Ageless Athlete — Healthy Aging for a Strong, Capable Life
Ageless Athlete is a podcast about staying strong and capable for people who refuse to decline quietly. Conversations with top athletes, scientists, coaches, and thinkers about staying strong, active, and capable as we age. We explore strength, endurance, mobility, recovery, VO2 max, muscle and bone health—and what actually helps us keep doing the things we love for decades.Hosted by Kush Khandelwal — rock climber, athlete, and entrepreneur, a lifelong student of performance, and someone figuring this out in real tim
Before You Take Another Supplement, Listen to This
I’ve spent thousands of dollars on supplements over the years. Some probably helped. Some may have done absolutely nothing.
At 48, I still take several, but I’m much more skeptical than I used to be.
In this solo episode, I break down what I currently take, including creatine, protein, vitamin D, magnesium, Urolithin A, BPC-157 and TB-500, along with why I use them, where the evidence feels strong, and where I’m still experimenting.
I also get into collagen, glucosamine, omega-3s, probiotics, and the bigger question behind all of it:
What...
What Worked in Your 30s Starts Costing You After 50 | Joe Friel, 82
Joe Friel is back.
At 82, Joe is still training, still lifting, and still paying close attention to what aging actually does to an athlete’s body. In our first conversation, we talked about the moment the old rules stop working. This time, we go deeper into what to do next.
Joe explains why sleep may be the first place to look, why consistency in the gym matters more than heroic workouts, why fast-twitch power fades, and why VO2 max is not just about racing — it is about staying capable for life. This is a practical conv...
She Stopped Lifting Heavy for 2 Years — What Happened Completely Changed Her Mind | Kit DesLauriers, 56
📺 Watch on Youtube!
Twenty years ago, Kit DesLauriers skied from the summit of Everest, completing her goal of becoming the first person to ski the Seven Summits. Today, at 56, she’s still asking a compelling question: how do you stay strong and capable enough to keep doing the things you love as you get older?
A two-time World Freeskiing Champion, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Famer, Kit joins me to talk about strength, fear, big goals, parenting, non-attachment — and why she believes...
Strong at 40, Fragile at 70? The Osteoporosis Risk You're Missing | Dr. Belinda Beck, Bone Health Expert
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Dr. Belinda Beck has spent much of her career studying a part of the body most active people barely think about until something goes wrong: bone.
We train our muscles.
We train our cardiovascular systems.
But are we actually giving our bones the stimulus they need to remain strong across decades?
In this episode, Belinda explains why simply “being active” does not necessarily mean you are training your bones effectively.
Dr. Belinda Beck is a professor at Griffith Universi...
He Was Dean Potter’s “Secret Weapon” — But This Was Never a Death Wish | Timmy O’Neill, 57
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Dean Potter once called Timmy O’Neill his “secret weapon.”
With Dean back in the spotlight through Dark Wizard, I went back to this conversation with Timmy — and realized how much of it deserves to be heard again.
Timmy shares stories from their extraordinary years climbing together in Yosemite, but this conversation goes somewhere deeper: how our relationship with risk changes as we age, why Timmy fears not living more than dying, and his idea of cultivating a “life wish” — even if you’re not a climb...
Train The Same After 50 — And You’ll Lose Strength, Power & Resilience | Cherie Gruenfeld, 82
📺 Watch on Youtube!
At 82, Cherie Gruenfeld is still racing IRONMAN. She’s a 14-time world champion and is considered a GOAT of the sport. Wildly, she didn’t even start running until 42 or triathlon until 48.
Her lesson after four decades of training: if you want to preserve strength, power, and muscle as you age, you can’t keep training the way you did when you were younger. We talk about what Cherie does differently now and, the mindset behind performing into your 80s
More about Cherie: https://cheriegruen...
The Surprising Skill You Need To Live Past 100 - And It's Not Diet or Exercise | Allison Aubrey
📺 Watch on Youtube!
Allison Aubrey has spent more than two decades reporting on health and science for NPR. But when she put herself through a longevity assessment, some of the results caught even her off guard. In this episode, we talk about what she learned from that experience, why being active and lean doesn’t necessarily mean you’re as prepared for aging as you think, and the health markers that may actually be worth paying attention to. And later, Allison shares what she learned from spending time with 32 centenarians — including one pattern that kept...
