Cohen: I want to speak to you about a fascinating topic—the relationship between physical aging, the pursuit of perfection, and glimpses of immortality. Frank, how old are you?

Frank Zane: I’m sixty-five.

Cohen: I just turned fifty-two. And I think we’re living in an interesting time because many people from our generation are thinking about what it means to get older in ways that nobody ever has before. For one thing, a lot of baby boomers don’t seem to be prepared to get old, retire, and die in the same way our parents did. I certainly don’t. You’re a stellar example of someone who is on the leading edge of pushing what’s possible in this direction. So I’m curious to find out how you feel about being alive at age sixty-five. Are you as intensely engaged with the life process and your own development as you were when you were younger—say, when you were a competitive bodybuilder?

Zane: Probably more so, because at the time that I was competing, I had a different kind of motivation. In a way, it was an easier motivation because it was totally external. You push yourself because you have to get up onstage and compete against others and everything about you has to be as perfect as possible. But by age forty-one, I’d won everything I wanted to win, and I realized it was time to stop competing. The tide in bodybuilding had turned; they were favoring the big freaky monster-type guys for the winners, and I knew that my window had closed.

Now my motivation is different: I just keep training to see how good I can get, and for how long. My goal now is to improve every year for at least the next five years. I don’t know what is possible, and I’m taking it one year at a time. I just know that it keeps getting harder and harder. I have to be more impeccable in my lifestyle. My diet has to be close to perfect. I get very sore from workouts, and it takes longer to recover. But that just means my body’s changing. I’m not trying to be like I was when I was at my peak at thirty-seven, but I’m curious to find out what’s possible.

From a physical standpoint, I’d have to say there’s nothing good about getting older. People say to me, “You look good for your age.” But most people at sixty-five look like my father would look if he were still alive. And that’s not good enough for me. I want to look good for any age.

Cohen: Well, the pictures I’ve seen of you at age sixty-four are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Zane: You know, I really hope to surpass that this year. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep doing this, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Cohen: Would you say that pushing these kinds of physical limits is something that’s unprecedented for a man your age?

Zane: There are certainly others who are in pretty good shape at my age, but I’m not sure there’s anybody else with development as complete as mine. Some guys, for example, have tremendous abdominals in their late sixties, but they really don’t have much else. I’ve always had pretty proportionate development. I focus on the areas that need more work and pay more attention to them. That’s what I’ve always been known for, and I still make it a point now.

Cohen: What about the thrill of training and the thrill of accomplishment? Is it the same as it was when you were younger, or is it different?

Zane: It’s different. It was brand new then. I was seeing my body take shape for the first time, developing more and more, and then winning titles and becoming famous and all that. Now, it’s about holding on and achieving as much as I can. I’m really motivated by curiosity.

Cohen: I’ve heard that you take anti-aging drugs. Is that true?

Zane: Yes. I’m a patient of Dr. Lane Sebring, who’s an anti-aging physician in Texas. Basically, the whole idea is to restore your hormonal balance to where it was when you were younger. And the goal is to stay within acceptable boundaries, not to push them way over the limits. That’s why it’s medically supervised. I do it in a very conservative way. Actually, the way I do it is even more conservative than what the physicians recommend.

Cohen: And do you experience benefits from it?

Zane: Yes, in recuperation, fat loss, building muscle, improved cognitive function. There’s research on all this stuff, and it has a lot to do with taking a balanced approach. With testosterone, if you take too much, you can get superaggressive; fly into rages; and develop high blood pressure, thickened blood, and increase your risk of stroke. But if you take the right amount, which gets lower as you get older, you will notice improved cognitive function, lower blood pressure, reduced risk of diabetes, and faster recuperation from workouts. And I experience all these things because I don’t overindulge. I’m against drug abuse, but if you’re intelligent about it, there are a lot of things coming on the horizon that will aid longevity.

The question I’m curious about is, “How good could I look at what kind of advanced age?” I don’t know of anybody who looked that good even at seventy. Now, I’m not talking about your average, “He’s in great shape for being seventy.” I’m talking about a much, much higher standard. Who at age ninety has any kind of physique? I don’t think anybody ever has.

Now, I don’t know if that’s possible. I don’t know if I’m going to live that long. But what I would like to see happen is to be in really great shape when I die. I mean, it sounds strange saying that, but I would.