There's a retirement account nobody tells you to fund. And it's not your 401k.

There is a retirement account nobody tells you to fund.

No managing director skips 20 years of 401k contributions and expects to retire well. Yet that is the exact plan most senior professionals have for their body.

The executives I work with in law, tech, and finance fund everything: the 401k, the portfolio, the kids' college accounts.

Everything except the one asset that decides how they live at 75: muscle.

Today I want to show you the math on this account, why your past attempts to fund it have not stuck, and what actually building the balance looks like.

Why this matters

After 30, you lose roughly 3-5% of your muscle every decade unless you actively stop the process. Left alone, that adds up to about a third of your muscle over a lifetime.

Here is what makes it dangerous: you will not feel it happening. No statement in the mail. No alert on your phone. The withdrawals are silent for decades, and then they all clear at once.

Picture two people. Same age. Same birthday.

Person A funded the account:

• Carries their own suitcase through the airport

• Gets off the floor without thinking about it

• Picks up the grandchild mid-sentence

Person B did not:

• Waits at the bottom of the stairs

• Needs a hand up from the chair

• Watches the trip happen from the group chat

Same birthday. Completely different life. That is the cost of inaction, and it compounds quietly, exactly like money does.

Unfortunately, you have probably tried to fund it before

If you are like most executives I talk to, this is not news. You have already tried:

• The ambitious January program that died by week three of earnings season

• The trainer you kept cancelling on

• The protein powder still in the pantry

• The plan that worked for your colleague and did nothing for you

That last one deserves a closer look, because it is not in your head.

However, almost every program you have tried was written for an average body. Yours is not average and frankly nobody's is:

• Some bodies build best from strength and speed work, others from endurance. Same effort, completely different results depending on which one you are

• Some bodies barely shed weight in response to exercise at all. For them, food is the bigger lever, and no amount of extra cardio changes that

• Some bodies recover overnight. Others need two or three days after a hard session, and training through that need just digs the hole deeper

• Some run best on more fat and protein, others on more carbohydrate, depending on how fast their metabolism burns

This is not guesswork anymore. It is written in your genes and your metabolic type, and both can be tested.

That is exactly why I use nutrigenetic and metabolic type testing with my clients. Instead of spending another year finding out the hard way which programs your body ignores, we read the manual first and build the plan your body was always going to respond to. Same effort, aimed correctly, results in months instead of years.

And even the right plan fails if the raw materials never arrive. I lived this one myself: years of 5am workouts and clean eating while I stayed exhausted, soft, and inflamed, because a stressed body and gut absorb poorly. Low stomach acid and depleted minerals mean you can eat the protein and still run short of what muscle is built from.

The training request goes in, but the raw materials never arrive. And yes, that is tested too. It is the first thing I check.

That is why generic advice keeps failing you. It funds the account with a plan written for someone else, using checks your gut cannot cash.

How to actually fund the account

Make the deposits boring, protected, and yours

• 2 to 3 strength sessions a week, booked like client meetings: same calendar, same protection

• Match the training to your body, not a template. Do the right testing. Your genes shape whether your gains come from strength and intervals or from endurance, how fast your fitness responds, and how much recovery you actually need

• Consistency for years beats the heroic program you abandon by February

• Deposits are accepted at any age; people build real strength in their 70s. That is research, not wishful thinking

Supply the raw material, in your ratios

• Training is the request. Protein is the material

• A palm-sized portion at every meal, starting at breakfast, so your body builds all day instead of from one scoop at 8pm

• The rest of the plate depends on your metabolic type which we find out with a test: fast burners need different ratios of protein, fat, and carbs than slow burners, and eating for the wrong type leaves you hungry, foggy, or storing instead of building

• Your genes add the extra fine print: how big your appetite runs, how fast you burn through fuel, how your body handles fats and carbs. That is the same nutrigenetic testing I run with clients, so the plate is built for your body from day one

Test the machine before you trust the plan

This is the step everyone skips, and it is where I come in. Before adjusting anything else, I look at your data:

• An advanced DNA-based stool test shows whether your digestion can actually break down and absorb what you eat

• A mineral analysis shows your metabolic type and whether the cofactors muscle is built with are even in stock

• Nutrigenetic testing shows how your body responds to exercise, recovery, and food. You run it once and use it for the rest of your life

• Then the protocol gets built around your results, not a template

Your genes are not a verdict, by the way. They are the instruction manual your body shipped with. Most people just never read it. It is also the exact science I am deep in right now, in my advanced clinical training on nutrigenetics.

What this looks like in practice

The executives who come to me usually arrive the same way:

• Training inconsistently, or training hard with nothing to show for it

• Eating reasonably well, by someone else's rules

• Tired in a way that feels older than their age

• Told by every checkup that they are fine

We test first, and the findings usually explain years of frustration: the low stomach acid, the drained minerals, a metabolic type eating the wrong fuel mix, a body doing endless cardio when its gains were always going to come from strength.

We fix the absorption. We match the fuel to the metabolism. We structure training the way their body was built to respond, at a dose that survives a real calendar.

Then the account finally starts compounding in the right direction: energy first, strength after, and a body that stops being the bottleneck on everything else they have built.

The bottom line

The goal was never abs. It is:

• Carrying your own bags at 75

• Getting off the floor without a plan

• Saying yes to the trip

Autonomy is the dividend. The deposits are boring, and that is exactly what makes this a good investment.

You cannot borrow against this one later.

How funded is your muscle account right now? I would love to hear. And if you have been running a plan written for somebody else's body, tell me, and I will point you to the right next step.

— Ekat

Disclaimer: This post is intended for inspirational and informational purposes only, is not a substitute for medical advice, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. Consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your routine.