What does a fit 40-year-old normal guy look like with his shirt off?

August 26, 2008 4:25 PM

Got any photos and ideas of what a tall, reasonably fit, 40-year-old man look like with his shirt off?

I'm looking for photos and names of tall (i.e. 6 feet and over) 40-year-old men, shirts off, that are reasonably fit and in shape.

Images of most professional athletes, like Laird Hamilton, aren't terribly useful, because their bodies are often not reasonable for workaday slubs to aspire to, at least not in the short term.

Same for guys like Hugh Jackman whose physique is part of his calling card and the result of intense personal training beyond the reach of mere civilians.

George Clooney might fit the bill, but I can find only the one image via Google, and it's just plain goofy.

posted by Cool Papa Bell to grab bag (31 answers total)

I don't have a picture, but I do have an idea. I would imagine that shirtless pictures of movie stars from the 40-50s (or so) would fit the bill. Physical fitness (in the contemporary sense involving dedicated trainers, special diets, etc.) had not established itself yet, but, of course, the movie stars still tried to look good with their shirts off.

More specifically a star such as Lee Marvin comes to mind.
posted by oddman at 4:41 PM on August 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Viggo. Rawr.
posted by Liosliath at 4:45 PM on August 26, 2008

Vincent Cassell.
posted by fire&wings at 4:49 PM on August 26, 2008

Excellent topic.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw a photo of Matt Lauer in swim trunks. And he was 50 when that was taken. Here are some more of Clooney, taken a couple of weeks ago.
posted by iconomy at 4:52 PM on August 26, 2008

This guy (because we are obliged to keep posting about him every day this week).
posted by wexford_arts at 5:02 PM on August 26, 2008

This guy is 70.
posted by aeighty at 5:20 PM on August 26, 2008

This guy is 70.

Let's keep it to 40s, please. Answers are great so far!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:23 PM on August 26, 2008

the obvious answer is Obama but I'm assuming you knew that already
posted by matteo at 5:28 PM on August 26, 2008

Well, a particular opera singer my wife finds to be compelling looks like this, this, and this. He's not quite 40, but will be in two years. I'm not feeling quite intimated, yet, but I've got a couple of years until 40 as well.
posted by mollweide at 5:33 PM on August 26, 2008

Or intimidated, but you know, your mileage will vary.
posted by mollweide at 5:39 PM on August 26, 2008

seconding oddman. This comes to mind
posted by purpletangerine at 6:04 PM on August 26, 2008

You could check out bigmuscle. Don't let the name mislead you. Yes there are professional body builders that have gone to the extreme, but it has more pictures of vain, fit, shirtless men than you can shake a stick at. Use the search profiles option, I am sure you will find what you are looking for. The average age is 40.

(and only slightly gay...)
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:17 PM on August 26, 2008

Actually, if you are talking about reasonably, average-guy kind of fit (not gym-rat fit), then Barack Obama comes to mind for me. Although he's 46, right? But he is 6'1".
posted by smalls at 6:18 PM on August 26, 2008

oops... I just saw Obama up there already. Let me see who else I can think of... um. Matthew Fox from Lost (Dr. Jack Shepard). He's 42. I don't know if he's out of the regular guy category, but he did get a little more regular-guy looking in the last season (that is to say, less buff).
posted by smalls at 6:32 PM on August 26, 2008

As tempted as I am to provide the fourth mention or link to Obama in this thread, I'll just point out that Sean Connery was 44 (maybe 43) when this picture was taken. It's not every guy who can rock this look.

(And according to IMDB, he turned 78 yesterday. Happy birthday, Sean!)
posted by maudlin at 6:32 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, I'm a reasonably fit 40 year old male, by no means a gym rat, and I'm built pretty much exactly like that Cassell guy fire&wings posted above. Those Clooney shots iconomy posted look pretty reasonable too, I'd say. The Matthew Fox pics, not so much.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:39 PM on August 26, 2008

I am having fun with this! Here is one of Sean Connery circa 1965. He's like... runner fit.
posted by smalls at 6:44 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Does this help?
posted by WCityMike at 7:08 PM on August 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm not going to go searching for pics of shirtless men while I'm at work, but the host of Dirty Jobs on Discovery, Mike Rowe, is in his mid-40's and in reasonable but not movie-star shape, and appears shirtless once in a while. It makes me feel not too bad about my few extra kilos, because I have a similar build, and we look relatively similar shirtless, even if I'm not quite as craggy-handsome.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:24 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Maudlin, I was so worried that that would be a link to something Zardoz-related, and yet I clicked on it anyway. Serves me right.
posted by thisjax at 7:54 PM on August 26, 2008

