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No Shortcuts, Just Strength: How Milind Soman Is Rewriting The Rules Of Fitness After 60

Milind Soman’s fitness at 60 is rooted in simplicity. It stands out not for age or aesthetics, but for its consistency, balance, and seamless place in his everyday life

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Photograph: (Instagram: @milindrunning)

At 60, Milind Soman doesn’t treat fitness as a performance, he lives it. What seems exceptional now is really the result of decades of consistency. He quietly challenges the idea that aging must come with inevitable physical decline, not through dramatic reinvention, but through continuity. His focus isn’t on building more muscle or chasing trends; it’s on showing up daily. His body reflects years of steady movement practiced regularly, not in bursts.

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For him, fitness isn’t corrective or cosmetic. It’s not about extremes or spectacle. It’s as simple as stepping outside, staying active, and trusting routines that are sustainable. In a time dominated by quick fixes and biohacks, his approach feels grounded and relatable, proof that long-term discipline doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful.

More than redefining strength at 60, he normalises it, showing that ageing well can be intentional, steady, and deeply human.

How India's Fitness Icon Stays in Peak Shape

Milind Soman does not approach fitness as something to prove. Instead, his body reads as lived, shaped by years of exposure to movement rather than short bursts of optimisation. He treats movement as means of maintenance, not transformation, and that distinction informs everything he does.

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There is no corrective agenda associated with his approach either, no fixation on muscle gain, reinvention, or performance metrics. There’s an emphasis on staying functional, being able to move freely, lift one’s own weight, and remain comfortable in the body.

His workout regimen thus, is as simple as it gets, involving replicable exercises that can be incorporated into the daily routine with ease. He centres his diet around fueling his body optimally, and providing energy to sustain an active lifestyle. Together, these habits keep the body responsive over time and capable well into later decades.

It’s this long-term view of fitness, that helps in sustaining over peaking briefly, under pressure or through confinement to trends. 

The Workout Routine That Keeps Him Feeling 25

Milind Soman has never subscribed to the modern obsession of highly-enginnered gyms, rigid routines or colour-coded calendars. His relationship with fitness is far more instinctive because movement, for him, isn’t scheduled it’s lived. He’s never claimed to follow a workout routine, his exercise is five minutes here, twenty minutes there, often repeated across the day as and when he craves movement.

His philosophy is disarmingly simple: move honestly and stop when the body tells you to. However, the practice of running has remained fairly central to his fitness routine, and it’s not the performative kind that’s built for pace charts. He indulges in endurance running, a form of sustained, long-distance, and predominantly aerobic running. Over the years, he has even stripped it down to its most elemental form, often choosing to run barefoot as and when the terrain permits. He often describes that in doing so, he is able to ground himself physically—without cushioning, every step demands attention to breath, posture and enables a loop of constant feedback between the nature and the body. 

His indulgence in strength work remains deliberately spare. Bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, squats, planks, lunges replace heavy equipment and hyper-specialised gear. Alongside this he also indulges in yoga, practiced not for it’s trending tag, but because it enters his life as something passed down from his mother, almost as inheritance. It complements his running by restoring a sense of balance, and helping him sustain flexibility and practicing stillness against motion.

In an era obsessed with optimisation, Soman’s approach reads almost radical in its restraint. By returning to simple movements, repeated daily, the body remains responsive and fitness becomes known rather than forced. Strength here is quiet and sustainable.

Lifestyle Habits for Good Health

His approach to diet and lifestyle mirrors his training philosophy: uncomplicated and familiar, sustained only through consistency. Food, is not governed by fad-diet rules but by an intuitive awareness of his own needs. There isn’t an effort to map out portions either, just balanced and regular meals governed by satiety, and not restriction. 

His meals consists of traditional, everyday Indian staples, seasonal vegetables, foods that are both nourishing and culturally embedded. He doesn’t hold any appeal for highly processed food, so naturally we find an absence of items rich in artificial sugars and preservatives. He poses hydration as the backbone of his routine and maintains a steady water intake, again, a practice he carries out due to it’s very straighfoward benefits spanning nutrient transport, skin health, supporting recovery, and aiding circulation. He priorities sleep, following a natural rhythm rather than a rigid timetable.

Fitness Lessons

What grounds this fitness icon is just continuity. His is a body that has stayed in circulation long enough to develop presence. Fitness here isn’t aspirational,  it’s attractive and that’s  because it looks lived-in. 

In a culture that rewards visible striving, this kind of restraint stands out. Not because it’s virtuous, but because it’s rare. Desire doesn’t come from effort alone, it comes from comfort in one’s own skin. And that, more than muscle or mileage, is what people respond to.

Start Your Fitness Journey at Any Age

Fitness doesn’t begin with age, it begins with intent. There’s no advantage in having started early if habits weren’t sustained, just as there’s no disadvantage in starting later if consistency follows. The body responds to regular movement at any stage, adapting gradually when it’s treated with patience rather than urgency.

The most effective place to start is with what feels accessible. Walking, stretching, basic strength work, and time spent outdoors are enough to rebuild familiarity with movement. Progress doesn’t require transformation; it requires repetition. When routines are realistic and aligned with daily life, they’re more likely to last.

What Milind Soman’s journey ultimately illustrates is that fitness is not a deadline-driven pursuit. It’s a practice shaped over time, one that rewards steadiness, simplicity, and respect for the body’s capacity to adapt, no matter when the journey begins.

FAQ

1: Does maintaining fitness in your 60s require intense workouts or strict performance goals?

No, long-term consistency and functional movement matter far more than intensity or optimisation.

2: Can simple, equipment-free routines realistically support strength and mobility with age?

Bodyweight movement and daily activity serve to be more than sufficient when practiced regularly over time.

3: Is it too late to benefit from fitness if you didn’t prioritise it earlier in life?

No! The body adapts at any age when movement is introduced steadily and without urgency.

Also Read:

Malaika Arora’s Ultimate Guide To Fitness, Glam, And Unstoppable Confidence!

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