Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 148. The Blueprint to Stay Lean & Jacked After 40

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Too many men think decline is inevitable once they hit 40: low energy, stubborn fat, brain fog, and the dreaded dad bod.In today’s video, I’m breaking down the brutal truth: it’s not your age that’s slowing you down... it’s your lack of discipline, clarity, and standards.You don’t need another fad diet or fitness app. You need to become the kind of man who treats his body and mind like a weapon.After 30+ years of trial and error and coaching thousands of high-performing men, here’s what I know for sure: Without optimized health, mental sharpness, and consistent routines, you will fall behind… fast.If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and felt soft, slow, or stuck—this is your wake-up call.MAN UP SCALE BUNDLE: $29 (100% Goes to Charity)Get your Digital Man Up book + Audiobook + 2 Exclusive MASTERCLASSES & Support Shriners Children’s Hospital. https://www.manuptribe.com/limited-offerREGISTER FOR THE LEGACY TRIBEGet the Life, Money, Meaning & Impact You Deservehttps://bedroskeuilian.com/legacytribeJOIN MY FREE 6-WEEK CHALLENGE:Transform into a Purpose-Driven Manhttps://bedroskeuilian.com/challengeTHE SQUIRE PROGRAM: A rite of Passage for Your Son as He Becomes a ManA Father and Son Experience That Will Be Remembered FOREVERhttps://squireprogram.com/registerTruLean Supplements | https://www.trulean.com/pages/bedrosGet 50% Off Trulean Subscribe & Save BundleUse Code: BEDROS Few Will Hunt Apparel | https://fewwillhunt.com/Get 20% Off Your Entire OrderUse Code: BEDROSOPEN A FIT BODY LOCATIONA High-Profit, Scalable Gym Franchise Opportunity Driven By Impacthttps://sales.fbbcfranchise.com/get-started?utm_source=bedrosPODCAST EPISODES:https://bedroskeuilian.com/podcast/STAY CONNECTED:Website | https://bedroskeuilian.com/Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bedroskeuilian/LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bedroskeuilianTwitter | https://twitter.com/bedroskeuilian

It ain't rocket science to be healthy at 51 years old. You don't have to have a gelatinous dad bod once you're in your 30s. You don't have to be that guy that says, you know, it is what it is. No, it is not what it is. Welcome to the Bedroft's Coolie and Show. Back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a Benzo. I was banging with a gang of instrumental. Money can buy you a lot of things, but it can't buy you a healthy, lean, and jackbody

along with a sharp mind. Guys, welcome to the Bedrose Coolean show. Today's episode is all about having a healthy lean jacked body along with a sharp mind. Currently, I'm 51 years old. And in fact, Ed, if you don't mind dropping a photo right here of how I looked yesterday in that photo that I took in the gym, I appreciate it. Ed's going to drop that picture for you. And I'm 51 years old, 6 foot, 228 pounds as of this morning, and I'm 14.5% body fat.

Now, the thing that I can credit my... great health, energy, and sharp mind too is consistently focusing on my body and mind over the last three decades. Now, I wish I would have started sooner like I got my kids into fitness when they were four or five years old. But the reality is I didn't. I was actually closer to 18, 19 years old when I got into fitness. But I've used the last three decades to get the body that I want, the health optimization that I want and the sharp mind that I want to be able to continue to thrive and take on new challenges in life. And I want you guys to do the same.

So if you're in your 20s and 30s and you're working out, getting after it and however, you're maybe drinking too much or you're over smoking the weeds and maybe you're taking a lot of stimulants in terms of energy drinks and caffeine and multiple cups of coffee, you're eating processed foods. All these things are slowing you down and you're going to see the repercussions of that in your 40s and 50s. And if you're in your 40s and 50s and you're like, man, I want to be lean, I want to be jacked, I want to be strong, I want to be focused, have energy and have a sharp mind.

