FOR MOST PEOPLE, 60 is around the point where the focus shifts from staying in shape to staying upright.
That might sound pessimistic, but science backs it up. Studies show that muscle naturally declines significantly in your sixth decade, enough to start affecting how independently you can actually live.
And yet, a handful of famous 60-somethings make a mockery of the data. They’re leaner, stronger and in better shape than most men half their age. Good genes, elite trainers and the kind of money that buys you two hours in the gym every day certainly help, but they’re not the whole story.
Here’s what 10 ridiculously fit men over 60 can teach the rest of us about training, eating and not going quietly into your golden years.
Rob Lowe, 62
Rob Lowe has found the cheat code for ageing: sobriety, no junk food and a wellness routine that treats fitness as a lifestyle.
A low-carb, high-protein diet has been his baseline since his mid-30s, when he realised he couldn’t keep eating the way he used to and stay in shape. These days that means an Atkins-style low-carb, high-protein approach.
On the training side, twice a week he straps into a Katalyst EMS suit for 20-minute sessions, which he says delivers the equivalent of a two-hour gym workout. The rest of the formula is low-tech: hiking, surfing, golf, paddle ball and tennis, plus a newfound love of walking.
Tom Cruise, 64
At 64, Tom Cruise is still jumping off cliffs, clinging to airborne planes, and sprinting full tilt in every movie he’s in. According to the Mission: Impossible star himself, it’s all thanks to a habitual, consistent workout routine.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Cruise explained that his approach to training is what allows him to keep living a lifestyle men half his age might deem a bit extreme. “I work seven days a week. I live on movie sets and editing rooms and that’s been my life. I just finished another movie. I have four other movies that we’re lining up,” he said. “I look at a body kind of like a car… I have to take care of it.”
To keep the engine running, Cruise treats his workouts like hygiene. “For me it’s like brushing my teeth. You gotta brush your teeth – we’re all like, ‘Oh God, do I really have to?’ But it just takes a minute. That’s how I have to train my body.”
Ralph Fiennes, 63
Ralph Fiennes didn’t get in shape to look like a superhero. In fact, for The Return, the target was much weirder – and much more interesting. Director Uberto Pasolini didn’t want a pumped-up gym body. He wanted Fiennes, playing Odysseus, to look like ‘a bit of old rope’: hardened, weathered, capable and lived-in.
The route there, however, still required serious graft. Fiennes followed a disciplined five-month training plan built around progressive weight training, regular running and a nutritional base of lean protein, complex carbohydrates and vegetables.
At 62, Fiennes’ transformation is a reminder that training in later life doesn’t have to mean chasing size. It can mean building a body that looks – and more importantly, performs – like it still has a job to do.
Brad Pitt, 62
Brad Pitt has never revealed much about his fitness routine and isn’t as likely to post a shirtless pic as some of the other guys on this list, but we can safely assume he’s still in great shape.
Pitt’s trainer for F1 revealed that the routine behind his lean, race-ready physique was a simple three sessions a week, mixing low-intensity cross-trainer cardio with a split-weights programme. Pitt’s team also added targeted isometric work for his neck and core to handle the G-forces of driving real race cars at high speeds.
Off camera, Pitt’s diet philosophy is, again, simple. He eats lean proteins, complex carbs, plenty of greens and multiple smaller meals rather than one big one. He also leaves room for a glass of his own Miraval wine.
Lenny Kravitz, 62
Lenny Kravitz has a physique you’d expect from an action star half his age. His approach is a disciplined, old-fashioned strength routine with compound lifts, consistent gym sessions and a long-standing habit of training. Kravitz has talked about staying active throughout his life rather than treating fitness as something to suddenly fix in midlife, which shows up in the durability of his physique.
Diet-wise, he utilises a largely plant-based, vegetarian approach and prioritises whole foods.
Frank Grillo, 61
Frank Grillo works hard for his physique. He spends two-and-a-half hours in the gym on a typical day, working through a combination of boxing and strength work. After 20 minutes of warming up by shadow boxing, he moves into heavy compound movements for his chest, back or legs, with six exercises thrown in at the end of the workout to challenge his core. In the middle of the workout he will also take time to hit the boxing pads.
The actor isn’t interested in vanity muscles. “I don’t do biceps, I don’t do triceps,” he told Men’s Health US in 2021. “I do core and heavy exercises on the chest, shoulders, squats and deadlifts, but as far as the vanity muscles. it’s not something [I focus on]”.
It must be noted, however, that Grillo has been open about being on Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT), which helps him stick to such an intense training schedule.
Jean–Claude Van Damme, 65
In his younger days, Van Damme trained hard. But his approach has evolved, with a greater emphasis on longevity. “As I’ve gotten older I’ve tried to balance my training a lot more,” he told Coach. “I try to take an intelligent approach, learning from previous experiences to make sure I don’t hurt my back or my legs, for example.”
Flexibility and mobility have therefore become central to his routine. They’ve helped him maintain full-body strength, with his physique now more of a byproduct of controlled, intentional weight training. “When you train and you are getting older, it’s good to stay very flexible, that’s the most important thing,” Van Damme told the PA News Agency. “Being flexible, being able to take a shower, go down there, wash everything, to balance and to do cardio at least two or three times a week.”
Dolph Lundgren, 68
Since his days in the Rocky and He-Man franchises, Dolph Lundgren has changed how he works out — taking a gentler approach to his training. “I’ve changed my routine. Now I do upper strength once, lower strength once, rehab once, cardio once a week, plus one or two Pilates sessions,” he wrote on Instagram. “Sometimes I’ll combine some of these workouts to save time. Pilates really gets my core, balance and flexibility going.”
Posting on Facebook earlier this year, Lundgren gave another insight into how he trains: a 30-second video that showed the Swede moving through a range of exercises, including horizontal cable pulls, cable chest presses, lat pulldowns, tricep push-downs and, to finish, rope cable curls. “My philosophy has always been to keep going no matter what,” he captioned.
Kevin Bacon, 67
Much like his Footloose dance routines back in 1984, Kevin Bacon approaches fitness with high intensity. His workouts are typically short, sharp and efficient, with the aim of getting as much work done as possible in minimal time.
“I hike, I lift weights, I do calisthenics,” Bacon has said. “Sometimes I work with a trainer. I don’t work out for long periods of time because I’m just too bored by it. High-intensity, short periods of time are much more beneficial for me.”
It’s an approach he has maintained well into his sixties. While filming 2025 series The Bondsman, Bacon even had a gym ‘built’ on set – although it wasn’t exactly state-of-the-art. In a satirical Instagram video, he revealed the setup consisted of just two dumbbells and a kettlebell.
Sean Penn, 65
Outside of regular lifting, Sean Penn stays active through surfing and running, using both to complement his resistance training and maintain cardiovascular fitness.
Penn also has a long-standing interest in combat sports, particularly Krav Maga. “I’ve been practising Krav Maga for several years now, not really a sport, more of a close combat technique taught to the Israeli military,” he has said in the past. “It’s meant to neutralise and disarm.”
Boxing is another long-time passion. Penn has previously shared an unlikely training partnership with Bob Dylan. “Bob Dylan, turns out, is a student of boxing, and I had a 16-foot punching ring at my house and I was friendly with his son,” Penn told Jimmy Fallon. “And at some point, Jesse, his son, said to me, “You know, my dad would like to spar.”
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.
