Your new age remedy

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BY DANIEL WILLIAMS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY PARK

Whether you're hovering around 30, 40 or 55, there's every chance you feel pretty much the same as you did in high school. Which is why brushing your teeth in front of the mirror each night under the harsh halogen glare can be a troubling ritual. Who, you wonder, is that old dude staring back at you?

Reminders you’re not Bieberesque anymore have a way of mounting up. Maybe you’re missing out on jobs because you’re “overqualified”. Or that comely colleague who looks straight through you: is it because you’re not her type – or because you’re not her generation?

True, you could spare yourself a lot of angst by accepting ageing as inexorable. But chances are, as an MH reader, you won’t be ready to fade towards the invisibility of plump middle age. For you, a better strategy than hoisting the white flag is setting a goal and taking steps – seven of them, in this instance – towards achieving it.

No, you’re not going to get a Benjamin Button thing happening. Even the transformation Warnie’s pulled off might be beyond you – or, let’s be honest, of no appeal. Trying to look like you’re 18 again is futile. Trying to look a little more youthful is not.

We pressed experts in multiple fields for their best time-reversing or time-freezing tips. We didn’t want to hear about surgery, or any treatment that would require a bank loan, because once you head down those paths, well, you’re at risk of losing more than you gain – not least in terms of perspective and self-respect.

Nor are we going to steer you towards anti-ageing clinics, where you stand a good chance of being prescribed testosterone (or some other hormonal supplement), with the promise you’ll look and feel more like your adolescent self.
According to Dr Steve Hambleton, federal president of the Australian Medical Association, there’s no evidence testosterone replacement will do you any good unless you’re not producing enough of the hormone naturally - which applies to about one in 200 guys under the age of 60.

“I’d be extremely cautious about using testosterone for anti-ageing purposes, because while the benefits are unproven, the risks are real,” warns Hambleton. Those risks include stirring up a dormant, undiagnosed prostate cancer, he says.

Our anti-ageing plan is simple yet comprehensive. From the hair on your head to the shoes on your feet, from your frayed nerves to your expanding waistline, we’ve got you covered. Think of what follows as a bloke-friendly makeover. No outlandish promises: when you’re done it’s unlikely bouncers will be asking you for ID. But you’re going to peel away a good few years and feel better for it. Let’s start with what you’re wearing . . .

DRESSED TO THRILL

THE ISSUE: Dated styles

THE TRAP Your shopping phobia could mean you dress more like Colin Carpenter than Colin Farrell. Alternatively, trying too hard to be hip can render you mutton dressed as lad. Both blunders will make you look older than you are – and in the case of the latter, ridiculous.

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE Dressing to appear a little younger than you are starts with smart colour choice, advises Nicola Landau, a personal stylist who’s director of The Imagine Consultancy in Sydney.

The No.1 rule: choose colours that suit your skin tone. If you’re unsure whether to get that new polo in blue or green, take both to the change room and hold them up against your face, advises Landau. “The right colour will throw a good light against your face, diminishing lines, wrinkles and bags.”

Apply this test retrospectively to clothes already in your wardrobe. Those that flunk should go straight to The Smith Family, along with anything else – padded shoulders or stone-washed jeans, for instance - that belongs to another epoch.

Be realistic about your body shape, says Landau. A 30-something guy isn’t necessarily too old for skinny jeans, but unless you’re in terrific shape, this won’t end well. “They’re going to make you look older and stupid,” she says.

Whether it’s jeans, shirts or jackets, “Nothing’s more ageing than squeezing into something too tight for you.”

Landau says another way to knock off a few years is to take a very contemporary item but then soften its effect with a more age-appropriate garment. Go with bright-coloured chinos, for example, but team them with a classic blazer. “You’re still going to look youthful, but you’re showing an awareness you’re not 20 anymore.”

When you do start to get on, Landau says your benchmark for stellar midlife dressing is Hugh Jackman. “He looks youthful, sophisticated, classy and fashionable, but not like he’s trying to be anything that he’s not.”

CALMER-PLATED

THE ISSUE: Excessive stress

THE TRAP Worrying too much ages you. This is no longer a gut feeling but scientific fact. Her discoveries in this area won Australian-born molecular biologist Dr Elizabeth Blackburn a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Quick biology lesson: telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes in your cells. Think of them as buffers – like the tips on shoelaces – that stop the ends from fraying. Blackburn’s research found people under prolonged strain had shorter telomeres than control subjects. The study focused on parents of chronically ill children, but if you’re a guy who can’t leave your work at the office, or who craves control over every aspect of your life, the finding would almost certainly apply to you, too.

Shorter telomeres are bad news. They sentence cells to premature ageing and death. They also help to account for the haggard, care-worn appearance of stressed-out guys.

Science doesn’t know yet how stress shortens telomeres and accelerates ageing, says Professor Robert Saint, dean of science at the University of Melbourne. “But the evidence tells us there’s a relationship, and therefore if you could eliminate the stress, you wouldn’t have that [ageing] effect.”

