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Ryan Phillippe is rock hard at 47 but it takes a lot of work and intense morning workouts to keep it that way. The actor is featured in PEOPLE‘s 2021 Sexiest Man Alive issue and he opened up about his experience aging and how he maintains his physical and mental health. “It’s like the law of diminishing returns, right?” he told the outlet. “You‘ve got to work harder in the gym for fewer results.” Thankfully he has his 18-year-old son Deacon who he described as “like a best friend“ to work out with, even though he admits to a feeling of defeat after their workouts.
Ryan and Deacon stay toned and fit by hiking around L.A. or pumping iron at the gym but he explained it’s not always the same experience “We’ll do the same workout, and the way he looks after compared to the way I look is really defeating,” he quipped.
The father of 3 shares his oldest kids, Ava, 22, and Deacon with Reese Witherspoon. He also shares a 10-year-old son named Kai with Alexis Knapp. He joked that his 2 older children are “both better looking than me, thankfully,” adding “They obviously have a very pretty mom.” While Deacon is his workout buddy, they also bond over music. “Deacon and I connect very heavily in regards to music. He‘s like my best friend,” he explained adding, “and Ava is very much my personality.”
Ryan also explained how working out helps his mental health and he starts every morning by going on an intense hike at a mountain near his home. “It‘s exhausting. You sweat so hard and it changes your body chemistry, literally. It’s a run, hike, and climb,” he told People. “When I finish that, I feel clearer. I feel less down. It gets me out of my head a little.”
While the pressure is high for women in Hollywood to maintain an impossible youthful appearance their entire life, men aren’t safe from it either. “I don‘t like aging. When I see the signs of aging, which is every day, it drives me insane. But there’s nothing you can do, really,” he said. “You can‘t prolong the inevitable. We’re all going to age, if we‘re lucky enough, to last into our old age.”
