THE AVERAGE LIFE expectancy across the globe is 73.8 years. So, if you’ve reached 70 and are still upright, congratulations – you’re average. But in this day and age, it’s not enough to be average. A handful of celebrities show that ageing isn’t just about waiting for the final destination, but actively delaying it.
Studies show that muscle naturally declines significantly in your seventies, enough to start affecting how independently you can actually live. And yet, a handful of famous 70-somethings are leaner, stronger and in better shape than most men half their age.
Here’s what 10 ridiculously fit men over 70 can teach the rest of us about training, eating and not going quietly into the gentle night.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 78
Arnie has trained through more lives than most men get to live: bodybuilding icon, Hollywood action hero, politician, newsletter philosopher, gym-world godfather. At 78, he is still training every day – not because he’s chasing another Mr Olympia title, but because it’s what makes Arnold, Arnold.
His morning routine is as wholesome as it is simple. He wakes up, starts the coffee, feeds the animals, drinks the coffee, gets on his bike, rides to the gym, trains, then rides to breakfast. Arnie doesn’t negotiate with motivation, he just cracks on. Every day.
His wider message on ageing is just as useful. Progress doesn’t need to mean smashing yourself. It means finding joy in the work, building habits that compound and turning up often enough that training becomes part of who you are. The Austrian Oak might be older now, but the roots are still deep.
Sylvester Stallone, 79
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Sylvester Stallone explained that most of his training these days is focused on maintaining mobility. “I’ve had five back operations, two shoulders, three neck fusions, both knees – I’m bionic,” he said in the interview. “I’ve gone from lifting regular weights to mostly bands, cables.”
“It’s kind of like physical therapy,” he continued. “So, you’re using the bar, you’re using different motions and keeping those joints moving all the time.”
Earlier this year, Stallone gave us a unique insight into his home gym set-up, where he does the majority of his training. “Every year it gets harder and harder, but that’s why you gotta push harder and harder. Blood, sweat and tears,” he wrote in a motivating Instagram post.
In a separate post, Stallone confirmed just how important he sees physical health at his age. “It’s not about living in a gym,” he said, “but just finding something that gets the blood flowing through the body. It will affect your brain, it’ll affect your confidence, it’ll affect your optimism.”
JK Simmons, 71
JK Simmons has repeatedly surprised audiences with his muscular physique – which he has maintained into his seventies. One such surprise came in a scene from 2024’s Red One, in which Simmons works out alongside The Rock and doesn’t look out of place.
Simmons says the transformation didn’t require anything too crazy. “It’s just old-school hard work and nutrition,” he told Men’s Health UK. “I’ve never gone in for any of the miracles of modern science – you know, ‘chemical help’. It doesn’t seem worth it at my age.”
In the gym, Simmons’ focus is similarly simple. He tries to cap his workouts at one hour and trains his whole body. “It’s moderate weights. You don’t skip leg day, especially at my age. Working on staying strong in the lower half, in the core – all those things,” he said. “Some of it is working on the movie muscles, but a lot of it is just trying to stay healthy.”
Dennis Quaid, 72
Dennis Quaid believes that consistency matters more than anything when it comes to fitness. “It doesn’t mean you have to be there every day, but you do have to live your life with that in mind. Because if you let it go, every time it gets a little harder to get back. So I’ve always stayed with it.”
According to Quaid, the key at his age is a mixture of stability and adaptability. “I genuinely enjoy it,” he said of exercising. “I was a runner for about 35 years, but that gets hard on the knees and the joints. At least for me. So I turned to cycling, which I’m currently doing. That and yoga. Along with that, you got to still get into the gym and lift. Do the sit-ups.”
Above all, Quaid’s advice is to not go quietly into old age. “My advice would be to do something every day that is proactive,” Quaid said. “There’s always something you can do. Be proactive.”
Lou Ferrigno, 74
Ferrigno still trains hard. In a recent video with Men’s Health US, he breaks down his training philosophy and the principles he continues to follow to maintain strength and size in his seventies. His most important tip is to prioritise rep quality over load, an approach that can be especially valuable for older lifters.
