Disclosure: This content is presented in paid partnership with Aláry Health Spa. The author holds an equity interest in Aláry Health Spa. Medical services referenced in this article are provided by Guardian Medical Group NY PLLC, a licensed medical practice operating within Aláry Health Spa in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Twenty years of sculpting this body, and I am not done. If anything, I am just getting to the interesting part.
I have been documenting my bodybuilding journey on these pages for a while now — the workouts, the nutrition, the philosophy behind treating your body like a living art project rather than just a machine to be punished into submission. And now, rolling into my forties with two decades of iron and intention behind me, I find myself at a crossroads that a lot of men in the gym know intimately but rarely talk about out loud: the plateau.
Bodybuilding After 40: My Protocol, My Plateau, and Why I Am Just Getting Started – By Maxwell Alexander, MA/BFA, Fitness Trainer, Bodybuilding, Wellness and Sports Nutrition Coach – Bodybuilding – Wellness – Men’s Health – Presented by Aláry Health Spa
Not the kind of plateau that comes from slacking off — I am still hitting the gym every other day. The kind that comes from doing everything right and still watching your progress flatline while your body holds its ground like a stubborn landlord refusing to negotiate.
So here is what I am doing about it. And more importantly, here is what you might want to know if you are anywhere on this road — whether you are just getting started or twenty years deep like me.
Twenty Years of Building. One Body. One Ongoing Art Project.
Bodybuilding has always been, for me, less about competition and more about authorship. The body as canvas. The gym as studio. The process — the relentless, glorious, sometimes humbling process — as the work itself. I came into it the way I come into everything: obsessively, intellectually, with a side of stubbornness that my upbringing wired into my bones. My background in fine art and sports science folded together into an approach to training that is as much about understanding the system as it is about grinding through it.
After twenty years, the system has changed. Not because I have gotten lazy. Because I have gotten older — and the body after forty operates by a different set of rules. Recovery takes longer. The hormonal scaffolding that made gains feel almost automatic in your twenties and thirties starts to shift. It is not a failure. It is biology. And like any good coach, the smart move is to stop fighting the conditions and start working with them.
For the foundational principles that got me here, I have written extensively on building your body naturally, mastering progressive resistance, and the mental health benefits of exercise and bodybuilding.
Step One: Bloodwork First. Non-Negotiable.
Before anything else — before any protocol, any optimization strategy, any conversation about what your body might need — you need data. This is the step most men skip, and it is honestly the reason most men plateau without ever understanding why.
My first move was a comprehensive hormone panel through the clinical team at Aláry Health Spa in Poughkeepsie. The full picture. What came back confirmed what my body had been signaling for a while — and it opened a clinical conversation I genuinely wish I had started sooner.
Here is what I know as a coach: after forty, the biological environment that supported your training in your twenties and thirties is not the same one you are working with now. Recovery takes longer. Body composition shifts. Energy patterns change. None of that feels like a hormone problem from the inside. It just feels like life. But data tells a different story — and data is where smart training decisions start.
The clinical side of what comes next is not my lane. I am a coach, not a clinician. What I can tell you is that getting that picture clarified, and working with a team I trust to address what the labs actually showed, was the most important thing I did for my training this year. For the medical details, that conversation belongs at Aláry Health Spa — not here.
Why I Co-Founded Aláry Health Spa
Let me be honest about something. The reason I have a stake in Aláry Health Spa is not because I went looking for a business opportunity. It is because I spent years watching people in the Hudson Valley — serious athletes, hardworking adults, people who cared deeply about their health — unable to access the kind of medical wellness services that someone living on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan takes for granted.
Hormone optimization. Peptide therapy. NAD+ infusions. Regenerative treatments. These are not fringe concepts anymore. They are standard offerings at top-tier longevity clinics in every major city. But if you lived in Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh, or New Paltz, you either drove two hours each way to the city or you went without.
That is the gap Aláry Health Spa was built to close. World-class clinical care, right here in the Hudson Valley — with plans to expand that access across New York State. That is the mission. And it is why I put my name and my equity behind it.
