A Pepperdine professor has completed an incredible feat — and it happens to be an incredible feat of strength. Laurie Nelson, who teaches pre-med courses at the Malibu institution, just won a world weightlifting championship at the age of 71. Nelson, who has been teaching at Pepperdine for more than 40 years, this spring returned from New Zealand after winning her age category in the World Master’s Games — the Olympics for those over 35. She also set the world competition record there with a snatch of 29 kilograms (64 pounds) and a clean and jerk of 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds), beating the world record by one kilogram and two kilograms, respectively.
Nelson, who describes herself as always having been physically active, only recently got into weightlifting. She started taking CrossFit classes in 2010 when her former Pepperdine student and friend Mike Anderson opened a CrossFit gym.
“I thought it would be good to try,” she recalled. “I decided to just go in and see how I liked it. I tried the beginner course and after one month I liked what had happened — the changes I could see in my fitness and my overall strength.”
Nelson’s fitness was so good she competed in the 2012 CrossFit Games and came in 10th at age 66 in her age category.
“When I competed in those games, I did an analysis of how good I was compared to all the women I was competing against — what were my strengths and weaknesses,” Nelson described, “but I was 66 years old and the competitive category was 60-plus. So, I was old and getting older. One of my largest weaknesses was snatch and clean and jerk. So, I always wanted to get better at those two lifts.
“I also think that both of them are comprehensive lifts where you use many different areas of your body and gain strength and coordination,” she continued. “I was also a little scared of those two lifts — of putting that kind of weight over your head and I wanted to challenge myself to overcome my fears about doing it.”
The snatch is a movement that starts with the barbell on the ground and continues overhead in one continuous motion. The weightlifter’s arms must be very straight as she lands under it. Nelson does a power snatch, meaning she’s not completely under the weight. The clean and jerk involves bringing the bar from the ground up to the shoulders and then, after a pause, pushing the bar from the shoulders to an overhead position. With the pause, heavier weights can be used.
Even though Nelson holds the record at the World Master’s Games, she actually has lifted more in competition with a snatch of 34 kilograms (75 pounds) at the USA Nationals in Savannah 2016, beating the USA record. A year later, with a clean and jerk of 43 kilograms (94.7 pounds), she beat her own previous record. In training, she often lifts heavier weights.
To stay fit, Nelson trains two to three days each week weight lifting for one to two hours. She continues to do CrossFit one to two days per week and hikes often in Solstice Canyon. For the past five or six years, she’s been following a mostly paleo diet that eliminates grains and dairy and restricts sugar. She says she eats that way not specifically for training but for anti-inflammatory purposes to help with her arthritis.
When asked if she’ll compete again, Nelson answered: “That’s a great question. I’m not sure at the moment. I need to let my body heal more in order to see how it responds.”
Nelson is obviously interested in the human body, teaching human anatomy, physiology and a human prosection class where cadavers are dissected.
“One of the things that was surprising to me when I started lifting, working out and doing cross fit was that I could gain so much strength at the age of 66-65, whenever I started,” Nelson replied when asked for words of encouragement to older people on staying fit. “I did not expect that the musculature that I had previously in my youth, but had not continued to develop over time, would come back in the ways that it did. I was very surprised and I want to encourage older adults to give it a try. There are so many different exercise modalities to try and see if you can find strength and health by working out.”
Calling Nelson a “model athlete,” Anderson noted, “It shows how a little bit of work day after day adds up.
“She is a world record holder, and not many people can say that, let alone someone that started this sport in her 60s,” he said. “She’s an example not just to senior athletes, but athletes in general.”
