JESSAY MARTIN
69 years young, 5’ 10”
I started cancer treatment a month before COVID and then I had leg and foot surgery. I gained weight. I used to go to the gym three times a week but now I’m happy as a cat just walking. I go for a walk around a church parking lot at 5:30 every morning. I do pushups and stretches then I walk home. We’ve all felt the pressure to fit into a certain body type. Showing my body in our videos is difficult for me. I have cried many times, but I’m learning to just be me. You see people of different body types and you give them a story that could not be theirs—you don’t know what they’re going through. The Old Gays has taught me to open up and love everybody because we are not all alike and that’s good.
BILL LYONS
78 years young, 5’ 10”
I’ve always been a very confident person and very accepting of my body. I’ve been a thin person all my life and I have not been able to get over 125 pounds for 10 years. But I was also celibate for 10 years. Joining the Old Gays and finding out that people thought I was hot surprised me. It makes you think that all the hard work you did was really worth it. And it is hard work! I used to do yoga twice a week religiously, but now all the exercise I do is all the dancing we do and learning the steps. I only read the positive feedback. The negatives we get are tiny compared to the positive things that they don’t bother me at all. There’s a jerk in every crowd.
ROBERT REEVES
79 years young, 6’
In high school and college, I was not very physical. When I moved to San Francisco in 1980, I became intensely body aware and went to the gym five days a week and did a lot of aerobics. There was so much pressure to look the best you could. I moved to Palm Springs and continued to work out because the inclination in the desert is to not wear clothes most of the time. I want to look the best I can, as long as I can. There are so many sexy daddies around Palm Springs you have to look your best. That pressure is still definitely there, but how critical physical health is to longevity is becoming more important to me.
MICHAEL "MICK" PETERSON
66 years young , 5’ 9”
I started training when I was 15. When I moved to LA in the early 1980s, I trained with former Mr. Olympia John Tristram at the Gold’s Gym in Venice. Then an Olympic weightlifter named Jim Morris opened the first really openly gay gym in the country Jim Morris Gym and I trained with him. The gym was an escape where I could really focus my mind.But there was always a bit of [body pressure] in a place like Los Angeles. You can let it mess with you, but for me it was an internal motivation.When I turned 60, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that resulted in neuropathy in all four of my limbs. Right now I have about 70 percent feeling in my hands and feet. My body is at war with itself. Recovery has become much more important to me.I just take each day as I find it. Some days my body tells me to rest. On days I feel good, I push it.
This story appears in the October 2o22 issue of Men's Health.
Garrett Munce writes about men's style and grooming. He's written for Esquire, New York Magazine, Spotlyte, and Very Good Light and held staff positions at GQ and W. Follow his skincare obsession on Instagram at @garrettmunce.
