I was sitting across the table from our latest prospect when he finally opened up and confessed.
“Dan, I’m getting older. I feel like the shape I want to get in is out of my reach.”
“How old are you?” I asked as politely as possible.
His eyes lowered, his voice softened and he declared, “I’m about to turn 30.”
The Gods were smiling upon me. Because, somehow, this guy came in at the perfect time.
First, I turned to Felipe, an ER doctor who had a solid history of training. Felipe has the type of physique that most guys would kill for. Muscular but not huge. Really well balanced. Lean enough that you could probably see his six pack through his shirt.
Though that currently wasn’t an issue as his shirt was off post workout.
“That guy’s 35,” I said rather matter-of-factly.
The prospect's eyes widened.
Next, I pointed out Kyle. Kyle looks like, well, Kyle. You’ve seen him all over our social media. But in case you haven’t, think Felipe plus 15 pounds of muscle.
“And that guy is 40,” I said.
Before he could accuse me of being a complete liar, I turned his attention to Wes.
Wes is one of my longest standing clients. We’ve worked together in some form or another for over 12 years.
He’s big, muscular and one of the best performers in the gym (and with a humble, low key attitude). Wes is such an ideal client that we’ve even coined the phrase “Be more like Wes” when it comes to approaching training.
“And Wes over there….”
Wes must have heard me because he turned and gave the guy a wave.
“Wes is 50.”
As the prospect rapidly took his credit card out of his pocket and signed up for a lifetime membership (that’s not actually true, he just signed up for our 2 week trial like every other new client) I hit him with one of my favorite lines:
“You’ve found the fountain of youth.”
This sounds like hyperbole, but it really isn’t. I don’t know how many studies I need to reference (there are thousands of them) that show strength training improves health, longevity and function as you age. But the evidence is certainly overwhelming.
If you want to look better, feel younger, mitigate disease risk and maintain function and autonomy as you age, a consistent regime of strength training with some additional cardiovascular training has proven to be the way to go.
But while strength training may be a great first step towards living a long and successful life - and certainly top of mind for a meathead such as myself - I’ve come to believe that we need to add two more items to the list.
The first is the need to establish and maintain positive relationships.
The number one predictor of happiness as we age (beyond health and physical independence) is having meaningful and supportive relationships. This is so massive that Travel & Leisure ranks “sense of community” as the top parameter when establishing their “Best Cities To Live In” lists.
Whether it’s your spouse, your gym partners or your pet hamster, maintaining relationships is critical to our longevity and ability to thrive.
I often speak of how having training partners is critical to performance and outcomes because everyone will train harder and with more focus when they are being witnessed. But equally as important is the benefit of being around like-minded and supportive people multiple times per week.
This is not only a game changer when it comes to your fitness but your life as well. I think we can all agree that while connectivity is easier than ever before, relationships are actually more challenging to maintain. But the benefits are massive and certainly worth the effort.
Now that we’ve established your physical capabilities and relationships, the last piece of the puzzle is your mind.
And speaking of puzzles, this is where people will often refer to doing crossword puzzles or playing the piano and other skill-based activities in order to stay sharp and decrease the risk of mental decline as we age.
But I would take this one step further and make it slightly larger. The key is to maintain a level of curiosity.
When you are curious about new things and are eager to learn, you become stimulated and mentally adaptive. And both of these are wonderful for staying sharp and remaining motivated as you age.
However, this is easier said than done. I’m certain we all have experience with older coworkers or family members who are resistant to new information or tackling new projects. You probably don’t even need to look back much past last week’s Thanksgiving holiday to come up with some examples of friends and family members who are more interested in being dug into their ideas than open and curious.
But general curiosity is what keeps life exciting. It’s also a really big key in being successful overall.
OK, let’s recap. If you want to maximize longevity and quality of life, engage in purposeful strength and cardiovascular training, establish meaningful and long-lasting relationships and remain open to new ideas and learnings through remaining curious.
It’s very easy to compartmentalize your fitness (and your life) into short term goals and expectations. And while there’s nothing wrong with wanting a six pack by Summer or to run sub-4 hours in your next marathon, maintaining a lifelong practice of training pays massive, massive dividends.
I’ve said this before, but just as people don’t regret spending time with family and loved ones when they look back on their life, they similarly don’t look back on the time they spent taking care of their health and well-being and think those were hours not well spent.
Layer that with some good relationships and a healthy dose or curiosity and you might just be the person I point to the next time I’m trying to close a sale.