You’re Going to Die - Stop Postponing Your Life | Paul Pritchard, 59
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Paul Pritchard is one of the most significant figures in British climbing. He became one of Britain’s leading rock climbers and mountaineers, with major first ascents across the UK, Patagonia, Baffin Island, Yosemite, Kyrgyzstan and the Karakoram. His first ascent of the West Face of Mount Asgard in 1994 remains one of his defining achievements. He was also the first author to have won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature twice — for Deep Play, and later, The Totem Pole.
In 1998, everything changed. While climbing Tasmania’s Totem P...
Exercise First, Sex After — Intimacy, Aging & the Next 40 Years | Joan Price, 82
We spend a lot of time preparing our bodies for the next 30 or 40 years.
Strength. Mobility. Sleep. Recovery. Longevity.
But almost nobody prepares for how sex, desire, intimacy, and pleasure may change over that same stretch of time.
In this conversation, I speak with Joan Price, one of the best-known voices on sex and aging, about what changes, what can actually get better, and what we should understand long before we think we need to.
Joan is 82, but much of what she shares may be most useful in your thirties, forties...
You Are Losing Physical Abilities Over Time — Even If You Train Strength Today | Dan Edwardes
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
You can train hard, stay fit, and still lose physical abilities you are no longer asking your body to use.
Dan Edwardes has spent more than two decades at the forefront of parkour as a practitioner, coach, and movement educator. His work has helped shape parkour into a global movement practice, with coach education programs delivered internationally through Parkour Generations and ADAPT.
In this episode, we use parkour to explore a bigger question: what physical capabilities are you sti...
Training Secrets of the World’s Best Athletes Over 50
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
What do the world’s best athletes over 50 do differently?
After more than 140 conversations with elite climbers, cyclists, surfers, runners, mountaineers, and coaches, I went back through the Ageless Athlete archive looking for the patterns.
The sports are different. The principles are surprisingly consistent.
In this episode:
Why older athletes still need intensity and power Why recovery often has to expand with age How the best athletes reverse-engineer the exact demands of their goals Why strength training mat...Building Muscle Isn’t Enough — How to Stay Capable as Your Body Changes | Rob Lea
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
If you’re over 40, one of the hardest truths to accept is that the body and training approach that got you here may not be the one that carries you forward.
In this episode, Rob Lea, 45, shares what it took to become the first person in history to complete the Double Seven — climbing the highest summit on every continent and swimming the Oceans Seven — while navigating injuries, recovery, changing body demands, and everyday life.
We talk about why looking fit is no...
Faster In His 60s - The Training That Took Him To A World Record | Joe Barr, 67
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
At 66, Joe Barr rode 2,448 miles along Route 66 in just over ten days and set a new world record.
What makes that achievement even more remarkable is that Joe believes he became a better athlete in his sixties.
In this conversation, Joe explains how experience changed the way he trains, recovers, manages fatigue, and responds when his mind tells him to stop.
He also challenges the usual story about aging.
Joe was told he was too old...
Your Gym Strength May Fail You — What an Everest Guide Knows About Staying Ready | Luis Benitez
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
The fittest people do not always reach the summit.
Luis Benitez has climbed Everest six times and spent years guiding on the world’s highest mountains. What he learned is that success depends on more than strength. Patience, judgment, adaptability, and the ability to stay steady when the plan falls apart often matter more.
But this conversation goes well beyond Everest.
Luis speaks with rare clarity about aging, identity, leadership, and the role the outdoors plays in our l...
Stop Living in the Gray Zone — The 80/20 Rule for Training and Life | Matt Fitzgerald
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Most athletes know how to train hard. Far fewer know how to go truly easy.
Matt Fitzgerald is one of the most influential writers and coaches in endurance sports.
After developing severe long COVID, Matt lost the ability to run for nearly three years. Then, despite the risks, he committed to running a 100-kilometer ultramarathon through the Arizona desert.
For Matt, it was about much more than reaching a finish line. It was about identity, agency, unfinished busi...
Melatonin, Naps, and Tracking: What You're Getting Wrong About Sleep | Dr. Martin Kawalski, Stanford Sleep Expert
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Sleep is not just about feeling tired tomorrow.
In this episode, Stanford sleep researcher Dr. Martin Kawalski explains why sleep often gets harder after 50, why older adults do not simply “need less sleep,” and why getting the basics wrong for long enough may affect how well we age.