Speaking on the Pawn After Dark podcast, Ferrigno outlined his food-first approach to nutrition, centred on whole foods. “I eat like meat, fish, fruit and vegetables,” he says. “I eat my calories. I don’t drink my calories.”
He aims to keep things simple and minimally processed. “I stay away from fried food, very high-fat food, processed with chemicals, stuff like that. That’s why I eat as natural as possible.”
Ferrigno is adamant that age shouldn’t be an excuse to stop pushing forward. “You only live once… It’s all about taking every day to maximise what you have, your personal power and your vision and your short-term and long-term goals.”
Bruce Springsteen, 76
Even at 76, Springsteen still delivers energetic performances, rarely stopping for a break during his three-hour concerts. A strong base of fitness has long been imperative to his career, with his lifestyle habits undeniably playing a part.
“Think of it this way: performing is like sprinting while screaming for three, four minutes,” Springsteen said when asked why he has maintained such high levels of fitness. “Your adrenaline quickly overwhelms your conditioning.”
The most regimented aspect of Springsteen’s lifestyle is his diet. “The biggest thing is diet, diet, diet,” he told Tim McGraw in an Apple Music interview. “I don’t eat too much, and I don’t eat bad food, except for every once in a while when I want to have some fun for myself. So I think anybody that’s trying to get in shape, exercise is always important of course, but diet is 90% of the game.”
On top of eating as healthily as he can, Springsteen reportedly eats just one main meal a day “I’ll have a bit of fruit in the morning and then I’ll have dinner. That has kept me lean and mean,” he told The Times.
Liam Neeson, 74
Speaking to Film Inside during filming for The Commuter, Neeson explained: “I keep very fit in life. You have to doing these sorts of films, you know.”
But he doesn’t let fitness dominate his life. “I don’t get obsessed about it, but I keep fit,” he said. “And certainly for The Commuter I was setting the alarm clock for 5:15 every morning, going to the gym for 45 minutes, getting picked up, going to the studio and shooting.” The days didn’t end there. “I would take like a 20-minute doze, a little sleep, and then go and join the stunt guys to rehearse some more for the fights,” he added.
When asked how often he trains, he’s refreshingly flexible. Neeson says he works out around five days a week, but the sessions vary depending on how he’s feeling. “Sometimes I’ll do maybe just 20 minutes. Next day I might do an hour. Next day I might do 15 minutes. You know, you have to keep in reasonable shape.”
Pierce Brosnan, 73
“I don’t see myself as an old man at all,” Pierce Brosnan told Saga Magazine. “But I suppose I would be considered an old man by some and I am getting older, that’s for sure.”
Perhaps Brosnan doesn’t see himself as old because, even in his eighth decade, the Irish actor still feels (and looks) younger than he is. He’s highly active and goes rowing, cycling and golfing regularly. He also keeps a relatively clean diet and manages his sugar intake.
Stephen Lang, 74
“I would date it at 2010 when I became completely committed for the rest of my life to remain as fit and as flexible as I can,” Stephen Lang told Men’s Health in 2025. “Because you become aware of your advancing age; you feel your age. And it’s not a question of staving off age. You can’t do that. But what you can do is make the most out of what you got.”
Lang’s training consists of yoga, weights sessions and karate. Some days he’ll do all three, but he gives precedence to yoga. It’s a regimen that’s kept him trim, a key reason that he still looks menacing as the sinister Colonel Quaritch in Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Skip Bayless, 74
Skip Bayless started working out in 1982, relying heavily on weight room Nautilus machines, but as the years have worn on, he’s embraced free weights and cardio. He begins his mornings with an hour of running on the treadmill. After that, he battles through a series of classic bodybuilder exercises: cable chest presses, hammer curls, and chinups. He finishes with a five-minute plank. It’s all central to Bayless’s long-term goal: continuing to outwit the ageing process. “All I care about in the end is staying healthy,” he says. “That’s the essence of what we’re talking about.”
Three days a week, he pushes through this weight room session. Seven days a week, he guts out that hour of cardio. He hasn’t missed a regular cardio session since May 3, 1998, he says, when he had a sinus infection.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to purchase a downloadable pdf of Men’s Health’s Muscle After 40 bookazine.
