He won awards as a powerlifter and bodybuilder — and at 71, he’s not done yet
Seventy-one-year-old bodybuilding champion Kevin Swannigan poses for a portrait at his East Memphis gym, Elemental Fitness and Performance of Memphis, Oct. 24, 2025. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
On Nov. 1, Kevin Swannigan turned 71. But he isn’t about to let this change his lifestyle, because, as he put it, “I’ve never really looked at age.”
Swannigan has no interest in retiring from his own gym, Elemental Fitness and Performance of Memphis, where he trains 20 clients a week. He maintains a strict diet full of lean meats and vegetables and makes his own protein bars to avoid the sugary store-bought ones. Plus, he follows a vigorous and varied workout regimen that keeps him in better condition than people who are decades younger.
His interested in physical fitness started in the New Chicago neighborhood where he grew up.
“When you see people who came from where you came from, you think that you can do more,” Swannigan said. “And you get to the point where you think bigger.”
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John Klyce
John Klyce is an enterprise reporter with The Daily Memphian who writes a wide range of in-depth features, as well as profiles about local leaders, scientists, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, and anyone else doing exciting and important work in this city. He previously spent four years with the Memphis Business Journal, where he covered public companies, startups, and innovation, and a fifth year with The Commercial Appeal, where he covered education, and chronicled how gun violence and poverty were affecting Memphis youth and their families. He has also been a fellow with the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. John has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Memphis and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Boston University.
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