(WTAJ) -- TikTok, home of the young trendsetting crowd strutting their stuff, is now also home to Germany's very own 81-year-old fitness dame.
Nicknamed "Fitness Gran," Erika Rischko isn't letting coronavirus get to her — and definitely has no plans for sofa bingo. Instead, she is conquering TikTok one pull-up and cha-cha at a time.
When Germany went into lockdown following the outbreak of the coronavirus last spring, Rischko posted her first 12-second video on TikTok, in which she grooved to the popular "Cha-Cha Slide" dance with her husband.
Since then, Rischko has uploaded over 100 videos of herself doing exercises and dancing to encourage others to remain active — even during lockdown.
"Dancing is something I think we should do much more of," she told Reuters.
Rischko has gained around 125,000 followers and more than 2 million likes on the TikTok app.
In the clips — shot by her daughter — Rischko trains, dances and conquers fitness challenges created by those decades younger. Sometimes, she and her husband do synchronized routines.
Rischko's fame has spread beyond Germany with the spry Langenfeld local now also a fixture in America.
"Will you be our grandparents?" or "My granny is dead, couldn't you take her place?" are some of the requests from her fans, who she says are a huge motivation for her.
Langenfeld's mayor Frank Schneider has also been touched by all the attention.
"I always love stories like these that are so life-changing. And now, I can say that this is thanks to corona, otherwise this wouldn't have happened, that a person having fun gets all this attention and ends up really moving all these people," he said.
0 Comments