Well, this formula will work for you. Even if you're in your 40s and 50s now, you'll be able to get there. In fact, my dear friend, Father Michael Butler started his fitness journey. He was overweight. And he started his fitness journey in his 50s. And in his early 60s, he was doing men's fitness competition. How cool is that, right? So there is no, I can, I can do it later. Why do it later when you can do it now? And there is no, it's too late for me. I'm already past my prime because

Father Michael Butler is a great example of someone who started his journey in his 50s and was doing fitness competitions in his early 60s. So let's dive into it. I'm going to share with you what works for me and what I've done over the last 30 years. As I've gotten older, I've had to adjust things and so if you're close to your 40s and 50s you might relate to this lifestyle if you're in your 20s and 30s I promise you if you apply this to your life now you will be an even better condition than I am when you reach 50 51 52 years old so let's dive into it now for me look I have a busy life right and I love having a busy life I have multiple companies to run I have a family I've got I've got I've got friends. I've got hobbies. I've got things to do. I travel a lot, speaking events.

And so I had to design and develop a lifestyle that works for me no matter how busy I am. So if you're going to say, well, dude, I'm busy. I can't do everything you're doing. I call bullshit on that because you truly can. Now, for me, it starts with food, right? I think the greatest thing that you have influence over is what goes in your freaking pie hole fellas. It's food. Now, in terms of food, let me break it down. I just follow macros. I'm not like, carnivore diet this and paleo diet that and vegan this and just organic that like whatever i try and eat as organic as possible but my i just follow my macros and it works for me i figured out the 2300 calories roughly 23 to 2 500 calories is what i need to maintain where i am right now right if i want to get

leaner i cut down my carbs that i'm about to share with you here if i want to get leaner i cut down my carbs and i increase my cardiovascular training but otherwise this is what i do you to maintain 228, 6 foot, 51 years old, 14.5% body fat, strong, relatively fast, still able to get after it in many ways. So I eat 225 grams of protein per day. Now, if you're busy like me, I just break it down to four meals. I know ideally it should be six meals a day, but I just break it down to four meals and actually, it's really two meals because in the morning, I have a 60 gram protein shake. And in the evening, I have a 60 gram protein shake. In the afternoon, I'll have two 50 gram meals, mostly protein and healthy fats like avocado,

and it might have a little bit of carbs in it. But it's around 225 grams of protein per day. And a good 120 grams of that protein comes from grass-fed weigh protein. Now, 70 grams of my calories come from fat, right? And so that fat, again, can sometimes, I'll even. I'm gonna eat cheese. I'll eat cheese in my diet. I'm good with that. As long as it meets my macros, avocado, olive oil, when I'm making eggs in the morning, let's say, or cheese. And then 200 grams of carbs. Now, for me, I found that I might have a little bit of carbs throughout the day, like in the

morning, but most of my carbs, I backload at night. And the reason I do that is it also helps me get that insulin spike at night and helps me fall asleep. This works for me. It might work for you. Plus at night when I'm working on my laptop, let's say I might want to munch on something and I'm munching on something that is higher in carbs because I've got that allowance of 200 grams of carbs to eat, might as well eat it at night, spike the insulin, go to bed, right? Now in terms of supplementation, what do I take? I use grass-fed weight protein, right? I currently use Redcon, but when trulin, when we had our trulein grass-fed way protein,

I used our brand. Now I use Redcon brand. You could use any brand you want. I just like the flavor of Redcon chocolate weight protein. Supplement wise also I take one truene, everyday wellness shot every single morning. That gives me everything I need. Vitamin C, vitamin D3, zinc, sodium, potassium, magnesium for hydration, B12 for energy, right? And then you've got your echinacea, ginger and turmeric all built in.

And so I'm improving my health. I'm improving my energy. And I'm fighting off inflammation and boosting my immune system with one packet that I pour into four ounces of water. Then I go and take my six pills of XBrain. You can find XBrain on Amazon. XBrain, the only thing I don't like about XBrain, it's a great new tropic. But what I don't like about it is the fact that you have to take six pretty good size capsules. I take three and I shoot another three right after.

because if I take all six, I might choke on it. But I found it works better than all of the neutropics out there. I used to use Adderall. I don't anymore. I'm a big fan of natural stuff. And XBrain works for me. Find it on Amazon, use it. I know they have a money back guarantee.

