Tim Robards keeps levelling up

The five-time Men’s Health cover star isn’t slowing down as he hits his mid 40s. Instead, he’s looking for ways to keep improving. Whether it’s in fitness, as a father, an actor, an entrepreneur, or in the way he presents himself, Robards’ approach to life offers a tried and tested blueprint for success

By Ben Jhoty | Sep 3, 2026

THE SIGHT OF TIM ROBARDS emerging from the surf on an overcast and rather fresh morning at Manly Beach, is one that might stop you in your tracks.

The soon-to-be 44-year-old’s rippling physique still rises and falls in all the right places and, freshly shaven thanks to a quick run across his granite jawline with the Philips i9000 Prestige Ultra, which he’s helping showcase today, Robards looks as imposing as he did back in 2008, when he appeared on his first Men’s Health cover.

Another four covers, including today’s shoot, and nearly two decades later, it’s fair to say Robards has Father Time in something of a chokehold. Asked to reflect on his record breaking fifth cover, Robards smiles.

“I remember when we did the last one, I was like, I don’t know if I’ll get the chance again, that’s probably it, hang up the boots,” he says, as we chat from an expansive balcony overlooking the surf at the newly revamped Elysium Manly. “But it’s a nice bit of recognition. We joke about being ‘cover ready’. For me, I always thought it [the cover] wasn’t like a wedding where people go, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get in shape’. The guy on the cover should be living the Men’s Health life and I feel like I do and I’ve done that. I’m still doing it and I feel proud that I can.”

Of course, it gets harder as the years tick by, but while Robards will make concessions to age, he refuses to give too much ground. You can always find ways to be the best version of yourself, he says. “I’m trying to embody the best expression of my genetics. I have a level of genetic potential. I want to express as much of that as possible with my health and fitness, which is getting harder with age. But I think, at any age, there’s a level you can hit, while maintaining balance in the rest of your life.”

He’s right about that. Balance becomes increasingly important as you get older and responsibilities and commitments begin to pile up. Back in ’08, Robards was a chiropractor who did a bit of modelling on the side. Now, he’s an actor, father, entrepreneur, fitness influencer, model and lately, a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, among other things. There’s a lot on his plate but here’s the thing – it’s by taking on new and sometimes daunting challenges, that you allow yourself the space to grow.

“I think to keep expanding, you have to have a crack at things that you might doubt yourself at,” says Robards, a philosophy that, for him, had its origins back in primary school, in Newcastle, when his grandma pushed him to be school captain. “I used to shit myself having to get up and take assembly every week. But very early on, I learned that if you push yourself out of your comfort zone, you’re not going to shrivel up and die, even though it might feel like that. You rise to the occasion.”

The point was further reinforced to him through his experience on the first year of The Bachelor Australia, where he ended up meeting his now wife, Anna Heinrich – the two have two kids, Elle, 5, and Ruby, 2. “There were so many things I’d be absolutely shitting myself about,” he recalls. “But the more I put myself into these uncomfortable situations and got through it, the more I was able to reaffirm to myself that you will, again, rise to the occasion. It’s not as bad as you think. A lot of people hold themselves back because they don’t think they’ll be able to meet the moment. But if you just back yourself, do the work and have a crack, you’ll get there.”

As templates for success go, it’s pretty inarguable.

ROBARDS IS STANDING in his boxers in the Elysium’s bathroom mirror, as he carefully guides the i9000 Prestige Ultra across the contours of his face, the shaver methodically eating up the black and greyish stubble in its path. Later he moves to the lounge in a robe, before doing some chin-ups off the edge of the suite’s timber sauna.

In this pristine hotel room, cleanly shaven for the first time in years, there’s a hint of ’80s cultural touchstone and lately TikTok avatar for finance bros, Patrick Bateman – they are similarly proportioned and, at least for today, well groomed – but to make such a comparison would be for sport only. Bateman’s veneer of success, built in part on a solipsistic approach to self-care, masked a troubled soul. Robards, on the other hand, is the real-life embodiment of a masculine ideal, someone whose success rests on internal motivators, a steadfast values system, and, it must be said, no small amount of charm and self-effacing humour.

