Midlife Comeback? Read This

Today’s Midlife Male includes:

• ‘HOW DR. KIEN VUU SEES IT’ - Why You Are Your Best Medicine: A Primer on Longevity and Performance
  → 7 Key Factors of Biology, Epigenetic Clocks, Benjamin Franklin and more…

• VIEWPOINT: The Art of the Comeback - Rediscovering My Prime at 46 (And How You Can Too) by Jon Finkel

  → How to Get Off Your Ass, Ranking Top 10 Nationally, Racing Your Younger Self and more…

• The 6Fs (Family, Fitness, Finance, Fashion, Food, Fun)

  →The Pants I Walked 100,000 Steps In, The Rick Pitino Speech I Showed My Sons,  Impressive Founders over 50 and more…

Morning, Greg here! Welcome to Midlife Male, the lifestyle magazine for midlife men, by midlife men. I want to personally welcome all our new readers to this issue. I’m writing to you from Florence, Italy, where thirty years ago, I studied abroad — and now I’m back, this time as a father and husband, seeing it all through the eyes of my sons. 

It’s a reminder that midlife isn’t about looking back at what we used to do; it’s about still doing it. This week, our Editor-in-Chief Jon Finkel proves that point in his excellent column below, where he shares his experience diving back into competitive swimming at 46 and crushing times from his high school days, while Dr. Kien Vuu discusses biohacking, longevity, and living with purpose. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” I can’t think of a better description for today’s issue.

In health,

Greg

In partnership with:

Dr. Kien Vuu is a physician, author, speaker, and all-around force of nature. I first met Kien through a keynote speakers group, and I knew we’d get along when our event started at 8 AM—but I ran into him in the hotel gym at 6. A classic midlife male life hack right there! 

His energy is relentless, his passion is undeniable, and his approach to human performance and life extension is as insightful as it is practical. I don’t always agree with him, but I always respect his sincerity, his drive to help others, and his commitment to sharing what he’s learned.

HOW DR. KIEN VUU SEES IT 

MLM: Dr. Vuu, let’s start with a phrase that really stood out to me from your work: You are your best medicine. What do you mean by that?

Dr. Kien Vuu: We can take that phrase at a surface level, but it also goes much deeper. We are the architects of our own biology, energy, and overall well-being. The choices we make every day—what we eat, how we sleep, our mindset, relationships, and sense of purpose—send signals to our body that can either lead to optimal health or disease.

For example, I grew up as a refugee, struggled with feelings of not being enough, and chased external success to prove my worth. That mindset led to me becoming a successful doctor, but also overweight, diabetic, and on prescription medication. I had to shift my perspective and lifestyle to heal myself. So, when I say, You are your best medicine, I mean that our way of living—our habits, thoughts, and beliefs—either heal us or harm us.

MLM: Seven years ago, you hit that breaking point. What steps did you take to transform your life and get out of that unhealthy state?

Dr. Vuu: I started by focusing on what I call the seven key factors that impact human biology:

1. Sleep

2. Nutrition

3. Movement

4. Thoughts & mindset

5. Emotional well-being

6. Relationships & community

7. Purpose

I made simple, effective changes in areas that were easiest to tackle first. Improving sleep and nutrition gave me more energy, which helped me establish a consistent movement routine. Over time, I explored deeper aspects of personal development, psychology, and spirituality.

The most powerful shift came from realizing that at any moment, I am already safe, and I am already loved. When we internalize that, our stress decreases, and our biology shifts into a state of healing and longevity.

MLM: A lot of men feel trapped chasing external success—salary, title, material possessions—only to realize later that it doesn’t bring fulfillment. How do you reconcile ambition with the realization that success alone isn’t enough?

Dr. Vuu: That’s a great question. I don’t think ambition is bad—it’s natural to strive for success. The problem is when we attach our self-worth to it.

I had the fancy house, the title, and financial success, but I was still unhealthy and unfulfilled. The key is to ensure that our ambition is driven by purpose, service, and alignment with our well-being rather than by a need to prove something to ourselves or others.

Money, for example, is just an amplifier of who we already are. If you chase success from a place of insecurity, no amount of achievement will be enough. But if you pursue it from a place of love and purpose, it becomes a tool for impact, rather than validation.

MLM: You mentioned the importance of feeling safe and loved. But what about people who struggle with those feelings? How do they start shifting their mindset?

Dr. Vuu: First, recognize that this is the human condition. Every person, at some point, has felt unsafe or unloved. Even I, despite being aware of these principles, don’t feel that way 100% of the time.

The key is to develop awareness. When I feel stressed, anxious, or insecure, I ask myself: What belief is causing this feeling? Then, I challenge that belief.

For example, during COVID, my finances took a hit, and I started feeling unsafe. But when I examined it, I realized I had attached my sense of security to a number in my bank account. Once I questioned that belief, I saw it wasn’t true—I was still safe.

A practical exercise I use with clients is having them identify what they think they need to feel safe or loved, then guiding them to access those feelings internally rather than externally.

MLM: There's a lot of buzz around anti-aging and longevity science. How do you see it evolving, and what’s your take on it?

“Blokes is so f***ing cool lol”

And it’s not just me who says that. Other guys are saying it, too.

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From there, hormone and supplement regimens are customized to meet your individual needs, then sent to your doorstep in convenient 30-day increments. I love the convenience of it all. It’s for busy guys who care about optimizing their health, but also have careers, kids, and lives, and can’t spend all day going down supplement rabbit holes.

