Who is John Hansen?
Hansen has been bodybuilding since 1979, placing first in the 1998 and 2012 Natural Olympia events. More recently, he earned an IFBB Pro card in 2025 after becoming the overall winner of the Masters 60+ competition in the National Masters Championshipsand at the age of 62 he now wants to compete in some professional shows.
Hansen seemed pumped and peeled for his July 19 Masters victory, explaining that he had competed in three matches in quick succession, with the other two taking place on June 28 and July 4. “I did three shows in a row, so I really peaked for the last one,” Hansen said. Having been a competitive bodybuilder since his teens, the gang wanted to know how Hansen’s training and preparation compares now that he’s over 60.
How bodybuilding preparation changes with age
“So when you look back, you’ve been competing all these years, when you look back and compare it to the preparation now, what has changed?” The Menace asked. “What should you do differently than what you did, say, 25 years ago.”
“Well, when I was younger, I was always bulking up in the offseason,” Hansen explains. “So when you get older, you definitely can’t do that anymore.” This is because the cost in terms of metabolic and physiological stress on older bodies is not worth the reward. “So I stayed slim,” he added. The bodybuilder also explained that after returning to the stage in 2024 following an eight-year layoff, he remained in consistently good shape. “That made it a lot easier to get ready for the next one because I was already pretty skinny.”
Hansen said that because he was ready for the stage about 2-3 weeks before his 2025 shows, it made the peaking process a lot easier. “Then you just have to fill in and do the exhausting and loading and all that, but yeah, you definitely can’t get bigger as you get older because it just doesn’t work for you anymore,” Hansen continued. “I did it when I was younger because I started out skinny, so I had to bulk up to get the mass, and then in the off-season I would always bulk up, and then come down, but as you get older you can’t do that anymore.” In addition to his competitive success, Hansen has released a new book entitled History of bodybuilding: the 1970s.
To watch the full episode, in which the panel also discussed the upcoming Arnold Classic, longevity and all the latest bodybuilding news, see below.
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