So you could always send it back if you don't like it. Then, TRT. In my 40s, I started TRT. I found that I was getting more lethargic. I didn't have the energy that I wanted. I didn't have that mental focus and I wasn't recovering fast enough from my workouts. So I got on testosterone, big shout out to Dr. Gabriel Lyon. In that process of also her helping me optimize my hormones, she also found heavy metals in my blood,

specifically mercury. And that was not helping me at all with my memory. I was having some memory problems about 10, 12 years ago. And thankfully, Dr. Lyon figured that out, did a heavy metal test, saw that I have high levels of mercury and she was able to get me on medication where I was able to excrete that mercury out of my system. Now I'm at a healthy mercury level as far as blood levels go. That was a byproduct of just eating too much sushi. I'm a creature of habit.

I lock in with everything I do. So I would work out. And then I would go right to sushi 10. Shout out to my man Aaron who owned sushi 10. The pandemic fucked that all up. But sushi tan, I'd go there like four times a week and I'd eat my sushi and you do this for, you know, whatever, six, seven, eight years, 10 years straight, and your mercury levels end up where they were, right? And so that's that. Now, as far as TRT, like I said, I take testosterone sippinate and I do 1.4

cc's a week and I split it up into two shots. I split it up into two shots so I can just have a better stable testosterone level. I'm not a doctor. Do not take my advice. You should go get a blood test and see what your hormone levels are and do you. I'm just telling you what works for me at 51 years old. 1.4 ccs of testosterone sypinate. Now, about once a year, I'll do a 90-day run of growth hormone at two IUs a day, six days a week. I do that. It helps with recovery in terms of my joints, aches and pains, and kind of keeps my skin tight. And I like that.

Now, that's something that I take on my own. That's not prescribed. I'm going to be honest. I ain't no fucking liver king where I'm going to tell you I'm natural, but I've got abs the size of fists for each muscle that pops out of my body, right? And so have I taken stuff in the past when I used to power lift in my early 20s and up to my early 30s? Yeah, I've taken Tran. I've taken all that stuff, right? But now I'm on TRT, 1.4 milligrams every week divided into two shots.

So it's like 0.7 and on Monday and then 0.7 on Thursday. And then, of course, there's a 90-day run once a year that I do growth hormone, two I use every other or every day, six days a week. That works for me. That works for me. And your mileage may vary on that. So I don't eat processed stuff. As much as possible, I don't eat processed stuff. If it's out of a bag, a can, or some kind of packaging, I avoid it.

Because I found, especially the older I get, the harder it becomes for me to digest overly processed. things. Now I get the convenience factor of protein bars and I get the convenience factor of bagged food even though it says healthy and organic and good for you and high protein. But when things are overly processed, your body does have a harder time breaking it down. And quite honestly, all those nutrients are not really getting soaked up into your body anyway because processed nutrients just get pooped out. Right. That's why if you're taking supplements and they're like those hard pills, oftentimes not all of that supplement is being digested because your body wasn't able to break it down. This is why I made the truly wellness shot into a powder that mixes easily in water.

You drink it. You're done. You get all your supplements that you need for a fraction of the price. And so with that said, processed foods just don't work for me and I don't do that. I don't do energy drinks. I don't do any of those stimulants like that. It just makes me feel anxious. I feel the older I get, the more I feel the repercussions of stimulant based energy drinks. And then alcohol, I stopped. I'm on my going on third year now. This November will, will be three years that I've stopped alcohol. If there was one thing, I wish I would have stopped sooner, it would be alcohol. And if you think you can get away with occasional drinking, social drinking, whatever you want

to call it, I'm telling you right now, it is poison. You would never water your plant once a week with a little bit of alcohol. You wouldn't give your dog, you wouldn't fill up alcohol in your dog's water bowl once a week, would you? So why are you drinking once a week? Like all the things that you wouldn't do to a plant to an animal, you do to yourself. And you wouldn't do that to a plant or an animal because you'd poison little fucks, right? Yet you're doing it to yourself and you're saying, yeah, it takes the edge off, it helps me relax,

I like it with my steak. Shut the fuck up. I'm telling you it's poison. It increases your chances of dementia. It shrinks your brain. It erodes your liver. And it is bad for your body, period. Do I take it?

No, I wish I would have stopped drinking alcohol sooner. Guys, quick interruption to the Bedroskoolian show. If you want better health, more energy, you want to fight off inflammation and you want to boost your immune system, then you are probably taking a lot of supplements like I used to. I say used to because I stopped taking all these different supplements and you can now throw away your vitamin C, throw away your zinc, throw away your vitamin D3, your B12, your ginger, your turmeric, your echinacea, and your astragulus. Why?