I'm not going to go searching for pics of shirtless men while I'm at work, but the host of Dirty Jobs on Discovery, Mike Rowe, is in his mid-40's

Such a good suggestion that I'll do the dirty work for you on this one. Here are a couple of shots.
posted by DanielDManiel at 7:55 PM on August 26, 2008

Dermot Mulroney?
posted by thisjax at 8:13 PM on August 26, 2008

Yeah..I'm in my mid-30's and I aspire to look like Mike Rowe. Rawr, indeed.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:16 PM on August 26, 2008

Great answers, thanks to all! The shots of Clooney were helpful, but the best advice was to expand the search to include older photographs, and that squarehippies.com site, which led me to these shots of Clint Eastwood at age 44, because I know from being lucky enough to stand next to him once about 20 years ago, Clint and I are pretty much the same height. Although I think he will always have bigger guns than me.

The shots of Obama are useful, too, because clearly, he's been a busy guy over the past year or two. ;-)
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:45 PM on August 26, 2008

I run across many sorts of people in that age range all day long and, well, most of them have a small belly, if not more. The examples we're offering here, while not movie star quality, still need to keep fit to a large degree.

I mean, do you want the average? Or do you want people whose relative fitness and attractiveness are a big part of their jobs? Most people don't look like Mike Rowe, Matt Lauer, or Clint Eastwood. I think the dispatcher for a HVAC repair outfit, who works nine hours at a desk all day, has two kids with lots of extracurricular activites, and has a bit of trouble getting to the gym more than three days a week... THAT GUY is the average.
posted by tcv at 9:15 PM on August 26, 2008

THAT GUY is the average.

Indisputably. The question as asked was not about 'the average', though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:23 PM on August 26, 2008

So, maybe we can spin on the word "reasonably?" Is "THAT GUY" reasonably fit? Is Mike Rowe reasonably fit? If my job required me to maintain a level of fit-ness -- one that require special diets and a lot more time in the gym -- a level that's not at all average, doesn't it become less reasonable for the HVAC guy?

The OP wanted "reasonable" and specifically didn't want stars, but we've offered Matt Lauer and Mike Rowe.

This is dangerously close to OT, so I am going to stop. ;-)
posted by tcv at 9:31 PM on August 26, 2008

The OP wanted "reasonable" and specifically didn't want stars, but we've offered Matt Lauer and Mike Rowe.

*shrug* I have no idea how to Google up pictures of Bob down at the local contractor's office. Nor have I seen Bob with his shirt off. Mike Rowe, on the other hand, I have, and can. Or could have, if I wasn't at work.

To me, 'reasonably fit' means someone who's clearly in decent physical condition, but has got a few extra pounds, a bit of a spare tire maybe, stuff like that. Or, conversely, is a little overthin, not well-muscled, but not extremely so (even though recent research shows it's healthier to be fit and somewhat fat than sedentary and skinny). It is uncontroversial with -- what is it now, a 60% obesity rate in America? -- that even that modest qualification is far from the average. Nonetheless, I maintain that someone, even if they are not 'average' according to current fat/fit levels in some countries, is 'reasonably fit' at 40 years old if they meet the rough criteria I mentioned.

Or, in fewer words, 'reasonably fit' is not a measure that slides according to what most people look like, it's a measure that slides according to an individual's body type.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:58 PM on August 26, 2008

Normal depends on the person's natural build. Some people, fit, look like runners. Others look like football players.

Movie stars, even ones from the days before personal trainers, are rarely 'normal' fit. For instance, Clint Eastwood in those pictures looks like an exceptionally fit 46 year old - I'd expect someone that muscular and lean at 46 to either be a trainer or an athlete.
posted by zippy at 11:42 PM on August 26, 2008

What does a fit 40-year-old normal guy look like with his shirt off?

He looks like me, except for my being 41.
posted by a3matrix at 6:05 AM on August 27, 2008

stavros&c wrote: what is it now, a 60% obesity rate in America?

60% of US residents fall into the "overweight" BMI category; less than half of those go beyond into the "obese" BMI category.

And the "overweight" BMI category may, statistically, have a lower morbidity/mortality rate than the "healthy weight" BMI category--there are a lot of conflicting data on this.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:03 AM on August 27, 2008