If I Wanted to Age Well, I’d Start With Muscle

We spend a lot of time talking about how aging looks.

Skin. Wrinkles. Hair. Weight.

But lately, I’ve been thinking more about a different question:

How do I want aging to feel?

I want to travel.

I want to walk for hours through a city I’ve never visited.

I want to carry my own suitcase.

I want to climb the stairs without thinking about the stairs.

I want my body to keep allowing me to say yes to things.

And underneath many of those very ordinary things is something we tend to take for granted when we’re younger:

Muscle.

Ten Years in Sports Retail Changed How I Think About This

I spent almost 10 years working in the sports retail industry.

When you spend that much time around sport, you learn that details matter.

The shoes you run or walk in.

The equipment you train with.

The activity you choose.

How your body moves.

I learned to appreciate good equipment. The right shoes can make movement more comfortable. The right equipment can support the way you train.

What we train with matters.

But with time, I understood something even more important:

The most important equipment we will ever have is our own body.

And muscle supports so much of what that body does every day.

Standing. Walking. Lifting. Carrying. Balancing. Getting up.

Things we barely notice while they’re easy.

You don’t celebrate being able to lift your suitcase into an overhead compartment.

You just do it.

You don’t think about getting up from a chair.

You just get up.

That made me realize something:

Independence is almost invisible when you have it.

Maybe that’s exactly why we should protect it before we start losing it.

A Marathon Taught Me Something Else

At one point, I also participated in a marathon.

We did it as a team, and that experience stayed with me for reasons that went far beyond running.

A marathon teaches you very quickly that you cannot prepare for a long distance in one heroic weekend.

You train.

You show up again.

You have good days and terrible days.

You learn to recover.

You continue.

And little by little, your body becomes capable of doing something that once looked impossible.

Endurance is built over time.

But something else happened too.

Training and participating together made us stronger as a team.

We encouraged each other. We struggled together. We kept going together.

It strengthened our muscles, but in a different way, it strengthened our relationships too.

There is something powerful about doing something difficult together.

And there is one lesson from that experience that I understand even better today:

A marathon has a finish line. Taking care of your body doesn’t.

Then I Looked at the Science

My own experiences made me interested in the subject.

The research made it even more relevant.

A 2025 analysis brought together 151 randomized trials involving more than 6,300 older adults and found that resistance training can improve physical function, lean body mass, muscle size and strength.

What I found particularly encouraging was that benefits were seen even with relatively low training volumes.

In other words, taking care of muscle doesn’t have to mean turning your life into one long gym session.

The World Health Organization recommends muscle-strengthening activities involving the major muscle groups on at least two days per week, alongside aerobic activity.

And as we get older, strength and balance become particularly important.

That changed something in the way I think about exercise.

Walking is excellent.

Running is excellent.

Cardio matters.

But strength deserves a place too.

The Shoes Matter. But They Don’t Do the Running.

After almost ten years in sports retail, I still love good sports equipment.

Good shoes matter.

Comfort matters.

Using the right equipment matters.

But there is a truth no sports brand can change:

You can buy the shoes. They cannot do the running for you.

You can buy the weights.

They cannot lift themselves.

You can wear a watch that measures your steps, heart rate, sleep and recovery.

It cannot create the habit for you.

At some point, we still have to show up.

And I’ve come to believe that consistency probably matters much more than waiting for the perfect program, the perfect equipment or the perfect Monday to start.

If I Were Starting Today, I’d Keep It Simple

I wouldn’t try to change everything at once.

Move.
Walk more. Take the stairs. Get outside. Find something you genuinely enjoy doing.

Add strength.
Weights, machines, resistance bands or appropriate body-weight exercises. Give your muscles a reason to stay useful.

Eat to support your body.
Good nutrition, enough protein and hydration are part of the picture too.

Recover.
One thing marathon training taught me very clearly: rest is not the opposite of training. It is part of it.

Use good equipment — but actually use it.
The best running shoes in the world won’t help much sitting in the wardrobe.

This Is What “Aging Well” Means to Me

Longevity has become a huge topic.

We talk about supplements, tests, devices, treatments and optimization.

Some of those things may be useful.

But my own definition of aging well is much simpler.

I want my body to keep allowing me to live the life I want.

To travel.

To explore.

To carry my own bags.

To keep moving.

To remain independent.

To say yes to an adventure because I want to — not no because my body can’t.

After almost ten years in the sports industry, I learned to appreciate good equipment.

A marathon taught me what endurance really means.

And getting older is teaching me something else:

Muscle isn’t just about how we look.

It supports so much of how we live.

Maybe healthy aging isn’t only about adding more years to our lives.

Maybe it is about making sure we can live those years the way we want to.

So I’ll leave you with the same question I’m asking myself:

What are you doing today that your body will thank you for 10 or 20 years from now?