You could have already been feeling better by now. Learn more about Blokes and get 50% off your order with our MLM-exclusive link.

The Art of the Comeback - Rediscovering My Prime at 46

By Jon Finkel

Forget Al Bundy. Forget his 4 touchdowns in one game at Polk High School (although, still impressive). And forget reliving your “glory days” from varsity football or hoops or that championship travel AAU baseball team you were on. If you’re reading Midlife Male, then that stuff likely occurred twenty or thirty (or even forty) years ago.

Were those good times? Yes. Is it fun to reminisce with your old buddies? Hell yes.

But what are you competing in now to continue that feeling? To continue the pride that comes with putting it all on the line for victory?

Unfortunately, for too many guys over forty, the answer is something like this: “uh, nothing.”

And by the way, until very recently, I was smack dab in the middle of that group. Yes, I’ve played pick-up hoops my whole life and I lift in my garage gym, affectionately known as the Flex Factory, 3-4 days a week, and I’ve always prioritized being in excellent shape…

But for too long “staying in shape” or, if I’m being honest, “staying somewhat jacked” (haha) was both the grind and the goal - the thing I did and the thing I was working towards. I know a lot of guys like this. You probably do, too. You may be one of us.

Between work and raising kids and life in general, I figured carving out an hour a day to workout 5-6 days a week WAS the W.

Then, like George Costanza, in my early 40s, a yearning set in.

I was exercising, but I wasn’t working towards anything.

I was training, but I wasn’t competing.

I was in shape, but not engaged.

Then something occurred to me:

I’m 46, not 96. I can literally compete in every single thing I used to love doing - I just stopped doing it.

So I thought: “What if, you know, I just started back up again?”

For me, this meant revisiting my best sport: swimming.

Not to go all Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers and tell you I was All-State and that I can make it rain out there, or whatever the swimming equivalent is… But I can. I was All-State. 50 Fly. 100 Fly. I owned those races in Age Groups and Junior Olympics and in high school and was going to continue in college…

Then after a single week of ridiculously early wake-ups to walk across campus to swim practice I quit. Done. I simply decided I didn’t want to spend the next four years of my life waking up at 4:45AM, in the dark, often in the cold, to head to the pool.

And from age 18 until 46 I didn’t compete in an actual swim meet or participate in an actual swim practice on a team. 

But I thought about it. A lot.

I felt like I had unfinished business in the pool. That I never gave it 100%. That it’s the one sport I was really good at, or even great at, and I quit. And I tell my kids all the time not to quit, but that’s just what I did.

And so I went 28 years without racing.

Now, I did keep up with swimming a little bit. I usually got in a basic solo workout once or twice a week because I never stopped loving the sport. I’d do a 1500 or 2000 to dabble and stay in shape. No coach. No team. Just a warm-up and sets of 100s or 200s freestyle.  Easy does it.

Then last Spring after watching the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials I decided I had enough. I HAD to get back in the pool. For real. So I did what we all do.  I went online and Googled “Masters Swimming near me” and I found a team and the practice schedule and the coach’s email and the pool and then I did… 

Nothing. Squat. Zilch.

It was like the act of finding the information I needed hit me with the dopamine I craved and for weeks I didn’t do a damn thing.

I just kept saying those dreaded words to myself: “Someday I’ll join the team.”

But as we all know: “Someday is just another word for never.”

Think about that. Really pause and think about it. It hits hard. Because it’s true for so many of us midlife men about so many things.

Right here would be the moment in the comeback story that I tell you about a deep conversation I had or a book that I read or a podcast I listened to that got me off my ass… But that would be lying.

What really happened was this:

I Showed This Rick Pitino Halftime Speech to My Kids and it Fired Us Up

Stretch Your Tight Calves Daily for $15

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I Recently Learned Some Powerful & Encouraging Information about Founders Over 50. Read the article here.

Four High Protein, Zero Egg Breakfasts

Jeff Zwally is over 50 and has the body of a twenty five year old. His physique is as aspirational as they come for midlife men and while he shares his workouts regularly, this reel featuring his four high protein, no egg breakfasts is worth checking out. Lots of good ideas here.

Over the course of my first week in Italy I walked roughly 100,000 steps in a few pairs of these Rye51 Pants. The comfort stretch chino is undeniable. Looks good. Feels good. Get your pair here.

Have you ever thrown a boomerang and had it actually come back to you?

Neither have we. Until now. Look, the idea of a boomerang is cool, which is why I’ve tried so many different ones with my son. But most of them either don’t circle back, require perfect form to make the boomerang come back, OR, worse, the boomerang zips back and nearly takes your head off.

This boomerang, though. It works. It comes back to you and it’s light, so it doesn’t feel like it’s going to slice off your fingers when you try and catch it. Yes, this is an MLM boomerang recommendation. Your kids or grandkids will love it.

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Join the Inner Circle

The MLM Inner Circle is a community for midlife men, by midlife men. Our members are accomplished men over 40 looking to level-up across every area of their lives.

Some have been married for decades, others are divorced, most are fathers. All of our members seek improvement, access, insights, and support in a group of like-minded men. They are committed to making the next phase of their lives, the best phase of their lives, living happier, healthier, wealthier, stronger and having more fun in business and in life.

We do rolling admission — join today.

MLM Founder: Greg Scheinman

MLM Editor-in-Chief: Jon Finkel