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE One of your body’s best anti-ageing weapons is an enzyme called telomerase, which repairs damaged telomeres, allowing frayed chromosomes to rebuild. The problem is, stressed people have less telomerase activity going on as well.

Recently, Blackburn has become intrigued with the idea that meditation might be an answer to stress-induced cellular ageing. She hasn’t proved it (yet), but she’s researched the topic as only a brilliant scientist could, and her writings suggest she’s convinced she’s onto something. Mindfulness, she theorises, could ramp up telomerase action.

Relaxation professional Samantha Graham, co-founder of Stillness Reminders, a social enterprise devoted to helping people chill, says she needs no further evidence that calmness helps keep you young or that meditation is the best route to that state.

If your image of meditation is sitting cross-legged for hours on a rock overhanging the beach, think again, says Graham. Your meditation could be rock climbing, surfing or planking. “You just have to find what it is that takes you to that place of inner peace – and then make sure you get there frequently,” she says.

Two more tips from Graham:
• Stop several times a day to focus on your breathing.
• Practise head-to-toe relaxation at bedtime for deeper sleep, “which promotes youthful rejuvenation from the inside out”.

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WEIGHTY MATTERS

THE ISSUE: Expanding gut

THE TRAP You don’t have to surrender to flab when you wave goodbye to your twenties, insists Dr Adrian Bauman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney. “Middle-age spread is not a natural state for human beings,” he says. “Weight gain at any stage of life is almost all due to lifestyle.”

Women tend to see a guy with a paunch as lazy, complacent and past his prime. Gut lard also forces you to wear your pants higher on your waist – another mark of a bloke who can remember when the guys from Miami Vice were the epitome of cool.

As well as sabotaging your love life, visceral belly fat is the most dangerous kind of fat when it comes to your health, explains Bauman. “It’s coating your internal organs and increasing your risk of diabetes, other metabolic diseases and premature death” – none of which will do anything for your boyish looks.

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE The opposite of middle-aged spread is the V-shaped upper torso. This should be your goal – and it’s perfectly achievable from even the far side of 35. “You do it by building up the back and shoulders and reducing midsection body fat,” says two-time Mr Australia and MH Muscle Guy Paul Haslam.

Here’s the gist of your workout: hit the three heads of your deltoids with a combination of the barbell military press and upright row, supplemented with dumbbell front raises, lateral raises and rear flies. Beef up your back with wide-grip chin-ups, advises Haslam.

As for the belly, diet’s more important than abs-specific exercises. Shift to an eating plan based around protein, healthy fats and only complex carbohydrate sources, such as oatmeal and brown rice. And cut back on sugar, which triggers fat storage.

Before long, you won’t be in merely good shape, you’ll be in triangular shape – a symbol of strength and virility that a lot of guys younger than you won’t be able to match.

YOUTH MOVEMENT

THE ISSUE: Stiffness, creakiness

THE TRAP Desk jobs. Sitting for six or more hours a day is an enemy of fluid movement. This is not something you can hide. Suddenly you’re no longer leaping the net to shake your opponent’s hand for fear of rupturing something painful. And you can barely run around the backyard with a toddler without feeling a twinge in your back. In short, you’re in danger of starting to move like a creaky old man, which is exactly how women will begin viewing you.

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE Sydney-based movement coach Benjamin Weale helps guys restore the capacity for child-like movement in their adult bodies. And how important is movement in the attraction game? Hugely so, he reckons. Think about what makes a woman sexy. It’s not necessarily that she’s a stunner, though that helps. “It’s more an energy that comes off her. She’s comfortable in her body so she moves beautifully,” says Weale.

Likewise, he argues, women are drawn to guys who hold themselves well and move easily. “If you look able and strong, and capable of taking care of yourself and a woman, you’re ticking off all those primal markers.”

As flexible as a metal rod? Start by targeting your tight upper back, advises Weale. It needs to be freed up so you can pull back your shoulders and open your chest. “When women do this they look hot; when guys do it they look strong.”

Lie face-up on a foam roller placed about midback, perpendicular to your spine. Place your hands behind your head and arch your upper back over the roller five times. Adjust the roller and repeat for each segment of your upper back.

Then work at oiling your hips, hamstrings and quadriceps by performing the basic stretches you most likely already know. And not once a week, or even every morning – but several times a day. Now work on your growl, because cat-like movement awaits.

SKIN FLICK

THE ISSUE: Sun-damaged skin

THE TRAP You reckon you look better with a tan. And in the short-term, maybe you do. But cumulatively, that colour comes at a price.

“Most of what we call ageing of the skin is due to sun damage,” says Dr Peter Foley, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Melbourne and president of the Skin and Cancer Foundation.

Do you doubt this? Check out the skin on the top of your right forearm. Now turn your arm over and study its underside. Bit of a difference, yeah? That smooth, largely unmarked skin underneath tells you what would have been possible if you’d been more vigilant about sun avoidance.

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE Good news: there are a few things you can do to get the skin on your face looking more like the skin on the underside of your arm.

