DON’T JUST ADD YEARSTO YOUR LIFE.ADD LIFE TO YOUR YEARS.
Strength. Family. Lessons. Accountability.
More Years Were Never the Whole Point.
There is a point in the conversation when Abe Walzer stops talking about fitness and starts talking about reasons.
He has a wife. Four daughters. Two grandchildren. His family is growing, moving into new chapters and building lives of their own.
And Abe wants to be around for it.
“I’ve got people to live for.”
That thought sits near the center of what he is beginning to build with The Age Well Project. Getting older is unavoidable. What getting older looks like may not be.
“It’s not just adding years to your life, but adding life to your years.”Abe Walzer • The Age Well Project
The Road to Alpha Aesthetics
It would be easy to introduce Abe simply as the owner of Alpha Aesthetics. That wouldn’t tell much of the story.
Before owning gyms, Abe served in the military. He became a nurse. An unusual nursing schedule gave him time in the gym, where helping other people eventually became training them.
That path led through Gold’s Gym, helping open a gym in Albany, his first gym Way of Life, later owning Gold’s and renaming it Icon, and eventually opening Alpha Aesthetics in 2020.
Then COVID arrived. Abe went back to nursing while navigating a business that had barely had time to begin.
There are successes in that history. There are mistakes too. Abe doesn’t seem particularly interested in hiding either one.
What Does It Actually Mean to Age Well?
We are getting older anyway. The question is what we want to remain capable of doing while it happens.
For one person, that may mean climbing a ladder, getting onto a tailgate or keeping up with grandchildren. For someone else, it may mean getting out of a chair, getting off the floor, walking outside, opening a jar or simply continuing to live independently.
The goal isn’t necessarily to perform like you did at 25. Abe describes aging well as a two-sided proposition: become as physically capable as you reasonably can given your individual health, while also accepting that you aren’t the same person you were 10, 15 or 20 years ago.
That isn’t surrender. It’s awareness. And there is a difference.
When Was the Last Time You Tried?
Before the show, Ruben had been asking a question: How many push-ups can you do? Then came the second question: how many push-ups should you be able to do?
During the conversation, Abe reframed it. The more useful question wasn’t necessarily how many push-ups someone could perform. It was whether they were still attempting to find out.
Can you lower yourself toward the floor? Can you push yourself back up? If you ended up on the ground, could you get yourself off it?
That changes the conversation from comparing yourself with somebody else’s number to paying attention to your own capability.
“When was the last time you tried to do a push-up?”Abe Walzer • Behind the X’s & O’s
Know What Has Changed. Know What Hasn’t.
That idea—pay attention—kept resurfacing throughout the conversation.
Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Pay attention when something changes. Pay attention to your mental health. Pay attention to what you can still do. Pay attention to what you genuinely cannot.
And don’t automatically turn every difficulty into: “I’m just old.”
There are legitimate limitations. Abe has some himself. Aging changes recovery. Injuries and medical conditions matter. But accepting a real limitation is different from deciding you’re finished simply because something became harder.
Sometimes the answer is to push. Sometimes the answer is to adapt. The important part is knowing which one you’re dealing with.
AGE WELL.
Not refusing to age. Not pretending nothing has changed. Staying engaged with your health, your capability, your people and the life still in front of you.
Sometimes Being Seen Matters.
Near the end of the conversation, the subject moved away from physical capability entirely.
Ruben told Abe about something seemingly small that happened when Ruben and Veronica recently walked into Alpha Aesthetics. Abe noticed them.
“Good morning, Escalonas.”
Ruben joked with Veronica that Abe had even put Conan the Barbarian on television for him. When they left, Abe acknowledged them again. During the show, Ruben told him that the gesture meant more than Abe probably realized.
Abe’s response revealed that it wasn’t accidental. His philosophy is that people entering his gym should feel accepted and wanted, because you don’t always know what somebody carried through the door with them.
A person can look perfectly fine and still be fighting something privately. So Abe speaks. He checks on people. He asks whether they’re good. Sometimes those few words become conversations.
“Once you feel accepted and wanted in a place, you’re more likely to keep returning to that place.”Abe Walzer
What Were They Never Taught?
That same willingness to look beneath the obvious surfaced elsewhere in the conversation.
Abe recalled encountering a younger man who didn’t stand up, come to the door or shake his hand the way Abe expected. His initial reaction was frustration. Then he learned more about the young man’s situation.
There wasn’t a father at home teaching him those expectations.
The behavior hadn’t changed. The context had.
You can’t assume somebody possesses information nobody ever gave them. That doesn’t eliminate accountability. It changes where accountability begins.
Someone may first need to be taught. Then they have to decide what they’re going to do with what they’ve learned.
“I Don’t Teach From Successes.”
Perhaps the clearest explanation of how Abe thinks came much later in the conversation.
The discussion had moved through business, health, mental health and therapy. Abe talked about how his own thinking about therapy changed. Experience changed his perspective.
That led to a larger principle:
“You just can’t help from what you read. You gotta help from experience.”Abe Walzer
Then came the line that may explain much of Abe’s story:
“I don’t teach from successes, I teach from failures.”Abe Walzer
His reasoning is straightforward. Something that worked for him may not necessarily work for somebody else. But if he has repeatedly discovered a way not to do something, that experience may save somebody else from making the same mistake.
He would rather tell somebody what he did wrong than pretend his story has been an uninterrupted collection of victories.
Experience leaves information behind—if we’re willing to read it.
Age Well.
Maybe that’s why The Age Well Project feels less like a fitness program and more like the convergence of several chapters of Abe Walzer’s life.
The soldier. The nurse. The trainer. The business owner. The husband. The father. The grandfather.
The man who has succeeded at some things. The man who has failed at others. The man who has changed his mind. The man who is getting older too.
Abe isn’t arguing that aging well means refusing to age. He’s arguing almost the opposite.
Know where you are.
Know what your body is telling you. Know what your mind is telling you. Know when you need help. Know when you’re making an excuse. Know when you need to adapt.
Keep learning. Keep passing something on. Keep noticing the people around you. And keep giving yourself reasons to show up.
Because the goal was never simply more years.
The goal is more life in them.
The Age Well Project: What Does It Really Mean to Age Well?
Abe Walzer joins Ruben Escalona on Behind the X’s & O’s for a conversation about strength, independence, mental health, accountability, family, purpose and what it means to keep living well while getting older.
Alpha Aesthetics
Learn more about Abe Walzer, Alpha Aesthetics and the work behind The Age Well Project.
The conversation ends. The story keeps going.
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