40 Something Men — Your 58 Year Old Future Self Has Some Advice

Image generated by DALL-E AI

With 20 months left in my 50’s, I have a pretty good handle on what it takes to enter my sixth decade in excellent physical & mental condition. I’m not bulletproof but I am harder to kill today than I was in my early 40's.

I wish my current self could go back in time and educate my 40 something self (the inspiration for the AI generated image above) about how to enter my 50’s with momentum, great health and the knowledge to slow down the aging process.

A guide on expectations, preparation, and performance improvement.

A roadmap of sorts to better navigate one of the most important decades that will determine whether the rest of your life is spent performing at a high level or if you’ll enter the steady decline that most Men experience.

Maybe that will be a book someday. For now, I’m going to condense my advice into 7 actions Men in their 40’s should take now if they want to enter their 50’s with momentum.

And for all the Men over 50, there is no better time to start than today.

Here we go.

1. Move from Busy to Intentional. High performing men spend a big chunk of their careers being busy with very little time spent pausing and asking themselves why the hell are they so busy?

They put their careers ahead of their health and claim they are too busy to drop some weight, improve their fitness and regain some pride in their appearance and performance.

But these busy men somehow have time to knock back a few drinks each night, watch sports, take a golf trip or just “relax.”

A simple time audit would reveal there is not a time issue.

There is a prioritization issue.

The main purpose of setting intentions is to help you realize YOU get to decide where you invest your time. Not your boss, not your shareholders, not the expectations of others.

Saying you are busy is the lamest excuse for not doing something. It’s better to say “I don’t prioritize that” as it shows more ownership.

Start intentionally creating time to improve your physical and mental health.

You do this by swapping your low value activities for high value health activities.

An easy place to start: intentionally set a recurring appointment on your calendar to go for a 20-minute walk. Create personal integrity by honoring that appointment every day. Watch how this simple intention and the act of following through positively cascades into other areas of your life.

2. Understand Your Current Health Status. So many men in their 50’s and 60’s are on multiple medications, are overweight or obese and are biologically older (they are aging faster than their birthday). As a man in your 40’s, you are likely on this same path. Here’s how to interrupt that pattern.

Do three things:

• Get a comprehensive male blood panel like this one offered by Life Extension. You’ll get baseline measurements on key biomarkers that you can track each year so you can detect positive or negative trends. You can review your results with a Life Extension advisor or consult with your physician. I recommend working with a functional, integrative or naturopathic physician as they are better trained in proactive healthcare.
• Get your body composition tested. You want to be around 15% body fat for optimal health. There is an 80% chance you are at 20% body fat or higher and if you are in that range as a 40 something man, it’s only going to get worse if you don’t correct it. InBody or DEXA scans are both excellent tools to measure your body composition.
• Know Your Biological Age — this can sometimes be calculated based on the blood labs you get. The key is to understand if you are aging faster or slower on a cellular basis. Slower is better! InsideTracker is an excellent tool and kills two birds: it gives you comprehensive blood work and your biological age (they refer to it as InnerAge). They often have coupons so do some research. Another option that is low cost: Thorne’s biological age test.

Once you complete these tests and know your results, take action to improve them. Knowing and not doing is not knowing.

3. You’re Fatter Than You Think. With nearly 80% of Men in the U.S. overweight or obese, you are probably at risk for metabolic syndrome (heart attack, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, etc.). There are ZERO health benefits to being fat. Quality of life and life expectancy both drop significantly as your body fat increases. Take action now, it’s a lot easier than it will be in 10 years. See #2 above about getting your body fat measured.

Being overweight or obese has become normalized. It’s a serious health crisis that is completely reversible by changing your lifestyle. Opt out of this normalization!

4. Form Your Personal Health Team. You need to be the CEO of your health and assemble your health team. The traditional “sickcare” system will not help you when it comes to proactive healthcare. Once you address the 3 bullets above under “Understand Your Current Health Status” you’ll have an idea of who needs to be on your team.

As an example, assume you are a 45 year old man who is at 24% body fat (overweight, borderline obese) and your biological age is 54. Form your personal health team with these members:

• Functional, Integrative, or Naturopathic doctor. These doctors focus on root cause solutions and don’t just treat symptoms. They understand the hallmarks of aging, the role nutrition has to help or hurt you, and they use non-drug alternative therapies before resorting to traditional methods (like meds).
• Personal trainer or group training gym. Find a professional trainer or gym that understands mobility, strength training, cardiovascular training, flexibility and nutrition. Ask them to join your personal healthcare team and share your goals with them. Most people in this industry are more than willing to help you out and they are typically also knowledgeable in nutrition.
• You. You don’t need to know how to build the watch but you need to learn to tell time when it comes to the basics of health. Body composition, nutrition, fitness, hydration, alternative therapies, life extension, age reversal, inflammation…start to gain a basic understanding of these concepts and you’ll get better results. Basic health literacy is a necessity if you want to perform optimally, no matter your age.

5. Lift Weight 3x a Week. This area gets covered in the point above but I gave it special attention for one reason. As you age, you want to preserve and ideally grow your muscle mass. You start to lose muscle mass naturally in your 40’s (it’s called Sarcopenia) and as you age, the rate of loss will accelerate unless you take steps to mitigate it. Maintaining and building strength is one of the best things you can do entering your 50’s because it is highly correlated with living longer.

And don’t worry, you are not going to get “bulky.” That’s an excuse to not lift. Improve your nutrition, lift weights and drop fat. This recommendation alone will go along ways towards helping you hit your 50’s with momentum.

6. Get Aligned With Your Wife or Partner. I’m married so I’m going to use the term wife. There are so many reasons to be aligned with your wife on health, nutrition, and fitness which will only help you live optimally as you enter your 50's.

You might be the leader or the laggard in the relationship. You might be fortunate enough to be aligned already. Wherever you land, having conversations about this topic is critical.

You won’t close gaps overnight and you need to be ready to compromise. But find the common ground and get started.

7. Don’t Be The Former Anything. When you refer to yourself as the “former CEO, Division I athlete, top salesman, etc.” it keeps you stuck in the past. You might as well say “I’m the guy who peaked awhile back and I’m currently not doing anything interesting.”

Use those past accomplishments to keep building the current you but not define the current you.

This can be a real challenge for anyone who sells their company, retires, gets fired, or decides to make a career change.

The past is fluid and we can make it work for us or against us. But it is the past, not the present. Use the past to inform where you are going. We use Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s work on Future Self to help us create the Northstar that pulls us forward like a magnet.

Dr. Hardy also has an excellent book called Personality isn’t Permanent that can help you reframe your past and rewrite your story.

7.5 Find (or create) A Band of Brothers. Finding a group of like-minded Men holds so many benefits. Accountability, structure, expectations and support are a few. And while you can’t join Argent Alpha (unless you were born on this day in 1973 or earlier) you can use the principles to create your own tribe.

And if you are a Man over 50 reading this, it’s never too late to get started. Every game changer above applies to you. You can do it on your own but more than likely you’ll fade at some point.

Iron sharpens iron and you need other Men on the same journey as you to truly optimize and sustain your results. It really is a journey and not a destination.

Each member who completes the first 100 days of the Argent Alpha Upgrade receives this challenge coin.

Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. This is a reminder that our days are finite so make the most of them.

We add “Not Today” to emphasize that you have today in front of you to take massive action. Make the most of it or waste it. It’s up to you.

If you are a high performing man over 50, consider joining us. The investment you make in yourself has the potential of producing an unlimited return.

Originally published at https://hardertokill.beehiiv.com.