14/12/2025

ON SUNDAY December 14, 2025 X theSunday Special

I can do more now than in my twenties.”

Wan

When the body gets stronger the story gets better BY ASHRAF WAHAB

F ROM near-collapse on a hike to a bodybuilding stage: Jazzmin Wan proves age doesn’t block transformation – comfort does. When Jazzmin Wan dragged KHUVHOI XS D ÀLJKW RI VWHSV DW D SRSXODU hiking trail in Kerachut, Penang, she wasn’t being dramatic when she said it felt OLNH GHDWK 6KH ZDV RQ KHU ¿UVW KLNH LQ years and she simply could not breathe. Children and senior couples paced past her without breaking a sweat. She had to stop after every few steps, clutching the railing, counting her breaths, wondering how her body – once reasonably active – had deteriorated that far. Her partner kept steadying her from behind, gentle but helpless. “I remember the looks from older hikers passing me,” she said, laughing now at the memory. “It was like … pity. It was a disgrace for me to witness how much I had let myself go.” That moment – sweaty, humiliating and public – became her line in the sand. It didn’t make her stronger on the spot. It GLGQ¶W FRPH ZLWK FLQHPDWLF WHDUV RU D ÀDVK of determination. But it planted a quiet sentence in her head: This is not how I want to live past 40. Today, just a few years after that breathless collapse on the hill, Wan, now 43, has completed a full marathon. She has stepped onto a bodybuilding stage in a sparkly competition bikini under stadium

lights. She trains every day, wakes up before dawn to walk or run and teaches others to move. For someone who once spent lockdown watching her motivation drain away, the shift is startling. And she did it after the age of 40 – not before. Does strength really only belong to the young? Wan, Malaysian and born in Sarawak, didn’t grow up as an athlete or as a gym rat. By her own admission, she was “mod erately active” at best and even that came in waves. In her late twenties, in Europe, she worked out at home out of boredom, following along with DVDs because there were no proper gyms near her. When she returned to KL, she slipped into the typical urban cycle – work late, scroll late, sleep late, eat whatever’s con venient, then repeat. Fitness visits became occasional rather than consistent. Then the pandemic hit. Like most people in the city, she lost more than her routine – she lost a sense of direction. “I tried to be positive after losing my job in tourism,” she said. “I started teaching yoga online to cope.” But once the lockdown lifted, the real crash landed. “Lifestyle had to change again. I lost motivation to train or to live. I was so unhappy inside.” She was only in her late thirties, yet she describes that period as soul-numbing.

Wan at the Mr Penang 2025 bodybuilding competition.