Why Anti-Aging Is Hurting Your Fitness & Health

There are a lot of things that make me raise an eyebrow that I see in my industry (I can’t really do the single eyebrow raise, but you get the idea). One of those seems like something that would be positive and at worst nothing significant to worry about. However, it has become a BIG source for podcasting, selling supplements, and many workout programs. In fact, some estimates have this industry being worth over $80 BILLION by 2030. If you guessed the anti-aging industry you would be right, plus its kinda in the title of the post;)

Why would I have anything negative to say about the anti-aging industry? Well, there is a big difference between encouraging healthy aging and making people neurotic about the inevitable, which is they will age. In fact, at a recent neighborhood gathering I was speaking to a gentleman who worked with a local billionaire, someone who has all the resources in the world. The gentleman told me that his boss was in incredible shape for a 65 year old and went on to show me a picture of him with his shirt off.

Not the actual guy, but imagine this guy leaner, bigger, and about 10 years older!

I have to admit the billionaire was ripped and muscular, much more than you would see most 25 year olds, but I didn’t know if he was fit and healthy. The gentleman went on to tell me about the “special” gym he went to that helped him get this way. Of course this meant getting on a pharmacy level of drugs that would do this and that for him. So, what’s wrong with that?

Even if we ignore (we probably shouldn’t) the fact we don’t know what the impact of taking many of these medications has on someone that is taking them exlcusively to get ripped, there was something else that was said that was more representative of the issue at hand. The gentleman told me that his boss spends SOOOO much money on trying to be young because he is so scared of getting older.

It isn’t a fear that is unusual, but it is one that is largely created by companies trying to sell us that getting older is a bad thing (women probably get hit the hardest but it happens to men and women). In fact, a comprehensive study across populations (PMID: 20025408) found many factors that impact our attitudes on aging. Some of it is how developed a country is, the more modernized societies tend to value aging individuals less because they believe there is less they can do to contribute to gaining more “stuff”. There is also the influence of cultural values as Eastern societies typically value people who are older more than Western. That doesn’t really help you though huh?

I do think this is an important discussion on many fronts. Most notably is the fact that worrying and getting depressed about getting older is the surest way to actually make yourself more unhealthy. Studies consistently find anxiety and depression increases our biological aging and even increases our risk of death (some to astounding levels of 40-50%) (PMID: 27388572, PMID: 37277749, PMID: 37989363).

Ironically, stressing about our stress like worrying about getting older actually makes us age more and be less healthy.

Great now you are stressed about your stress right? That wasn’t my goal, in fact, accepting that we all get older can be kinda reassuring depending on we are able to look at our situation. But what about the stress that we have in our lives, doesn’t that mean no matter what we are going to die due to our stress? Well, what is interesting is that research has shown that stress in of itself isn’t a strong predictor of our health, it is our perception of our stress that is impactful ( PMID: 22201278).

One of the key elements is to against what popular media tells everyone, “age is just a number”. Of course how you process that statement means a lot. If you take it as, “I’m still able to grow as a person, learn new skills” etc. that is a rather healthy attitude. If you take it as, “I’m going to be how I was at 20 if I do this and this and this and this….” that isn’t probably so healthy.

The challenge to so many people is that as we age, life changes. Maybe we spent a good deal of our life raising our kids and they are going off on their own and we get kinda lost, maybe we were the big star in our job at one point and now younger people our stealing our thunder and that makes us feel unwanted. There are so many things about getting older that really knock people on their butts and adding that they have to biohack and even reverse their aging doesn’t really help.

I don’t think being on stage at conferences is going to be something that last forever, nor is it something that I will need to as well. Enjoying it now will help me appreciate looking back on helping and teaching more in the future. 

Harvard professor, Arthur Brooks, who has studied happiness in detail points to some really easy and powerful ways we can get more comfortable as we age (yes, we will talk about the exercise part too!).

Many in the work force, I can relate here, were innovators when they were younger. They came up with all sorts of new ideas and ways of doing things. As we age, this tends to decline but instead of seeing ourselves as worthless because we have a hard time with such creativity, there is a transition to be had. The experience and knowledge people create allows them to have more wisdom and become more mentors, teachers, and leaders in their workplaces. Brooks calls this, “transitioning from an “innovator” to a “synthesizer”.

When many of us our young, our focus is on gaining wealth, fame, being noticed by others. These extrinsic goals drive many younger individuals, but they start to fade in their rewards as we get older (there is debate whether they even served younger individuals as well, but that is another post;). Brooks points out that when we get older more intrinsic focuses actually build greater happiness and satisfaction. This can be learning new skills, committing more to serving your community, building and deepening relationships and the like.

I could keep going but there are some points that I hope really stick with you. For one, you don’t have to be a billionaire that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to show they don’t age like real humans. That stress of trying to remain young will probably make you more unhealthy than realizing the opportunities that aging actually offers. As the famous Harvard 80 year study points out, when they look at individuals who were wealthy, poor, famous, to average Joe, the factor that was most correlated to happiness was the quality of one’s relationships, not their body fat percentage.

Excerpt taken from the Harvard Gazette

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t workout and exercise isn’t part of our equation. However, what I noticed is that when people talk about exercise for people that are aging they try to force them to feel like they do have to relive their youth. Things like, “you have to deadlift heavy”, “you gotta do plyos” are becoming sadly, common tropes online. Here is the thing, no matter your age, you don’t HAVE to do any specific exercise or training modality. You SHOULD find exercise you enjoy because that is the biggest predictor that you will stick with it and be healthier.

Take it from the guy that use to do strongman competitions and just recently (at almost 50) did his first Tai Chi competition. Funny enough, I found the feelings, the challenges, and the enjoyment that came from each to be very similar. In fact, knowing I can continue to grow more, challenge myself, and continue to practice my Tai Chi actually gives more more excitement than I had during my strongman training that typically left me beaten up and I know was a short term game. Most of all though, I don’t feel a prisoner to what others THINK I should be doing or how they see what I enjoy to do. To me, that is learning to work towards healthy aging.

How we trained at 20 may not serve us anymore at 30, 40, 50, or beyond. We don’t have to be that person and many of us don’t want to be either. That is why we offer so many different ways to train no matter what YOU want to train for and is important for your goals. Right now you can save on our various training programs HERE with code “save20” and if you want to do a deep dive, save 35% on our VERY popular Masterclasses HERE with code “class35 “