Because all of it now is available in the Trulene everyday wellness packets. So instead of spending $2 to $300 a month on supplements like that, for a fraction of that, you're going to get the Trulian Wellness shot delivered right to your door for free. shipping and you're going to use the code bedroost when you go to trulean.com to get 50% off and $1 of every single order goes to striner's children's hospital so go to truene.com use code bedroes and order your 30 day supply of the trulean everyday wellness shot now back to the show so now let's shift into training my training program looks like this now back when i was a meathead i was training like an hour and a half a day i would like do one set rest for a minute do another set

very heavy compound movements, etc. I had all the time in the world. Today I'm busy. I want to stay leaning jack and active for jiu-jitsu and to one-wheel to surf, to do all the cool things that mobility allows me to do. So my training program looks like this. Six days a week, I go to the gym, right? I'll do about 10 minutes of mobility and flexibility because the older you get, the harder

it is for your trunk and your joints and your mobility to stay as mobile as it once was. So if you're doing mobility movements and stretching movements, which you could find on YouTube, you will just do that for 10 minutes before your workout, which also kind of primes your body. And then I'll do 40 minutes of lifting weights. Nine out of 10 times I'm doing a super set. So just yesterday, I did back and triceps, right? So I'll do lap pull downs and tricep presses. And then I went to pull ups and dumbbell kickbacks. And I'm doing things like that because one, I want the efficiency of getting done early. And two, I want to be able to keep my heart rate higher and take shorter rest periods.

So I just go back and forth between things. Am I maxing out on weight anymore? No, I'm not. But am I moving decent weight? Yeah. Yeah. Ask the guys that I roll with in jujitsu. I'm a white belt,

but I'm able to hold my own with some higher belts simply because of my strength and my mobility. And I'm able to use my strength mobility and speed in my favor. And so it works for me. It might work for you, especially if time is a constraint. After that 40 minute lifting session, so I've done 10 minutes of mobility

and flexibility, right? Then 40 minutes of lifting, super setting a body part. And I do it six days a week so that I can hit each body part at least twice a week. Works for me. I think it'll work for you as well. Then after that, I'll do 10 minutes of Ride the Lightning. You've seen me talk about Ride the Lightning on Instagram. You take any sled and any turf and you put a TRX on the end of that sled so you can pull it.

You put a plate on there. I just put one plate on there. And then I get two 45 pounds. So I put a 45 pound plate on the sled. and I get two 45 pound plates and I lean them against the wall. And then I'm pulling the sled all the way to the end of the turf, pushing it back as fast as I can. And then I grab the 45 pound plates, one in each hand. And I do farmers carry along the length of that turf.

And then I do that for 10 minutes. Once my timer on my phone goes off, I'm done. And that is a great finisher. That is a great, you know, intense kind of high intensity cardio finisher. and it keeps my heart going. And then two to three times a week, I'm on the mats doing jujitsu. And I'm so inefficient at jujitsu

that I break a lot of sweat. You know, by the time we're drilling for 30 minutes and then rolling for typically an hour or so, like I have probably burned to good five, six hundred calories, if not more. I don't wear a whoop. I don't wear any of those devices. I'm not into all that shit.

I got the eyewatch or whatever it is, the Apple watch one time. I wore it for a whopping four days. And then I took it back to the store. It's not for me. I'm not a device kind of guy. Look in the mirror and then I get on the body fat machine. What is the body fat machine we use, Layton at HQ?

Or end body, yes, at the gym. At BK strength, we have the end body. So I get on that thing barefoot and I hold the fucking shits and I punch in my metrics, my height and my weight. And it's like, boom, you're 14.5. Now, I've got visible labs. Am I happy with 14.5? Yeah, especially since I'm coming off for hernia surgery.

Where I like to be is 11, 12% body fat. There, I don't have love handles, and there, a size 34 pants, feel very comfortable. Currently, size 34, a little snug. So, I probably have about five, six pounds to lose, and I will lose that and get down to that 11, 12% body fat where I'm happiest. But as I, again, had that double hernia surgery in December, the recovery of that is fucking gnarly. However, the quality of life that I got back is amazing.