One of the biggest ideas from this conversation: sleep regularity may matter more than total hours. Martin explains why consistent sleep timing is linked to all-cause mortality, and why your bo...
Keep Winning Into Your 80s — What This Elite Athlete Does Differently | Bob Becker, 82
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Most people don't notice they're declining until it's too late.
Bob Becker offers a very different model.
He didn't discover running until he was 57. Twenty-five years later, at age 80, he returned to Badwater 135 — a brutal 135-mile ultramarathon across Death Valley in temperatures above 120°F — and became the oldest official finisher in the race's history.
This is Bob's second appearance on Ageless Athlete. In our first conversation, we talked about how he found endurance sports later in life, and the...
The Truth About Strength No One Tells You | Ethan Pringle
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Ethan Pringle has climbed some of the hardest routes in the world. But this episode is about the kind of strength climbing does not train you for.
After his father suffered a devastating stroke, Ethan found himself living two lives: pro climber on the road, and son/caregiver back home.
We talk about grief, fear, failure, aging parents, turning 40, becoming a father, and what strength means when life breaks you open.
Watch Strength to Wei...
The Scientist Trying to Stop Aging — What Most People Still Don’t Understand | Dr. Bill Andrews, 74
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Most of us think aging happens slowly in the background. Dr. Bill Andrews thinks we may be aging faster than we need to.
Bill is a molecular biologist, founder of Sierra Sciences, and a longtime researcher in telomere and telomerase biology. He has spent most of his life asking whether aging itself can be slowed, reversed, or even cured.
He is also an ultra runner. At 74, Bill still runs every day, has completed 100-mile races, and continues to test wha...
The Uncomfortable Skill You May Be Avoiding - It May Set You Free | Beth Rodden
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Beth Rodden is one of the most influential climbers of her generation—known for major Yosemite free climbing, multiple free ascents on El Capitan, and routes that helped push standards forward.
I came into this conversation expecting more about training, aging, and climbing goals. Instead, Beth took us somewhere rarer: the inner work behind the highlight reel. She speaks with a kind of directness that’s almost unfamiliar—about self-doubt, insecurity, injury, and what it feels like to be seen as “strong” whil...
Anti Decline Mindset — Playbook to Stay Capable | Mike Wardian, 52
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Some guests make you want to train harder. Mike Wardian makes you want to live wider — and stop postponing the things that matter.
Mike is 52, a runner, adventurer, and lifelong “yes” person. What stood out here wasn’t a race résumé. It was how he builds a life where training fits inside the day, curiosity stays lit, and progress keeps happening even when time is tight.
Mike’s story has that real-life Forrest Gump energy — he ran 3,200 miles...
Seven Things 70-Year-Old Athletes Understand That Most of Us Learn Too Late
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Two weeks ago, I attended Vitalist Bay in Berkeley, surrounded by scientists, doctors, founders, and researchers exploring the future of longevity.
A few days later, I was in the Eastern Sierra, recovering from ankle surgery, mountain biking instead of climbing, soaking in hot springs, and thinking about a different side of healthspan: the lived side.
In this solo episode, I share 7 lessons from 70+ athletes on what it really takes to stay strong, curious, and capable over decades. I also inc...
You Start Losing Muscle After 50 — Stop Making These Mistakes | Joe Friel, 82
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Joe Friel is 82, still training, and still paying attention. In the last five years, he felt the shift—power fading on climbs, muscle disappearing even with a lifetime of lifting—and he’s not sugarcoating what that feels like.
This episode is about the mistakes that quietly accelerate decline after 50: training like your recovery is unchanged, letting ego run the plan, and waiting too long to adjust. Joe’s approach is simple, honest, and earned—adapt early, stay consistent, and keep your identity...
Fear Is Stealing Your Life | Caroline Paul, 62
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Caroline Paul has spent decades doing things most people stop doing after 50 — flying experimental planes, surfing, skateboarding into Yosemite at 57. Her new book, Why Fly, is built around a question that follows her everywhere: what changes in us when the world suddenly feels bigger than our problems?
Astronauts call it the overview effect — that strange shift that happens when you're suddenly confronted with scale, beauty, and fragility all at once. Caroline has spent years chasing a version of that feeling closer to home...
