Jim Arrington was born premature, and suffered from a variety of health conditions throughout his childhood. As a teenager in the late 1940s, that began to change when he decided that he wanted to become strong like his favorite superheroes, and started going to the gym.
Seven decades later, Jim is still a fixture at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, training for two hours at least twice a week. His last bodybuilding competition was in 2022, and he says he has no plans to retire, which means that at 90 years old, he officially holds the record of being the oldest professional bodybuilder in the world.
In a recent video on the Guinness World Records YouTube channel, Jim explained that one of the keys to his longevity has been listening to his body, and knowing when to switch up his training routine with age. “What works for a person at one time in their life isn’t the same,” he says. “And that’s the whole thing about bodybuilding: it’s adaption.”
Jim has also completely overhauled his diet. As a young bodybuilder, he would consume huge amounts of milk and beef, as was the “old style” of muscle-growing diet. “Those were the two foods that I’m not allergic to,” he says. “But they lead to inflammation, [so] I changed my diet entirely. I figured if I did that, I could continue training, and I could keep this thing up.”
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Jim says that winning competitions—and breaking a world record—have “opened an entire new universe” for him, and that this keeps him filled with passion and enthusiasm for bodybuilding.
“What inspires me is the people that come up and say I inspire them,” he says.
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
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