The Complete Guide to Healthy Aging: What to Do In Your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and Beyond

You just hit your 90th birthday, and you’re looking back on your life and all you’ve accomplished. One of the things you’re most proud of is how much you’ve tended to your health with love and care over the years. Maybe you’ve had a few injuries or a couple of health scares. But overall, you feel comfortable, confident, and at home in your body. If this sounds like a future worth working towards, experts say there are plenty of ways to start today—no matter how old you are.

We asked four health professionals about how to move, fuel, and sleep your way through each decade, with tips on handling the stress of your thirties, staying strong through your forties, combating disease in your fifties, and beyond. Feeling good as you get older doesn’t need to be an impossible goal.

Welcome to your decade-by-decade guide to strong, healthy aging.

Meet the Experts

• Dr. Seema Bonney: longevity physician at the Anti-Aging and Longevity Center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Dr. Alyssa Olenick: exercise scientist, hybrid athlete, and 100-mile ultramarathon finisher
• Maggie Moon: registered dietitian and author focused on nutrition for brain health
• Dr. Shelby Harris: board-certified sleep psychologist and 25-time marathoner

20s

This decade is all about building a strong foundation through movement, sleep, and fueling routines you can stick with for the long haul.

Goal: Find exercises you enjoy and make movement a habit.

Be it skiing or biking, ultramarathoning or Japanese walking, finding movement you enjoy is this decade’s top priority. Getting into a workout habit now will help make it easier to exercise consistently later in life, when your time and energy may be more limited, says Dr. Seema Bonney.

Ideally, your routine will include endurance exercises (such as jogging and biking) and strength training—both of which will lay a strong foundation for cardiovascular and metabolic health and overall lifespan. While health organizations like the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, Bonney stresses that this is the minimum. Generally, the more, the better, especially when you’re young and may have more time and energy.

Fuel: Find fun and sustainable ways to get plenty of micronutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and iron.

Your twenties are a time to have fun with your meals, build confidence in the kitchen, and develop what Maggie Moon calls ‘food literacy.’ “How do you stock a healthy pantry? How do you cook vegetables in a way that you actually enjoy? Those are really things I would focus on in your twenties,” says Moon.

As you flex your culinary freedom, aim to fill your plate with micronutrients like vitamin A, folate, iodine, and zinc. These help keep the immune system healthy and support cellular function, so getting enough of them is essential for a long, healthy life.

Moon says that since we reach our peak bone mass (meaning, our bones are as dense and strong as they’ll ever be) at the end of our twenties, it’s an essential decade for taking in plenty of bone-building nutrients like calcium and vitamin D. Milk, yogurt, and almond or soy milk offer plenty of both. When refueling after outdoor adventures or gym sessions, opt for meals and snacks that contain both protein and carbohydrates to support recovery. (Here are some pro-athlete favorites.)

Menstruating people in their twenties should also pay attention to their iron intake, since the body loses iron with every period. The National Institutes of Health recommends adult women get 18 milligrams (mg) each day,  compared to just 8 mg for men. Foods rich in iron include vegetables (spinach, Swiss chard, and beets all have more than 2 mg per serving) and shellfish (oysters and mussels contain an impressive 6.9 and 5.7 mg per serving, respectively).

Sleep: Prioritize consistency and establish good habits.

When it comes to sleep, consistency is key—but it can be hard to come by in your twenties. Sleeping roughly the same hours every day protects mental health and physical functioning, with research suggesting that sleep consistency—going to bed and waking up around the same time every day—may be even more important than sleep duration for overall well-being.

While straying from your routine for the occasional late night out with friends or super-early morning on the trails is no big deal, Dr. Shelby Harris encourages those in their twenties to do their best to keep their schedule consistent and their overall “sleep debt” (hours of lost sleep) low from week to week.

Let’s say you are someone who needs eight hours of sleep, but one weeknight, you only get six. That leaves you with two hours of sleep debt. That should be easy enough to recover from (say, by sleeping in a bit once the weekend hits)—but the more sleep debt you have, the more difficult it becomes to “pay off,” Harris says. If you consistently get too little sleep, the problem can snowball until it negatively impacts your health.