Not that he couldn’t subvert his matinee looks and pin-up image if the opportunity arose – Robards has some form playing morally ambiguous characters after his turn as Pierce Greyson on Neighbours. The last time he spoke to Men’s Health – on a mountaintop in South Korea of all places – he talked at length about the difficulties of making it as an actor. Happily, he’s had some wins in the years since, with a lead role in a streaming romcom, From Italy with Love (titled Chef’s Kiss in America) and smaller parts in upcoming blockbusters Voltron and Street Fighter. “It a nice little bit of recognition after all the hard work,” he says of these breakthroughs.

Even so, show business, particularly if you’re trying to crack it in your 40s, is a cutthroat industry. On more than one occasion Robards has found himself down to the last two on projects that had the potential to change his life. It can be heartbreaking, he admits, yet he continues to show up to auditions, attend acting classes and keeps believing the next stepping stone will be the one that catapults him.

“The ones that hurt the most are when you get so close,” he says. “I’ve had a few where I’ve been in the running for some pretty big stuff and you know how close you are to something life changing. And then it gets ripped away from you and given to someone else. And that’s worse than probably never getting that far in the first place because it’s almost like what you don’t know, you don’t know.”

Rather than sit around waiting for the phone to ring, he’s trying to take his fate into his own hands, working on projects with friends and writing a script for a short film. The other thing that’s helping him maintain a positive mindset in the face of rejection and could be of benefit to anyone who’s ever wanted something really badly, is to take a step back and widen your lens.

“I think you’ve got to try and enjoy the journey,” he says. “I’m really trying not to look at it like I’ve made it once I get that role. I’m trying to enjoy the process and the auditioning. I think if you look at acting as something that you’re doing only when you get a paid job, then I’m not really acting much at all. I’d probably give up on it. I’m just trying to enjoy everything that acting encompasses; going to acting classes, doing these short films and helping out friends, whether you get paid for it or not . . . but it would be nice to be paid.”

The truth is, Robards isn’t in it for the money. He’s not sleeping on mates’ couches in Santa Monica as he does the rounds of auditions, as so many Aussie actors are forced to do. Acting is but one of a portfolio of passion projects he taken on in the last decade or so that’s seen him become something of a multi-hyphenate, if not quite a full-blown polymath. “Jack of all trades, master of none,” he laughs, nodding as I add the often overlooked third part of that famous saying: “though often times better than a master of one”.

“I think if I just did one thing and did it really well, I’d be bored to a degree,” he says of his appetite for taking on new projects. “I’ve always tried to push towards things I enjoy and get good at them, good enough that people will either pay me for it or I can make a living out of it or it becomes a side passion.”

As well as his fitness, modelling and promotional commitments, Robards has a wine business that he started with friend and business partner Shun Eto, called Elle Rosé, named after his eldest daughter. It’s starting to shift stock, selling a thousand bottles in year one, 6,000 in year two and 12,000 last year, while the label recently won a silver medal at the Global Rosé Masters.

Of course, turning thought bubbles – Robards conceived of the idea for Elle Rosé in a state of euphoria and sleep deprivation after his daughter’s birth – into tangible achievements, requires grit. Robards credits his work ethic to the habits he established in the gym as a teenager. “It’s all those little wins,” he says. “It’s the long-term slogging away to get the goals you’re chasing. You realise that hard work pays off and that’s something I’ve extrapolated into everything I do in life.”

There’s perhaps one other lever underpinning his success. Robards has a long-running joke among his mates that’s become something of a philosophy – he even built a fitness brand around it: The Robards Method, founded on the principle that ‘less is more’. It helps in juggling his priorities, he says. “I’m always looking for how to do less and get more results, how to be more efficient,” he says. “Even in everyday stuff, I could be driving from A to B, I’m always looking for the most efficient route.” Why, might you ask? “At the end of the day, it’s energy conservation,” he says. “The more energy you can save, the more you’ve got to do things you love.”

Sounds simple, but if you’ve got competing priorities and multiple projects on the go, a ‘method’ or a personal code, might just be the secret to staying on track. It’s up to you whether you want to attach your name to it.

AS ROBARDS SITS, now clean shaven, in the circular timber sauna on the balcony of the Elysium, you’d have to say the i9000 has probably helped take a few years off him. From a distance, there’s little to choose between this version of Robards and the ’08 model.

Indeed, in terms of his body, he might even be bigger and more powerfully built than he was as a younger man, if that’s possible. Is he still at his physical peak? Or like LeBron James or Novak Djokovic, has he entered the lion in winter stage of his physical journey? It’s a question Robards has spent some time on.

