10 Non-Negotiables for Athletes Who Refuse to Slow Down (2026 Edition)

10 Non-Negotiables for Staying Strong After 40 (2026 Edition)
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Kush: [00:00:00] Hello friends. It's early March and we are already two months. Change deep in the new year. So why is this episode coming now? Well, if you set health goals in January, you are either quietly sticking with them or well, you're passively drifting, and that's why I wanted to record this. Now, January is so loud.

March is honest, and March is where consistency starts to separate from enthusiasm. Over the last couple of years, I've had more than a hundred long conversations with elite athletes, coaches and scientists, and I am including people I admire. Some of the world's [00:01:00] best climbers, ultra runners, big wave surfers.

Cyclists, but then also strength coaches, neuroscientists, longevity researchers, different sports, different temperaments and well different backgrounds. 

The athletes who last, and the others who speak about them, not just competitively, but physically, mentally share something surprisingly simple. They are not extreme. They are steady and in 2026, I think steadiness is radical. So here are 10 non-negotiables for athletes and everyday folks who plan to still be strong, not just next year, but 20, 30, 40 years from now.

Okay, let's get into these den. Non-negotiables. The [00:02:00] first one, longevity is being marketed and you need discernment. I'll say it again. Longevity is being marketed and we need to be so discerning. We are living through the commercialization of aging. Longevity has become a product category. There is a type of medicine now, which is.

Being called longevity medicine, there are concierge clinics offering six figure packages, advanced biomarker panels every quarter, stacks of peptides, exotic supplements, subscription medicine. Some of that science indeed is promising and that is important to acknowledge. But here's a question that matters in March, not January.

If this works only for people with vast amounts of money [00:03:00] and unlimited time, is it really a solution? When I spoke with Jamie from XPRIZE on the podcast, we talked about scale. If an intervention cannot reach millions of people, it's not a meaningful public health strategy. That's a grounding lens. The fundamentals of aging well or still.

Let's see, strength training, aerobic fitness, blood pressure control, glucose stability, sufficient protein, sleep consistency, and social connection. None of these require exclusivity, and in 2026, we need to separate evidence from branding inside from monetization. Thoughtful prevention from performance theater, follow ideas and not personalities, [00:04:00] even the ones you admire.

So. I'll share something honest. I read Outlive by Dr. Peter Oia a few years ago. I was honestly impressed and inspired, but then I also recently found out that Dr.

Oia markets these really expensive longevity protocols. He is, or he calls himself a longevity doctor, but he is not. Actually board certified. So it made me think that are these the type of longevity practitioners that I need to follow because they are the ones who. Market or build something which is only available for a very few number of people.

The same goes for others. For example, Bryan Johnson. Yes, he is [00:05:00] in the zeitgeist and he is doing these things and is marketing all these products, but. Again, he has this whole stack of things that he says is going to help him live longer, but you need to do all of the things that he's talking about. You can't just go and buy.

Those supplements that you see marketed on your social feeds, you have to do each and every one of those things. You know, the, uh, the, the type of diet he eats. The way he carefully spends all his waking hours doesn't catch any sunlight or very minimal sunlight. At least he has, uh, all these expensive therapists and, and, and scientists working with him.

Um, he's. Spending time in the sauna with red light therapy, like he's doing all these interventions and the whole thing is not available for most of us. So again, we need [00:06:00] to be careful of who we follow and admire. And. There are many things that those people are sharing that are indeed worthwhile, but we just need to be so selective.

Okay, the next one is stored something new. Your brain requires it. Again, I repeat, stored something new. Your brain requires it. This is one of the least appreciated performance levers. When Dr. Tommy Wood came on the podcast recently, he talked about cognitive preserve, the brain's ability to withstand aging, injury or stress, and one of the strongest ways to build that reserve.

Deliberate novelty learning something new, struggling. Being a beginner again. So this broke my brain a bit because I used to think that when we find flow, when we are really good at something [00:07:00] and we are executing that thing flawlessly, that is helping us in all dimensions. But actually that is not true for our brain.

So the brain doesn't. It become resilient when it does the same thing over and over the brain and our cognition. They become stronger when we challenge them and, and start new things. So this is not scrolling, this is not consuming information this is doing in. Our twenties in our thirties, life forces, novelty.

We have careers that we are starting, we are relationships, we are navigating, we are just doing new things all the time. I think as we get older in. Our forties and then later fifties, sixties. When we retire and beyond, we have to [00:08:00] actually choose this. Look at elite athletes, look at the best ones, and they are always pushing themselves in new ways.

I have had people on the show who have started new things in the later years. We have, Somebody who went and surfed Mavericks giant waves in their fifties, somebody who started sailing and doing it full-time in their sixties. Now we don't have to do exactly those things, but we have to try something new.

It could be, you know, learn a new sport. It could be learn that new language. It could be pick up the drums or the congas and start. Working on your musical ambition or your dream that you can finally realize now. So you have [00:09:00] to start something and it has to be something that engages you, forces you to forces you to.