The twenties are also a time to focus on sleep hygiene: watch your caffeine and alcohol intake, wrap up your last meal at least two to three hours before bedtime, craft a comfortable sleep space, and limit screen time right before bed. “Even if you’re not having trouble with sleep, these are good behaviors to have in check,” Harris says.

30s

Your thirties can bring new personal and professional responsibilities. Leaning into strength training, nutrient-rich snacks, and mindfulness practices can help you manage any added stress.

Move: Combat age-related muscle loss with strength training.

Strength training becomes even more essential once you hit 30, because that’s when your body starts to progressively lose skeletal muscle. “[After your twenties], every decade of life, you lose three to eight percent of your muscle mass. You also see declines in strength and power pretty linearly with age,” says Dr. Alyssa Olenick.

But while sarcopenia (age-related loss in muscle) and powerpenia (age-related loss in power) may be natural, they’re not inevitable. “You only have that rate of decline if you don’t continue to train and use your muscles,” Olenick says. “You can slow, reduce, and to some degree, delay it as long as you keep engaging in resistance training and muscle strengthening.”

Research shows that muscular strength has a direct impact on your stress response and mental health, as well as cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. By committing to a few resistance training sessions each week, totalling roughly one to two hours, you can set yourself up for a stronger health future.

Olenick stresses that there’s no one way to resistance train: try out different weights, equipment, and rep schemes to build a regimen that works for you and feels sustainable.

Fuel: Maximize an important window for nutrition.

Our food choices in our thirties can impact our disease risk down the line, as shown in recent research that found those who eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, and legumes in early adulthood are more likely to enter their seventies free of chronic diseases.

Moon’s top tips for this all-important time: keep up with the cooking habits you established in your twenties, be sure to fuel your workouts and outdoor adventures with adequate carbs and proteins, and minimize ultra-processed convenience foods (which can be extra tempting during stressful times) by stocking nutritious snacks at your desk or keeping them within reach so you can have them on the go.

Sleep: Manage stress during the day for better sleep at night.

Stress has a way of tanking sleep quality, and new responsibilities in your thirties, including career changes, marriage, and kids, can cause it to pile on. This decade, Harris emphasizes the importance of practicing mindfulness to ward off stress-induced insomnia. And when you do have the occasional sleepless night, try to remind yourself that it happens to everyone instead of making it yet another thing to stress about.

If you do choose to have kids, the physical stress of pregnancy also causes sleep disruptions in more than half of all pregnancies. If you have trouble sleeping while pregnant, Harris suggests informing your doctor, as not sleeping enough has been linked with premature births.

40s

Hormonal shifts around menopause can make this an especially difficult decade for women, but there are ways to navigate it feeling more like yourself.

Move: Add in plyometrics and mobility for well-rounded, protective training.

In your forties, maintaining muscle mass through strength training remains a focus. Keeping up with weight-bearing exercises will also benefit your bone health during a time when skeletal quality naturally declines (especially in women approaching or going through menopause), Olenick says.

In addition to weight lifting, people in their forties can add some plyometric moves (think: speed skaters, step-ups, and pogo hops) into their routine to load and strengthen bone.

Bonney says that this decade is also a good time to do more mobility routines and spend a few extra minutes warming up and cooling down to reduce injury risk.

Cardio remains important in this decade, too. Like bone and muscle mass, aerobic capacity naturally declines with age, but it can be preserved through consistent training. On days when long-distance runs or bike rides aren’t in the cards, shorter, lower-intensity aerobic sessions can still be beneficial for preserving endurance. “The most important thing is to stay as active as possible across your entire lifespan,” says Olenick.

Fuel: Protein, protein, protein.

As the internet likes to incessantly remind us, getting enough protein is important at every age—but it may take more effort once you turn 40. By this decade, your body has started to naturally lose muscle mass, and putting on new muscle may be more difficult due to anabolic resistance, which blunts the muscle’s ability to respond to external stimuli like exercise and protein.

As a result of this one-two punch, Moon explains that in our forties and beyond, we end up needing more protein to make the same amount of muscle that we did when we were younger. While the exact amount is subject to much debate, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is at least 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. But you’ll need more than that as you age.