The person leading the clinical work I am personally involved with is Luis Labrador, PA-C, who oversees hormone optimization and regenerative therapies at Aláry Health Spa. He thinks about longevity and performance together, not as separate concerns. Every protocol is built on your labs and monitored continuously. No guesswork. No one-size-fits-all scripts.
“For men over forty who are serious about their training, getting bloodwork done is not optional — it is the foundation. We see it constantly: men putting in real effort at the gym and wondering why they are spinning their wheels. Nine times out of ten, the answer is in the labs. Once we establish hormonal balance, the body becomes receptive to optimization in a way it simply cannot be when the underlying chemistry is out of range.” — Luis Labrador, PA-C, Aláry Health Spa
What Is Actually Available at Aláry Health Spa — and Why It Matters
Here is the part I want Hudson Valley athletes and active adults to actually hear: the services available at Aláry Health Spa’s Regenerative Therapies program are the same category of clinically supervised treatments that top performers, executives, and longevity-minded individuals have been accessing in Manhattan and Miami for years.
Peptides. NAD+ infusions. Hormone support. Metabolic wellness. Cellular recovery protocols. All of it, supervised by licensed clinicians, built on your individual labs, and available forty-five minutes from most of the Hudson Valley — not four hours round-trip to the city.
I am personally working through a protocol that includes peptide therapy and NAD+ infusions alongside my training. I am not going to describe the clinical specifics here because that is not my job — that conversation belongs with Luis and the team at Aláry Health Spa. What I can tell you as a coach is that pairing serious training with serious clinical support, for the first time in my career, feels like the complete picture. The gym side and the medical wellness side finally working together instead of existing in separate worlds.
That is what I wanted to build for this region. And that is what we built.
Hydration: The Most Unglamorous Non-Negotiable in the Room
For all the sophisticated conversation about regenerative therapies and clinical optimization, the single most consistent performance variable that athletes at every level chronically under-address is water.
Even mild dehydration measurably impairs strength, power output, and cognitive function. Cellular hydration directly affects muscle volumization, nutrient transport, and the recovery cascade that happens between sets and between sessions. Luis would tell you the same thing from the clinical side: the most advanced optimization stack in the world sits on a foundation of water and sleep. Get those right first, and everything else works better.
Hydration is always the key. Even when it is the least photogenic thing happening in the gym.
The Journey Continues — and You Are Invited
Twenty years in. A body that has been through multiple phases — lean, heavy, athletic, competitive, contemplative. Every phase taught me something. This phase — navigating the forties with intention, consistent training, and a clinical team I actually trust — might be the most interesting one yet.
I will be documenting my progress right here on Hudson Valley Style. The real shifts. The good sessions and the ones where the bar wins. That is the deal I have always made with you as a reader: no performance, no perfection theater, just the actual work.
If any of this resonates — if you are over forty, training hard, eating well, and still wondering why the needle stopped moving — start with the bloodwork. Book a consultation with the team at Aláry Health Spa. Talk to Luis Labrador, PA-C. Get the data before you make any decisions. That is how this journey actually works.
You should not have to live in Manhattan to access care that treats your body like the serious long-term project it is. In the Hudson Valley, you no longer have to.
The body is the art project. Twenty years in, and I am nowhere near done.
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Photography: Maxwell Alexander, Duncan Avenue Studios | Clinical Partner: Luis Labrador, PA-C, Aláry Health Spa, Poughkeepsie, NY
About the Author: Maxwell Alexander, MA(FIT), BFA(SVA), Fitness Trainer, Wellness + Bodybuilding Coach, Sports Nutritionist, is the Editor-in-Chief of Hudson Valley Style Magazine and Men’s Performance & Bodybuilding Advisor at Aláry Health Spa.
Medical Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is intended for educational purposes only and reflects the personal experience of the author. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. Peptide therapy, testosterone replacement therapy, NAD+ infusions, and all related protocols discussed in this article are prescription-based treatments available only through licensed medical professionals. Individual results vary and all therapies carry potential risks and side effects. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any hormone optimization, peptide, or regenerative therapy program. The author and Hudson Valley Style Magazine do not endorse self-administration of any prescription compound. All protocols referenced in this article are administered and supervised by the licensed clinicians of Guardian Medical Group NY PLLC, operating within Aláry Health Spa, Poughkeepsie, NY.