Method 1: start wearing SPF30+ sunscreen on your dial every day, summer or winter – rain, hail or shine. By deflecting UVA and UVB radiation, sunscreen will not only prevent further deterioration, but also give your skin’s immune cells a chance to repair existing damage. “You will get some rebound effect,” promises Sydney dermatologist Dr Stephen Shumack. “Daily sunscreen use is the most beneficial anti-ageing thing you can do as far as your skin is concerned.”

Method 2: sunscreen will work – but maybe not to the extent that friends will want to search your basement for a portrait in which your face has turned old and repulsive. You can give the repair process a nudge by every night applying certain agents whose effects have been proven in clinical trials.

If years in the surf or standing at mid-off have left your face looking freckled and dull, with uneven skin tone and visible veins, Foley suggests asking your GP about a prescription for a topical retinoid – a vitamin-A preparation that will increase collagen production, helping to fade pigmentation and other symptoms of sun damage.

Results aren’t instantaneous, advises Foley. In fact, they’re pretty slow. Only after six months will you be able to say for sure that the retinoid isn’t working for you. If it is working, “the longer you use it, the better the results”, he says.

After a few months on the retinoid, consider adding an over-the-counter skin-care product that contains vitamin B3 to your regimen (try Olay Men Refreshing Balancing Gel Moisturiser; $19.99), and a few months after that, a vitamin C preparation, says Foley (Avalon’s Vitamin C Oil-Free Moisturiser; $34.95). “In time, all three working together can quite significantly improve sun-damaged skin.”

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FOOD AWAKENING

THE ISSUE: Eating habits

THE TRAP You may figure that if your diet’s not making you fat, there’s nothing wrong with it. Not so, says accredited practising dietitian Sue Radd, founding director of the Nutrition and Wellbeing Clinic in Sydney. A substandard diet undermines all the systems of your body, she says. “And what causes disease also brings on premature ageing.”

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE Although lean meat’s a crucial part of an active guy’s diet, one of the bigger mistakes you could make is to let those slabs of protein crowd out vegetables from your plate.

Vegies are rich in phytonutrients – compounds that give natural food its colour and taste, explains Radd. Phytonutrients dampen inflammation and fire up detoxing enzymes in your liver. “They give you an arsenal to fight the onset of early ageing, including the visible signs on your skin,” she says.

For improved wrinkle and sunspot protection, together with a youthful glow, Radd recommends devouring vegetables at lunch and dinner (and at breakfast, if you can manage it), with an emphasis on brightly coloured ones. Colour’s your best anti-ageing buddy, so throw fruit into the mix to get more of it. “You need greens, yellows, oranges, blues and reds,” she says. Think spinach leaves, squashes, carrots, grapes, plums, blueberries and cranberries. And that’s just for starters.

Recently, an alarm went off for Radd when she spotted a group of guys on the beach chowing down on burgers. It’s when you’re exposed to the sun that your body’s most in need of phytonutrient back-up, she argues. “You’d be better off eating watermelon, peaches and red grapes – like they do in the Mediterranean – to up your defence mechanism during UV exposure.”

For food to play its part in your quest to look younger, you need to eat lots of the right stuff regularly, says Radd. “That’s when you’re going to reap the most benefits.”

THE MANE GAME

THE ISSUE: Thinning hair

THE TRAP “So many guys get it wrong with their hair as they get older,” says Grant Withnell, national technical educator for Schwarzkopf. The top blunder: the botched response to a receding hairline.

Discovering your thatch is in retreat can shatter your equilibrium and distort your normally sound judgment. Some guys figure the answer is to grow their hair longer at the front to hide their expanding forehead. But all this does is make their hair look more stringy than Homer Simpson’s. Others try to compensate by going longer at the back, which doesn’t fool anyone, either, says Withnell.

For guys with a very thin ozone layer, the biggest no-no is the same as it’s always been, argues Withnell: “If you’re going out and you think a comb-over’s acceptable, then you shouldn’t be going out.”

Even lucky bastards who’ve taken a full head of hair into their thirties and forties can squander that blessing by wearing it too long, or in a style that invokes memories of long-forgotten rock stars.

YOUR AGE-DEFYING MOVE If you’ve got more hair on your stomach than at the front of your melon, then you probably already know what your best option is, even if you haven’t had the guts to do it yet: go short. “I’d be clippering it with a number-three [guard] all over,” says Withnell. This style helps by removing the eye-catching contrast between the areas of your scalp where the coverage is thick and those areas where you could hand count the strands in under a minute.

While you wouldn’t team Zach Galifianakis’ facial hair with this style, a beard trimmed to the same length as your hair can produce an effect that’s sharp and masculine, argues Withnell. Think Jason Statham.

For guys with hair as lush as it was at their Year 12 formal, Withnell cautions against showing off by wearing it long. Hair spilling over lived-in skin drags the face down and adds to the effect of everything heading south. “You’re better off slicking it back away from the face . . . you’ll look younger,” he promises. Think David Beckham.

If grey hairs are adding years to your appearance without making you look anything like George Clooney, banish them with a semi-permanent dye (we like Restoria Express For Men; $12.90), which fades out rather than grows out. Important: go one shade lighter than you think you should for a more youthful effect, advises Withnell.