So I'm glad I had that surgery. So let's talk about sleep. Listen, I get six to seven hours of sleep every night. I would ideally like to get seven and a half hours, but I don't. Six to seven hours works for me. The key to great sleep I found is to not have any stimulants in your system, number one. And Craig Ballantan actually says, don't take any stimulants, coffee, energy drinks, any of that shit after 12 o'clock. And he's right.

And if you can do that and you can go to sleep and wake up at the same time, seven times, seven, days a week, you'll find it six to seven hours is good for you. Sure, ideally you might need eight or nine, but if you got a busy life, you have a lot of purpose and potential and you want to reach that. Six to seven hours will work if you get good sleep, quality sleep, and you go to sleep at the same time, wake up at the same time seven days a week. That's what works for me. I think it'll work for you as well. What about brain health? Like I said, no energy drinks, no sugar. I cut as much sugar out of my life is possible. Sugar is also known to be what they call type three diabetes. Sugar in your brain, in your body, causes the dementia, Alzheimer's. My mom passed away in

2023 from Alzheimer's disease. I don't want that. I don't want my memory fucked with. And so sugar, I found when I increase sugar, I get more gelatinous. I feel fatter. I'm more spongier. And I think it's because that sugar helps you retain water. And so no energy drinks, no stimulants, no sugar. And then I control the input. For mental health, I also control the input. Input in terms of the thoughts that occupy my mind and the people I surround myself with. Because if I'm listening to negative things, right, if I'm listening to fear-based content,

if I'm listening to gossip, if I'm listening to the news, all that input is negative and toxic and puts your brain in a state of fight or flight and you start releasing cortisol. That cannot be good for your brain function and mental health optimization, right? So I found that if I can control the input, the thoughts that occupy my mind and the people that I surround myself with. So if there's any people around me that are negative, I just don't associate with them. I've done a great job of curating the people around me. They are positive, optimistic, and forward-thinking people.

And you might have to eliminate and edit some day. negative toxic people out of your life. Are you willing to do that because you are meant to do something bigger and greater and have a better purpose and potential in life? You should. If you're not, you're like, yeah, but you know, so-and-so is really negative, but she's my aunt after all and I see her every other day. Bro, she's poisoning you. She's poisoning your brain, right? And it could be your spouse. It could be friends. It could be coworkers. It could be a business partner. You have to be ruthless in controlling the input, the thoughts that occupy your mind and the people that you surround yourself with. And I'm telling you right now, man, if you're able to do this and you're not screen sucking,

you're not listening to the radio, you're not reading shit that's negative, toxic, scary, fear-based creates uncertainty and fear, you're going to be all right. You're going to be all right. And so it ain't rocket science to be healthy at 51 years old. You don't have to have a gelatinous dad bod once you're in your 30. You don't have to be that guy that says, you know, it is what it is. No, motherfucker, it is not what it is. You allowed yourself to get married and have a baby and then you look like a permanently

pregnant man. While your wife got the baby out and she's back to a decent body, you have stretch marks around your midsection and you allowed yourself to atrophy and erode simply because you think you're over the hill because you're in your mid to late 30s. That is not true. Take care of your body. If you have to get on hormone therapy, do it. If you have to wake up earlier to work out, do it.

If you have to eliminate bullshit things out of your life, like your bowling league or your sports TV watching on the weekends so you can get after it in life, do it. If you have to make more money so you can go buy food prep because you don't like making food, do it. If you have to eliminate the negative people out of your life so that you can have a a better mental capacity. Do it. And if you do that, you'll find yourself living a better, higher quality of life. Now, the other thing I do is I add challenges to my life. I'm always seeking out new challenges. You guys know this. I do these six week challenges. It started off with the marathon. Like 12, 13, 14 years ago, I was like, I want to run a marathon. I'm going to train for six

weeks and run the San Diego rock and roll marathon because I told myself, for all these years, I'm not a runner. I'm not a runner. God has made me to lift weights and be strong. I'm not runner and you start believing your own bullshit. The reality is you can do anything you want. And it's called neuroplasticity. You will begin to grow your brain and activate new parts of your brain when you take on new challenges. So since that six week marathon challenge, I've done a six week rock climbing challenge,

jiu-jitsu with ghee, jujitsu with no-gi, and that one stuck, surfing, improv classes, speaking classes, chess. salsa dancing. Imagine the level of neuroplasticity, right? Brain building and brain preserving things that I'm doing. And so I continue to take on new challenges. I did six weeks of MMA training and the things that I like, I stick with. The things that I didn't like, all good.

