Denzel Washington's guide to aging during your 'funky 40s'

The acting icon has a way with words. And an inspiring way to think about aging and behavior change.

I turned 44 last week and celebrated by starting my day with a 40-minute swim at our community pool, followed by a two-hour workout. This wasn't a random fitness day—it marked about one year since I returned to regular strength training – something I'd abandoned since high school.

As I moved through my routine, I heard Denzel Washington's voice in my head: "You prepare for war in times of peace."

Glenn Whipp at the LA Times published an interview with Washington back in 2022 that has a great perspective on aging:

When we sat down, I asked him about a quote attributed to Will Smith, who said he called Washington for advice when he was in his late 40s. Related Smith: “He said, ‘Listen. You’ve got to think of it as the funky 40. Everybody’s 40s are funky.’ He said, ‘But just wait till you hit the f—-it 50s.’”

“I didn’t say that,” Washington says, taking exception, I believe, to the language. “I know I didn’t say that.”

But he warms to the subject.

“I’m almost done with my 60s,” Washington says, trying out some alliteration for size. “The simplistic 60s. The simplified 60s.” He looks at me. I’m not there yet. “You’re prepping for the fourth quarter, though. The only way to get overtime is doing the work now. If life has four quarters — zero to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 60 to 80 — you’re about to enter the fourth quarter. Anything after 80 is overtime.” He pauses, then reconsiders. “This is a sliding scale now that I’ve passed 65. Let’s say, 65 to 85. But the principle remains: You prepare for war in times of peace.”

So how do you prepare for the fourth quarter? Washington answers with three words: Body. Mind. Spirit.

I'm in what Denzel called the "funky 40s," so these words from Washington hit me Coach Herman Boone-style, like a “Remember the Titans” speech:

In high school, I lifted weights religiously. Our football team was smaller than our rivals—fewer players on the roster and physically smaller in stature. Our coaches compensated through aggressive conditioning and strength training. Practice routinely included grueling sessions of running, back-pedaling, and crawling up and down sloping hills. We would bench and squat and deadlift while Metallica blared through speakers and teenage boys shouted encouragement: "HALFTIME!" at the midpoint of a set or "4TH QUARTER, EMPTY THE TANK!" as we pushed through our final reps.

After football, my relationship with weights faded. Two decades passed without serious training. Then last May, facing lingering symptoms from Long Covid, I returned to strength training. The fitness community universally endorses it for healthy aging, and I've experienced firsthand how it's helped me reclaim my body from post-viral fatigue.

Now when I'm going through those final reps, my inner voice has changed. I'm still hearing those words about “halftime” and "the fourth quarter.” But I’m not thinking about football. I’m thinking about my future – preparing my body for battles I know will eventually come.

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Being in the gym consistently this past year, I witnessed the predictable January surge and decline of New Year's resolution-makers. The second Friday of January is widely known as 'Quitter's Day'. A few years ago, Strava — the fitness tracking app —- even ran a study with 800 million logged exercise activities that found how widespread the phenomenon was.

When I was Managing Editor at the Washington Post, we tried to approach this thoughtfully. We would publish and re-promote stories about New Year's resolutions in early January. And then we experimented with publishing similar content a month later, in February.¹ The strategy was to meet readers where they actually were—often in a place of having started and stopped—and say, "Hey, why not start again?”

I’d go a step further. The best time to start something is today. The second best time is tomorrow. And I think we should all be telling ourselves that (and each other!) as much as we can, while being mindful of the practical realities of behaviour change .. and that we can’t suddenly make all the changes. It starts with a few steps that turn into a lifestyle adjustment.

For me, it happened to be May 2024. I started going to the gym, monitoring my Garmin watch data and deliberately changed my media diet and digital community to support this change.

Over the past year, my progress hasn't been linear. There have been setbacks, plateaus, and breakthroughs. But the direction has remained forward. Each workout isn't just about the immediate physical benefits—it's an investment in my future self, preparation for whatever challenges my body might face in the coming decades.

Denzel’s words resonate beyond fitness. He called them out — “body, mind, and spirit.” All three need maintenance and strengthening during peaceful times to withstand future storms. As I move deeper into my forties, I'm grateful for this perspective, for the ability to prepare now rather than having to react later.

It feels like I’m at halftime and I have time to prepare for the 4th quarter. Like Denzel, I also hope to be fighting for overtime, too.

1. This strategy was the brainchild of two brilliant editors — Tara Parker Pope, The Post’s legendary Well+Being Editor and Megan Griffith Greene, a visionary who served as editor for Service Journalism.