The Discipline of Not Dying — This Survival Code Kept Him Alive for 18 Years | Ed Viesturs, 66
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Ed Viesturs was a childhood hero of mine. When I was younger—dreaming about mountains—his story helped shape what I thought “greatness” actually was: more than bravado, but also patience, judgment, and the discipline to come home.
In this episode, Ed takes us inside an 18-year mission: climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen—with Annapurna as the final, most dangerous obstacle.
We talk about the real risk near the end of any long...
Still Getting Faster in his 60s — The Marginal Gains System | Greg Benning, 64
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Greg Benning is a masters single sculler outside Boston — and at 64, he’s still finding ways to get faster. I came into this conversation not knowing much about rowing, but that’s exactly what made it powerful: once Greg translates the sport, what emerges is a universal framework for longevity performance.
For the last 15 years, Greg’s question has been simple: can marginal gains in efficiency offset age-related decline? In this episode, he shares the practical systems that keep him sharp —...
She Won the World’s Toughest Races — Then She Rebuilt | Amelia Boone
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Amelia Boone rose to prominence in the early 2010s as one of obstacle racing’s most dominant competitors — known for thriving in long-format, high-suffering events and earning the “queen of pain” reputation. But this conversation is less about grit-as-identity… and more about what it takes to stay capable for decades.
We talk about the hidden cost of over-optimizing, why Amelia stepped away from tracking sleep and HRV, and how longevity often demands a shift: from proving toughness to practicing it — through better self-hon...
Stop Waiting for the "Perfect" Season As You Age | Cedar Wright, 51
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
What happens when the moment that changes your life doesn’t come from the “dangerous” thing… but from an ordinary day at home?
Cedar Wright has spent decades in the vertical world—professional climber, storyteller, and filmmaker whose adventures helped bring climbing culture to a wider audience. But in this conversation, the sharpest lesson isn’t about climbing at all. It’s about how quickly capability can disappear—and how “next year” is never guaranteed.
In this episode
The freak accident that b...How to Stay Calm Under Extreme Stress | Amy Gubser, 56
Ageless Athlete Newsletter. Weekly longevity insights + behind-the-scenes. No spam ever. 🚨
Amy Appelhans Gubsers (56) is a nurse at UCSF, a mom and grandma, and the first person to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands—nearly 30 miles and roughly 17 hours in cold Pacific water, in what many consider shark territory.
This is more than an epic swim. It’s a practical conversation about how big goals actually get done: patience over years, calm under pressure, and the ability to keep moving when conditions stop cooperating.
In this epi...
Don’t Try to “Fix” Your Shoulder Pain — Do This Instead | Dr Tyler Nelson
Overhead motion is everywhere — in sport and in life. This episode is a practical deep dive on shoulder pain with Dr. Tyler Nelson, who works primarily with climbers but applies the same principles across overhead athletes and active adults: build tolerance with smart progressions, manage volume, and avoid getting trapped chasing “perfect fixes.”
What to expect
This is more technical than a typical Ageless Athlete episode — but it stays grounded. You’ll get:
a clearer way to think about overhead shoulder pain (without spiraling into anatomy anxiety) how to scale training whil...Your Training Has to Adapt as You Age — Or You’ll Stall | Susan Hunt, 68
What if staying athletic for life isn’t about doing one thing really well — but learning how to start over, again and again?
Susan Hunt has spent the last four decades doing exactly that.
She describes herself as “very average” — yet she’s completed Ironman triathlons, raced the Eco-Challenge in Borneo, run the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara, and summited Mount Everest at 53.
Now at 68, she’s still competing — recently winning her age group at a Half Ironman and qualifying for the World Championships.
What makes Susan different isn’t just what...
3 Things You Must Do Differently After 40 to Stay Strong and Agile | Jason Hardrath
What does it take to stay capable through the years?
Jason Hardrath is one of the most creative endurance athletes in the mountains today.
An ultrarunner, climber, and mountain linkup specialist, Jason is known for massive single-push adventures that combine running, climbing, swimming, biking, and even paragliding. He has completed the Bulger List — the 100 highest peaks in Washington — in record time, along with numerous Fastest Known Times (FKTs) and ambitious multi-sport mountain projects.
But this conversation isn’t about the feats themselves.
It’s about how Jason is...
