Penny Szentkuti, 53, feels at home playing board games and reading books but, recently, she's stepped out of her comfort zone and taken to running, tumbling and jumping from one-storey heights: She's been doing parkour.
"For decades, really, I've led a sedentary lifestyle, aside from a bit of yoga and indoor rock climbing, but I haven't really gotten in touch with my strength," Penny said.
Feeling strong and confident is exactly what the mother of two likes about parkour.
"As you age, you lose confidence in your body, and it's been delightful to feel like I'm getting stronger," she said.
"It's never too late. I use that daggy hashtag — never too old — on my Instagram because it's true.
"You think you just get older and sort of decline, but I've had this wonderful resurgence of power and strength and fun."
Penny has been practising parkour once a week for about two and a half years now.
It's a sport that started in France, and according to the World Freerunning Parkour Federation.
Technically, it's the act of moving from point A to point B using obstacles in your path to increase your efficiency.
When we hear the word parkour — which means "the way through" or "the path" — most of us conjure up images of young people traversing rooftops of a postcard-worthy seaside town in Greece.
However, Penny said that, despite the huge range of abilities in the sport, there's a universal word used by all to describe it: "scary.
"Even the biggest, strongest, toughest, most experienced people will look at a jump and go, 'Oh, that's scary'," Penny said.
"It's normal to feel that, and then the challenge is to do it anyway."
And when you land the jump …
"It's incredibly exhilarating. There's a lot of thrill and excitement," Penny said.
Seeking out a new challenge
Professor Clare Hanlon, the Susan Alberti Women in Sport Chair at Victoria University, says there's a big cohort of women in their 50s who want to challenge themselves.
"These women have potentially got older children who are self-dependent. [These women] may have retired, have more time, money and the desire to do something new and adventurous," Professor Hanlon told ABC Sport.
"[Adventure] is enticing, it provides invigorating experiences that pick up the adrenaline and that's what makes it so attractive.
"I think women, regardless of age, are interested in new adventures."
She also says society needs to increase the visibility of older women being active.
According to the latest AUSPLAY data, sport-related participation for women decreases with age.
By the time women are over 55, only 27.6 per cent engage in sport once a week.
That number drops down to 20 per cent for those 65 and older.
"It's important to celebrate it because research continues to show that physical activity improves the mental, social and physical health of people.
"It helps with their bone strength, their balance, it gives a sense of independence and it can also delay health problems.
"This is really important for why women over 50 need to participate in sport or physical activity regardless of what they do."
Chasing freedom
Denise Bess also loves a thrill, but she experiences hers jumping out of a plane.
The 57-year-old has done it about 540 times and says it "feels like freedom".
"From the moment you get on the plane and, when that door opens and then you jump out, you don't think about anything else in the world apart from where you are," Denise said.
"It's freedom for the mind, freedom for the body and it's awesome for your mental health."
Denise started skydiving five years ago and has since competed at state and national level.
It wasn't her first foray into the sky. She'd been competing in aerobatics before that, but ended up relinquishing her plane after a divorce.
Thinking back to her first jump, she says she wasn't too worried.
"I wasn't scared, the door opened, I looked down and thought: 'Wow that's a long way down.'
"I had butterflies in my stomach and that feeling lasted I think probably up until jump number 150.
"Now it's like – open that door and let me out!"
Refusing to be left behind
As she got older, Helena Sahm was looking for something "more", too.
The 63-year-old took up wing foiling, a water sport where she stands on a board and holds onto a wing, which looks a bit like a small sail, and moves across the water.
She got into it because she was tired of sitting on a beach waiting for her husband to come in from kite foiling or surfing.
"I'm sitting there thinking, 'This is like back when I was 16 at North Narrabeen watching my boyfriend on a surfboard'," Helena said.
So she made a decision to get out there too.
"When I turned 61, we investigated wing foiling and thought, well that's something I could do, so we went out and bought all the equipment."
Despite a busy life with travel, grandchildren and a visual arts practice, she's out there skimming the water at top speed.
"When I finish, I get off the water and I'm just feeling buoyant," Helena said.
"Endorphins are there, and you just smile all the time. It's incredibly exhilarating.
"I love being in control of this board and this wing and hooning along the ocean or in the bays."
Part of Professor Hanlon's expertise is encouraging women to stay in lifelong physical activity, and she stresses it's never too late to start something new.
"I think that we should be embracing life now, because who knows what's around the corner," she said.
"If that means doing adventure sports, regardless of age, do it.
"If you've always wanted to do something, but you put it off for some reason, do it now and enjoy it now.
"It's never too late, at any age."
Penny doesn't want anyone to be afraid of trying something new either.
"It's wonderful to see that your body can do more than you think it can. Don't rule yourself out."