Learn something difficult, something new, and those things will expand our range, that neurological flexibility. Uh. It's part of longevity. The brain thrives in adaptation. If everything in our life is familiar and optimized, we are not building reserve in 2026. Comfort is easy to design, which means deliberate challenge matters more than ever.

Okay, next, the nutrition culture war. Is a distraction. Again, the nutrition culture. War is a distraction. We are living in strange times right now. Nutrition is [00:10:00] ideal, logical. Our latest administration just released a new food pyramid. This food pyramid has been inverted almost from the last one. So this one says, eat more meat.

Fear. Be afraid of cobs. Demonize seed oils, ban dies. Attack fruit. Wow, this is so loud. But step back and look at athletes. Look at people who actually last. Carbohydrates. They are essential. When I actually ask elite athletes what they actually eat, not what they post, the answers are remarkably normal, elite, ultra runner, Harvey Lewis has a breakfast. It repeats every day. [00:11:00] Lionel Eats so consistently. Big wave surfer in his seventies, Gary Linden. He is not chasing extremes at all. And then Alpinist Kitty Calhoun in her sixties, she keeps things simple and intentional.

None of them are arguing on social media about sea oils. They are fueling for performance. They're eating a balanced diet in 2026. we are confusing. Polarization with progress. Carbohydrates are not the enemy of athletes. Fiber still supports long-term health micronutrients. Oh, they're so important.

And yes, protein matters, especially as we age, but ideology is not performance nutrition, consistency is and well about that food pyramid. So [00:12:00] I believe that. The food pyramid that we had, the reason it didn't succeed is not because it was wrong, it was because we as a nation never really followed it. So I think, we need to stop focusing on.

This ideology and what they want us to do differently with their recommendations, but just go back to the basics and be consistent with them. Okay, next one. Muscle is structural insurance. Again, I repeat muscle is structural. Insurance. This isn't aesthetic. This is structural. When I spoke to Dr. Tommy Wood recently about muscle, he framed it as, metabolic reserve muscle stabilizes blood sugar.

It supports brain health. It protects against [00:13:00] frailty. It increases. Injury resilience. When I spoke to Alpinist, Steve Swenson, who's still climbing big mountains in his seventies, he talked about the importance of strength training. All the athletes I speak to, they are so consistent about this. They did not stop strengthening.

If anything, they actually modulated their. Workouts and the activities where they now possibly spend more time training strength, whether it's at the gym or doing other things. So sarcopenia. Okay. This is age related muscle loss. It creeps upon us. It doesn't announce himself itself dramatically. [00:14:00] It shows up as reduced capacity in 2026.

if you want durability, muscle is not optional. Here's the good news. All research shows that it is never too late to build muscle. You can build muscle in your eighties, in your nineties. You can start working out and it can have immediate positive. Impact on your body, on your mental health.

So yes, don't listen to anybody who tells you. Otherwise, take the time out. Go and build muscle and build it into habit. Okay, the next one is stop outsourcing discipline to data. Again, stop outsourcing discipline to data. We now have the ability to [00:15:00] track almost everything, sleep cycles, HRV or heart rate variability, glucose swings, training readiness.

These tools, yes, they're useful, but they can become a substitute for discomfort. The body adapts to load. Not metrics. If you are analyzing more than you are training, more than you are listening to yourself, something has shifted. March is when discipline becomes less visible. So here's something I heard recently about this elite.

Team in the Winter Olympics whose coach has actually advised them not to wear their wearables the day they are going to perform, or actually the night before they're going to perform because they do not. [00:16:00] Need to wake up with their tracker telling them that somehow they haven't rested and arrested enough and they cannot perform optimally that day.

And this can introduce this bias in that athlete's mind because they might They might get to the start line of the sport thinking that, oh, wait a second, I am not in the best shape because my tracker told me to. So actually, yes, the trackers, these things are, are, are nice, but they can sometimes do more harm than good.

So, Don't try to optimize everything you have. Listen to yourself. Just put the work in and yeah, results will come next. Okay, so this one I think is pretty cool. Use the healthcare. you already have. I repeat. Use the healthcare you already have, and this is one that I've been thinking about a [00:17:00] lot over the last few years.

It really matters, I think, and we do not need a boutique longevity clinic to begin taking care of our long-term health. Most insurance plans if you're lucky enough to be insured, they already cover annual physicals, basic blood panels, lipid panels, blood pressure checks, colon. Cancer screenings, skin checks, bone density scans when appropriate, even nutritional counseling, referrals.

Yes, I used a nutritionist with my insurance plan a few years ago, and then finally, of course, physical therapy, referrals. These are powerful. High blood pressure, doesn't feel dramatic. Ensure insulin resistance build slowly. Cholesterol patterns change passively, and yet people [00:18:00] skip basic screenings while chasing advanced optimization.

Start with the fundamentals. Get your blood work done. Put it in your calendar, get it done. At least once a year better, two or three times a year. Understand your blood work, ask questions, ask your practitioners. They will be happy to talk to you about them, and then adjust your behavior. So a few years ago I found through testing that I was deficient in vitamin D, which I think people who live at a certain latitudes in North America are often bound to be.