Why Some People Stay Capable Into Their 70s — And Others Don’t | Jack Tackle, 72
What happens when the thing that defines you is suddenly taken away?
For legendary American alpinist Jack Tackle, climbing wasn’t just a sport — it was identity.
For more than five decades, Jack has explored remote mountains across Alaska, the Himalaya, and the Karakoram. He spent decades guiding in the Tetons and helping shape an era of bold American alpinism built on patience, partnership, and resilience.
But in the year 2001, everything changed.
Jack was struck by Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system. Withi...
10 Rules for People Who Refuse to Decline With Age (2026 Edition)
It’s March.
The January energy has faded. The motivation posts are quieter. And this is where the real long game begins.
In this episode, I lay out 10 non-negotiables for athletes who plan to keep performing — not just this year, but for decades.
This isn’t about hype.
It isn’t about biohacking.
And it definitely isn’t about chasing trends.
It’s about durability.
Drawing from over 100 conversations with top athletes, as well as, coaches, and scientists on Ageless Athlete,— I unpack what actually holds up.
We cover:<...
What Happens When There’s No Escape — 271 Days Alone at Sea | Jerome Rand
Why do we avoid the very feelings that might help us grow?
In this conversation, Jerome Rand shares what it’s like to spend 271 days alone at sea—crossing oceans with no easy way out, no distractions, and nowhere to hide.
But this is more than just a story about sailing.
It’s about what happens when you sit with discomfort long enough for it to change you.
We talk about:
why real growth often feels like resistance, not progress what prolonged solitude reveals about your mind how risk sharpens your sense...Most People Don’t Know What Freedom Feels Like — Until It’s Taken Away | Johan Nylander
What does running feel like inside one of the most controlled countries in the world?
Johan Nylander entered North Korea shortly after it reopened—joining a small group of foreign visitors to run the Pyongyang Marathon.
At 52, he found himself on a starting line few outsiders ever experience.
But this story doesn’t start there.
After years covering geopolitics across Asia, Johan was burned out—physically depleted and struggling to run even a single kilometer. What followed was a quiet rebuild: step by step, race by race, until running became...
How People Learn to Keep Going: Best of Ageless Athlete 2025 (Part II)
This episode brings together moments from conversations recorded throughout 2025 with athletes who have spent decades working inside uncertainty — in the mountains, on open water, on the road, and in daily training.
What connects these excerpts is more than accomplishment or outcome. It’s how each person has learned to operate when conditions narrow, when simplicity, judgment, and restraint matter more than force.
Every clip comes from a full-length episode in the Ageless Athlete back catalog. Below is a guide to the original conversations featured in this collection.
Episodes Featured
Sonnie Trot...
Your Knees, Ankles, and Hips Are Ready for a Second Act — How Modern Science Can Help You
What if the story you’ve been told about aging joints isn’t the whole story?
In this episode of Ageless Athlete, I speak with orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Kevin Stone about what’s recently changed in orthopedics — especially for athletes over 40 who’ve been told to slow down, live with pain, or prepare for joint replacement.
Dr. Stone shares how modern approaches are shifting from simply removing damaged tissue to repairing, replacing, or regenerating it, and why many people referred for total knee replacement may actually have other options. We talk ab...
He Stopped Taking Supplements at 62 — And Got Fitter | David Green (Ran Across Europe)
At 62, David Green did something most endurance athletes wouldn’t.
He stopped taking supplements.
Not as a statement—but as an experiment.
What followed wasn’t a drop in performance. It was the opposite.
More clarity. Better training. And eventually, the fitness to run across Europe.
In this conversation, David shares what changed when he stopped outsourcing decisions and started paying closer attention to his body.
We talk about simplicity. About trust. About what happens when you remove noise instead of adding more.
This isn’t anti-s...
How Athletes Adapt Over Time: Best of Ageless Athlete 2025 (Part I)
This episode brings together moments from conversations recorded across the first half of 2025 — voices from different sports, environments, and stages of life, each describing how they continue to train, move, and stay engaged as conditions change.
These clips span endurance running, climbing, paddling, cycling, swimming, and exploration. What connects them is more than performance level or accomplishment, but also the way each athlete thinks about adaptation — physically, psychologically, and over long stretches of time.
If a particular segment resonates, the full conversations are available in the Ageless Athlete back catalog. Below is a guide to the...