I tried something new and I challenged myself. So if you guys wanted, in fact, if you want to try something new, maybe you ought to consider running a marathon. And if you're like, well, I don't know, I don't want to fly out to a marathon. and guess what? Get in your car, drive 13.1 miles, and then drive 13.1 miles back. There's 26.2 miles. That's a marathon. So I want you to go to bedroseculean.com forward slash challenge and get my free six-week marathon training program. I literally tell you what to eat for six weeks. I tell you exactly how to run.

My same running coach that I hired has built this running program for you so that If you've never run, like me, you go from week one, having never run to week six, at the end of week six, running a full marathon. It's a fucking blast. And it's a great challenge. And it creates so much neuroplasticity. And it puts you out of your comfort zone. And you learn so much about yourself, about how much you're willing to deal with, how much

you're willing to sacrifice, how much you're willing to push yourself. So I give you the nutrition plan, the training program. And I give you six weeks of mindset and motivation absolutely free. Bedroskooling.com forward slash challenge. start your first six week challenge. And if you like it after that, just figure out what scares you and then hire a coach or find a way to do that six week challenge on your own. And when you do, you're like, holy shit, I'm a badass.

Like improv, salsa dancing, guitar lessons, rock climbing, I was afraid of height. So rock climbing, fuck me up. Fuck me up. I'm not going to lie. I've told the story before. Like the very first day when I hired a rock climbing coach guide at Josh tree out here in Southern California. Man, this thing was not even, like, he literally walked up it to put the carabiner in, threw the rope in, walked back down. And then he, he put the whole harness on

me with the hard hat and gave me those fucking shoes, the rock climbing shoes. And he's belaying me, right? Which means he's like, you know, keeping that rope nice and toit, like a taiga. And I'm climbing. And I got so high up. I was like looking around and I could see the fucking horizon. And I got scared. He was like, Bedros, go all the way up and touch that carabiner I just put. It's like, no, man, no, I got six weeks to do that. No worries, no, no foul, no harm. I'm done. We could just call it a day. You'll still get your full money for it. He's like, Pedro, we just started. And I'm like, no, man, I'm good. I'm done. This isn't for me today. When we come back in two more days, I'll go a little bit higher. And then I feel something

tapping the bottom of my shoe while he had put his hand up and he was tapping my foot. That's how high I had gone. I'd gotten maybe six feet off the ground. But I had I I was so scared that I thought that I was like 60, 70 feet off the ground and I thought I could see the horizon. I could barely see over the fucking cactus that was like 12 feet away. I share that with you because at the end of six weeks, I was climbing a straight rock face that had these giant wedges in it where you have to put your fist in. You put the karate chop a wedge and then you make a fist and then you pull yourself up, right?

And then these what he calls the B cups and C cups become A cups. right like like tithies like bras and these guys are laugh but it's true that's that's what he call him he's like hey now now it's smaller places to put your feet and as it turns out over six weeks i got so much better so whatever the challenge is take the challenge be healthy but i want to die lean jacked strong smart with full mental capacity and that means i have to optimize my health my fitness And by the way, if you're building muscle now, that's so good for your bone density. That's so good for your metabolism. There's so much science coming out now.

Building muscle is also good for your brain health. Right? So it's not just looking good naked. It's not just being able to walk into a room and get the attention. Because let's face it, when you walk into a room with your floppy dad bod, you know, you're not confident. You're not getting the attention. No one's like, damn, I respect that guy. No, they're saying, wow, look at that schlap.

However, you walk in with shoulders, arms, traps, thick legs, wide back, people take notice. So with that in mind, go to bedroschooling.com forward slash challenge. Take care of your health. Take care of your body. Take care of your brain because it's the only vehicle you have. And always remember this, that averages the enemy. Success is your responsibility. And change can take place in an instant if you are willing to flip the switch.

I'll see y'all next time.