“My training is geared toward a different stage of my life,” he says. “Back then [2008] it was all about growth and what can I hit? There’s so much potential in front of you. There are moments now where you question whether you’ve hit your full potential and now you’re just trying to maintain. Have I hit the peak and it’s all downhill? But I still have goals that I can push forward. That’s what keeps me inspired.”

One of those goals is getting better at jiu-jitsu, a sport he’s picked up in the last couple of years that’s offered him a new canvas for self-improvement and challenged him in ways he didn’t expect.

“I needed something,” he says, noting that after appearing on SAS Australia in 2023, a series in which he won despite a serious spinal infection, he’s enjoyed having a goal to lock onto. “It was so good to have something to chase and I was kind of missing that. I’m like, I want to throw myself into something that I’m really shit at again and build up from scratch. I’m about to turn 44 and I think with two daughters and lots of stresses, it’s really good to have things to nurture your masculinity.”

At the same time, he’s loving sharing his passion with eldest daughter, Elle, who’s taken enthusiastically to the sport and is now regularly pinning boys her age to the mat. Robards finds it difficult to conceal his pride. “We speak a little technical language that her and her mum don’t speak,” he laughs. “We’ll talk about her getting me in a half guard and then I got into mount. And Anna’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So I love that.”

He admits the tragedies in both Bondi and Bondi Junction the last couple of years also influenced his decision to take up the sport. “I remember thinking, How did this guy run around for 25 minutes [at Bondi Junction] and no one stopped him? But then I sort of turned it back on myself and said, If I was there, what would I do? Would I just run away, protect my family, or would I put myself at risk to protect other people? And would I have the skills to be able to do that?”

He particularly enjoys the sport’s tactical dimensions, likening it to physical chess. Not least, it’s scary, he says, a surprising admission for such a physically capable bloke. “It’s really good for your ego,” he admits. “You learn how helpless you are. There might be some 75-kilo dude who’s 20 kilos lighter than you who will towel you up in seconds. I had to learn. Initially, I was going in and I thought the aim of it was to use all my strength to defend myself as much as I could and not get choked out. And I learned early on that the more strength you use, the more of that force is going to come straight back on you. I was really battling and it took me a little while to realise that sometimes I just have to just tap out and put a little bit less pressure on myself.”

Is there a lesson there? With Robards there always is. “You learn from getting tapped out,” he says. “I think it mirrors life a bit. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a little bit of the pressure off yourself. Sometimes you’ve got to stop and look around instead of just going so hard at your goals. What’s Matthew Broderick say [in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off]?” He can’t quite pull the quote, so I’ll do it for him. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

With the help of his trusted methods and the dirty, callus-handed wisdom of experience, Robards is doing his best to make sure his life doesn’t pass him by.

Tim Robards’ grooming essentials

Robards uses the Philips i9000 Prestige Ultra a couple of times a week, mostly to maintain shape on his customary beard. “I think the thing that this shaver does really well is it does get you a really close shave,” he says. “I think getting that level of closeness of shave, from an electric shaver, without the irritation, is pretty amazing.”

He also likes the fact that the i9000 gives you the option of a wet or dry shave. “I’ve tried both, but I think I like doing dry. I’m mostly doing the edges [of my beard], so I like to have a mirror.”

Outside of shaving, Robards keeps his grooming routine simple:

“I’ll just get out of the shower, dry myself off, I’ll shave, then I’m using a moisturiser that has hyaluronic acid in it. That’s it, I’m out the door.”

Tim Robards’ cover model workout

As he hits his mid 40s, Robards has been exploring the concept of ‘dense strength’, which involves lifting submaximal loads at timed intervals. “A lot of strength is neurological,” he says. “It’s not about the size of your muscle. It’s about the electrical messages from your brain; how many of those muscle fibres can you switch on? It kind of comes back to less is more.” Here’s a workout he does twice a week that helps keep him in cover model shape.

Pick a foundational movement – bench press, squat, deadlift or chin-up. Find a weight you can do four reps max. Set a timer for 10 minutes.

3 reps EMOM x 10 minutes
1 x 15 reps at half the weight

“By the end of those 10 minutes you’re pretty cooked,” says Robards. “But once you’ve done that, do a longer set at half the weight and just punch it out. That way, you’ve got neurological stimulation from the first 10 minutes and then you’re tearing up the muscle in your 15-rep phase straight after that. That’s what I’ll do as an efficient workout.”