Sally Haas is no stranger to the stage — she spent most of her life as a comedian, but now, she’s on a stage of a different kind. At age 70, the Affton resident decided to try her hand at powerlifting. Haas has since competed in two powerlifting competitions and scored high in her class.
“Every time I’ve done powerlifting, I’ve got a big surge of excitement,” Haas said. “I want to tell everyone what happened to me. When you get to a certain age, you think, ‘Am I old now? Am I supposed to get old now?’ I think everybody experiences that. I didn’t know that I could feel better than I’ve ever felt. That was not one of my guesses, so I want people to know that it’s how you choose to live.”
Before Haas took on the challenge of powerlifting, she had about a year of gym experience. She says that it was nerve-wracking to step into the gym for the first time — learning how to operate the equipment with the fear that everyone is watching. Her personal trainer, Zach Cayer, says this is a common experience.
After beginning to work with a personal trainer and learning to use the equipment, Haas set her sights on her new goal: powerlifting.
“I saw a powerlifting competition and I thought, ‘Okay, that’s reasonable,’” Haas said. “Then I decided it’d be fun to try that.”
Cayer added, “Sally’s drawn to a stage.”
Cayer said that Haas already had some experience with doing squats, deadlifts and the bench press, so they jumped into powerlifting training together. He says there was “not much pushback from either side” as they began to work together.
“As she wanted to get more into powerlifting, (Haas) just wanted someone with a little more experience, and she started talking to me about it,” Cayer said. “I’m not a powerlifter myself, but I’ve been in the gym my whole life. … We’ve always done the big three lifts — bench, squat, power clean — but I’ve never had a client that actually wanted to compete, so it was a new challenge for me, as well.”
Haas’ training sessions take place twice a week at The Edge Fitness Club in Shrewsbury. Her powerlifting sessions with Cayer only last 30 minutes, but she comes independently a couple of times a week to work out in addition to her time with Cayer.
“My job is to fine-tune the technique and make sure we’re programming her to get ready for (competitions),” Cayer said. “You’re doing one rep on stage. That’s a lot different than going under a bar and squatting 12 times like you might for your regular workout.”
Cayer encouraged Haas to sign up for competitions. She has competed in two: the 2025 USA Powerlifting Beer City Classic in November and the USPA Tested Missouri State Championships in March.
“I can’t imagine not having been on stage before and doing that,” Haas said. “It was very terrifying. You have to lift something — it’s a totally different kind of performance. I was really looking forward to it, but I was looking at the other people and going, ‘You’ve never stood on a stage?’ But once you do it, it’s really awesome.”
Now, Haas is the author of “Grow Old or Grow Strong: The Inspiring Guide to Turning Age into Unstoppable Strength,” a self-published book about strength training with age. She also runs social media accounts under the name “Gym Granny Sally” to document her journey.
“When I did comedy, I thought, ‘Well, this is nice, but how am I inspiring people except to feel good?’ And that’s really good. That’s a really wonderful feeling, but I always wanted to inspire people,” Haas said.