And I found that just through a routine blood panel, I started taking vitamin D three supplements, and guess what? Uh, I am now. Fine. I have sufficient levels of vitamin D in my body now, so I'm so [00:19:00] glad that I got that blood work done, and I am convinced that, yes, we all need to get blood work done at a minimum.

Okay, next. Sleep isn't revolutionary. It is so foundational. Again, I repeat. Sleep is so foundational. sleep, doesn't feel radical, but that's the point. If you consistently sleep five to six hours. Your recovery will decline over time. And you know what research says that even if you can get away with it in your twenties, thirties, as you get older, the accumulated sleep deficit shows up.

So you might pay a price for sleeping less in your older years. So what happens then? So your recovery. Declines. Like I said, your glucose control declines, your mood regulation declines. You don't need a gadget to know that [00:20:00] in 2026, the radical move isn't optimizing sleep, it's protecting it. It's turning off screens earlier.

It's making your room darker. It is reducing or eliminating alcohol. It is about adopting some. Simple, relaxing preslee patterns to relax our minds. Some people love hot showers, some people might wanna watch a movie. I personally, I guard the 30 minutes of bedtime reading I do at night. I love reading my book and and yeah, and just going to sleep.

After reading something. And yes, keep your hours as consistent as you can. It is simple and well. Simple. Doesn't mean easy, I admit, but this is so important. Get your sleep. Next one, identity [00:21:00] drives behavior. Okay, so this is not. A sexy one, but this is so important. It is personal. For a long time, I resisted labeling myself.

I. Used to lead a career in corporate America. I used to work in technology and I led this double life where I would, be rock climbing or surfing or doing outdoor sports. And I was quite passionate about my, my sports and I would sometimes try to hide them. I would not. Try to explain to others what I did over the weekends because they would not understand.

So I just kept my obsessive outdoor sports to just myself and my community of friends. But. I have now come to accept this. I am an outdoor athlete. [00:22:00] I am primarily a rock climber with other sports layered in. I am definitely not elite, but I'm serious. for me, excelling in those sports is, is important.

And you know, once I own this identity, it. Has allowed me to show up easier in the world. It allows me to make decisions better, how I structure my time, how I structure my work, where I live, who I spend time with, how I spend money. Identity reduces friction if you identify as someone who trains, you, train.

if you identify as a rock climber or a runner or a surfer or as some other kind of athlete, you know, you own that identity and then you want to [00:23:00] live up to that. So I think it will. Drive, or I think it drives just positive long-term behavior. In 2026, identity is fluid and curated. Choose the identity that stabilizes you.

Don't worry about what other people might think. Okay, next. We are coming towards the end. Community is not optional. Again, I repeat community is not an option when Ducks Army Wood. He talked about social connection. He was so clear. Strong networks correlate with long-term cognitive and physical resilience.

If you look at athletes who last, they rarely do it alone. most of my friends people I hang, I hang out with people I relate to. They are. [00:24:00] All, some type of outdoor athletes, they're climbers, they're surfers, their runners, they, they bike. And those communities are everything to me. And if you look at any of these sports, and if you think of, yeah, people thrive when they hang out with people who believe.

And do the things that they like to do. Training partners, adventure partners, community increases adherence. That is what we sometimes face. Facetiously call peer pressure. Yes, we show up. Uh, yes, we show up because we wanna be with our friends, and that means there are days when we don't feel like going to work out or going for a run, but if our friends are gonna be there, we know.[00:25:00] 

We are gonna have a good time. So yeah, our friends doing things with them, that reduces stress. It increases accountability, like I said, like peer pressure can be a good thing and you know, yes. In this day and age, Digital connection is, yes, it is important. I have so many friends like all of us do, where we stay in touch online, but it is not the same as embodied connection, so.

In 2026, let's have more contact. Let's actually spend more time with people who we care about and people who care about us. That is so important. That's all I'm gonna say. And then lastly, okay, stop blaming your age. [00:26:00] Yes. Number 10 on this list is, damn, you cannot. Blame your age. You don't stop doing things because you age, You age because you stop doing things. Yes, aging is real. Recovery shifts, hormones, shift capacity shifts, all of that does happen as we enter our forties and beyond. But the body adapts to demand as they get older. We cannot be doing less of. Those things that give us strength, we have to do more of them.

If you stop loading it, it unloads. If you stop challenging it, it shrinks. If you stop moving through range, you lose range. Then we call the aging. Some of it is aging. But a lot of it is [00:27:00] tissues. When I speak to athletes rebuilding after injury, they don't blame age. They get assessed. They strengthen weaknesses.

They address mobility, they find. Better help. They become their own advocates. That's the difference. Blaming age is passive. Adapting is active in 2026. You have more access to knowledge and support than any generation before us. If something hurts investigated, if your markers shift, address them. If your strength declines, train it.

Yes, go and find the help you need. Advocate for yourself, not obsessively but intelligently. Aging is not an identity. It's a process. and [00:28:00] processes respond to input. That is the long game my friends. Thank you. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Let me know what you think. Send me an email. before I forget, here's a small request.

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So yeah, thanks for joining me today on Ageless Athlete.

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