Fly fishing is bliss. It is finesse, restraint, and serenity far more than bravado. Sunrise over a meadow stream. A trout sipping your fly, then its sudden dash, stripping line from the reel. Time stops. Hearts pound. Hands shake. Later, the memory feels dreamlike. Every outing is different. Every outing is a gift. You want to return again and again—until you are one hundred years old.
My work as a wildlife biologist centered on habitat—evaluating and, when necessary, restoring wetlands, estuaries, salt marshes, forests, and prairies to ensure their health and integrity. The health of each habitat contributes upward to the overall wellness of the larger ecosystem: the entire community of living things. Your body is an ecosystem. The “habitats” that contribute to your personal biological ecosystem include your muscles, tendons, organs, nervous system, gut, and many others.
I’ve broadened the theme of my website after receiving thoughtful feedback. One reader wrote, “I visited your site and left because I don’t fish. We all need help aging better—so why the narrow focus?” Fly-fishing will remain part of my core message because it’s my why—the reason I live the training lifestyle. It is my measuring stick for how I’m aging physically, cognitively, and emotionally.
The longevity I am working toward is performance longevity. I don’t want to just live, being ejected out of a power recliner chair. I want to be hiking, climbing and fly-fishing in remote, roadless Wilderness Areas. What do you want?
In one of the harshest environments on Earth, the bowhead does not merely survive. The bowhead whale is now considered a model of longevity. Its slow metabolism, late maturity, and low reproductive rate reflect a different biological strategy—one that does not rush. It invests in durability. It builds systems that resist disease, adapt to stress, and repair damage over time.
The food industry doesn't care that food is making you sick. Their for-profit conduct echoes tactics once used by the tobacco industry: shaping research narratives, marketing aggressively, and ignoring public health.
The Art of Aging Interview, Ask Brian Your philosophy is we can and must age better. Why? What’s wrong with [...]
The Art of Aging is the artistic practice of aging well. THE LIE Surreptitiously and systematically—through comfort, convenience, and the [...]
Fly fisher fitness connection. There is a clear relationship, yet the connection is often brushed aside or overlooked. When I [...]
It is possible to get better as you age. Transported while fly-fishing for smallmouth bass, after several hours, I looked up only to realize I couldn’t see a single member of my fishing club. Somehow, without noticing, I found myself standing waist-deep in the October waters of the Juniata River, alone.