps bolster the immune system. None of these are exotic or expensive ingredients. Nutritionists say the vitamins, minerals, and fiber found in whole, plant-based foods offer real protective benefits over time, helping stave off conditions like cancer and cardiovascular disease while also supporting brain health.

Exercise and diet explain a lot of Gomez’s stamina. Neither one fully explains her daughter’s confidence about what actually keeps her mother going. Schneider points to something else entirely when she talks about longevity, something that has nothing to do with dumbbells or vegetables. It has to do with who Gomez spends her time with, and how rarely she spends any of it alone.

The Real Reason She Keeps Recovering Might Not Be Diet or Exercise at All

Gomez keeps a genuinely busy social calendar for someone in her nineties. She lives with Schneider, and every Sunday, the extended family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, gathers together for dinner. She also sings in her church choir and spends time chatting with friends before and after every gym session, stacking social connection on top of an already packed weekly routine.

Schneider believes this constant connection is the real engine behind her mother’s longevity. It matters more than any specific exercise or meal. She explained that “she’s always active with everyone. The grandkids, great-grandkids. She’s never alone.” That sense of purpose has apparently carried Gomez through serious health scares over the years, including hospital stays where doctors reportedly worried she might not recover.

During one of those hospital stays, according to Schneider, doctors were not optimistic about the outcome. Gomez’s response was immediate and stubborn: she insisted she needed to get back to the gym, refusing to accept that this might be the end. She recovered. Whether that specific mindset has any measurable medical effect is impossible to say with certainty, but for Gomez, having somewhere to be, and people expecting her there, has clearly been part of what kept bringing her back.