In your forties, Moon recommends aiming for 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight each day to protect and maintain muscle. This works out to about 73 to 87 grams of protein per day for a 160-pound person. Doing this in your forties will help ensure your protein intake becomes a habit in your fifties and beyond, when preserving muscle becomes even more important.

Perimenopausal women also need to get plenty of calcium, magnesium, and zinc to protect bone health from disruptive estrogen fluctuations, says Moon. She recommends opting for food sources first (such as yogurt, milk, nuts, seeds, beans, and certain meat and seafood), and supplementing to fill any gaps.

Sleep: Heed your hormones and prioritize recovery.

Hormonal shifts can also affect sleep quality in this decade. For women, the hot flashes, night sweats, and anxiety that accompany the menopausal transition amplify nighttime awakenings. Harris says that menopausal and perimenopausal women also run a greater risk of developing more serious conditions like sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome (RLS), due in part to the way changes in estrogen and progesterone can weaken throat muscles and reduce dopamine, a key movement regulator. As such, it’s important to flag any menopause-related sleep issues to your doctor instead of assuming they’ll go away on their own.

Men can also experience sleep issues as a result of modest age-related testosterone declines, but Harris says they tend to be less pronounced.

Once you hit 40, you may also notice your recovery needs creep up after a long bike ride or day on the trails—for good reason. Harris says that as athletes get older, they need to prioritize rest, whether by sleeping longer at night and/or taking more naps during the day.

50s, 60s, and Beyond

These decades are all about keeping up with the routines you started when you were younger—with a few key tweaks.

Move: Keep up with your routines—and never stop playing.

Once you reach 50 and beyond, research shows that keeping up with resistance training and cardio will make you feel strong in body and mind. Exercise has been shown to help elevate mood and reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults, with some research finding that physical activity level is the single biggest predictor of lifespan after the age of 50.

And while it’s helpful to get into a solid movement routine when you’re younger, Olenick stresses that “no matter where people are in their lives, it’s not too late to start.” One thing that can make exercise easier to start or stick with, she says, is to make it fun and never stop playing.

“I like to encourage people to always move in multiple directions and move in different ways, whether it’s with your kids, your grandkids, or your pets,” says Olenick. “Having a strength and cardio base is great as a foundation of fitness, but don’t be afraid to still go out there and try activities that have you moving in different ways.”

Fuel: Eat smaller meals, but make sure they’re nutrient-dense.

While overall macronutrient needs remain generally the same in the fifties and beyond, appetite and thirst tend to decrease. This means that as we get older, our food needs to work even harder for us, Moon says.

If your appetite starts to decrease, she recommends opting for smaller but more frequent meals and snacks. Try to pack each one with some protein and plants. Moon says that smoothies with yogurt, milk, fruit, and vegetables are a great option for a snack or light meal, since they’re nutrient-dense but not as filling.

A meal’s color can also clue you in on its nutritional benefits, and Moon suggests eating the rainbow once you hit 50 and older. Different hues correspond to different antioxidant, anti-inflammatory phytonutrients, and colorful plant foods can also protect digestive health from age-related declines. Plant fibers may help offset losses in beneficial gut bacteria, for example, and keep your bathroom schedule regular since constipation becomes more common as you age.

Sleep: Focus on sleep depth and minimizing nighttime awakenings.

It’s a myth that we need less sleep as we age. Those in their fifties and beyond require the same amount of sleep as younger adults—and may actually benefit from sleeping more to offset nightly wake-ups from aches and pains, medication side effects, or dealing with the need to urinate more frequently in the middle of the night.

As such, Harris suggests continuing to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time during these decades, even if your daily schedule changes after retirement or empty nesting. Feel free to take naps as needed, too, as long as they don’t interfere with your core sleep schedule.

Sleep may be harder to come by during certain points in your fifties and beyond, but it’s always worth prioritizing. Your shut-eye affects your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. “Sleep optimization is part of longevity medicine,” says Bonney.

The take-home message: Yes, aging comes with a side of DNA damage and muscle and bone loss. But it also brings personal achievements, new learnings, and awe-inspiring adventures. Cheers to feeling strong, powerful, and present through it all.