Hobbies for Men in Their 20s: Man Up!

Meet Gregory, a writer and the brains behind Face Dragons. He's the go-to guy for getting things done. Gregory's been living the digital nomad life in Asia for as long as anyone can remember, helping clients smash their goals. He writes on topics like software, personal knowledge management (PKM), and personal development. When he's not writing, you'll catch him at the local MMA gym, nose buried in a book, or just chilling with the family.

A man’s 20s is a golden opportunity to become the man he wants to be. No longer a child but not yet a man with all the responsibilities of adulthood weighing you down, your 20s is the time to experiment and develop expertise. The most rewarding hobbies for men in their 20s are those you can be passionate about, not just the most popular hobbies out there.

A new hobby should reflect this. While watching Netflix on the couch in your free time is OK, but if you want to become more, you need some challenging hobbies.

There are almost 100 hobby ideas for men on this list that will turn you into the man you want to be, whether a strong-minded athlete or an intellectual powerhouse.

The TLDR is in these eight hobbies.

8 Hobbies That Will Make You Unstoppable

Before you start scrolling through the long list of hobbies for men below, consider these eight pastimes. They’ll turn beta men into a sigma male in no time and make you a force to be reckoned with in your 30s.

1. Learn to Pilot a Plane or Helicopter

Why you must be thinking, should you learn to pilot an airplane?

The one thing you don’t want after a decade of adulthood is to have nothing that makes you stand out from the crowd. If you’re doing what everyone else does, you’ll get what everyone else has.

There’s a reason that women pine over pilots in movies – because a pilot has the power that few men attain – to fly.

Getting your pilot’s license isn’t just about being unique or getting women. It’s a social signal too. It says that you’re successful, affluent, and able to keep your head in a storm—ideal qualities in a business partner, friend, or employee.

Requirements and Cost to Become a Pilot

To become a licensed pilot, you need at least 20 hours o flight time and to pass the relevant exams. Spread over a year or two gives you access to an incredible leisure activity.

  • 30 hours flight time
  • Ground instruction
  • Exams
    Cost: $4400

2. Learn a foreign language

Imagine a decade from now, walking into a restaurant with a date, sitting down, and ordering in your server’s language.

But learning a foreign language isn’t just a party trick to impress a date. It will change the way you think and expand who you are.

Learning a foreign language as an adult requires dedication, discipline, and humility. If you think you don’t possess these qualities, learning a language will teach you along the way.

Speaking another language fluently also opens the world up to you. You have more job opportunities, potential places to live, and more people to network with.

Language learning has never been easier than it is today. When I learned Chinese, I used a hard-backed dictionary and had to travel to find a native speaker. Now you can fill your social media feeds with native conversation, find lessons on Youtube and Twitch, and speak to native speakers on video chat apps like Omegle.

3. Travel

Much like learning a language, travel broadens your horizons. I’ve lived as a digital slomad my entire adult life after leaving home at 21, and it has profoundly affected me.

After 15 years in Asia, my expectations and life goals have changed dramatically, and travel will change you too.

Although travel is a way of life for me, for most, it’s a hobby that’s only a part of their life. Although you don’t have to move to the other side of the world for a decade, a road trip or city break can be just as life-changing.

After years of taking trips and seeing your own country and perhaps a few others, you’ll slowly become wiser. You’ll have a better understanding of the world and how other people choose to live their lives.

4. Cooking Gourmet Meals

You will eat almost every day of your life. If you live to be 80, that’s about 22,000 days or over 60,000 meals.

You could eat the same few bad meals every week for the rest of your life, or you could use your spare time learning how to create incredible meals.

Learning to cook is one of the few hobbies that will pay off for your family and social circle. It is so rare nowadays to find someone with a passion for making good food that you’ll quickly become known as the guy that knows food.

How to start learning to cook?

  • Make a list of your favorite meals
  • Search Youtube for a video showing you how to make it
  • Make it once a week until you know it by heart
  • Repeat

5. Reading

It’s not just millionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet that create strong reading habits. Anyone on the top of their game is likely reading a lot. For example, Bruce Lee was an avid reader with an extensive library, like Joe Rogan, Oprah, Trevor Noah, and Ariana Huffington.

These are some of the busiest and most productive people on the planet, yet they spend hours every day reading, so you know it must be worth it.

Reading a great book like Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” isn’t going to change your life instantly. But an accumulation of dozens of great books over a decade will.

Why not start with the classics if you don’t know where to start? Homer’s Illiad and Odessey, like the Bible, are referenced throughout Western literature, so understanding them will pay dividends as you continue your reading habit.

6. Powerlifting

You have to work out somehow, whether by doing yoga, sports, cardio, or weightlifting. If you want to be healthy and live a long life, you have to use your body.

So why choose powerlifting over all the exercise options out there?

  • Lose fat – Look better and live longer
  • Gain muscle – Improve shape and body composition
  • Get Strong – Improve physical performance
  • Mental disciple – Strong body, strong mind
  • Fun – Watch your max reps go up over time

7. Investing

If you’re still in your early 20s, you might still need to figure out how you’ll make enough money to live the life you want. But don’t worry. Few people have it all figured out financially in their 20s.

But if you turn investing into a pastime, you’ll be far ahead of the pack.

You probably need more money to invest in a business or other expensive assets that will appreciate. Still, you can start investing in index funds with whatever you have, as many funds have no minimum requirement.

Why index funds? Warren Buffet, the greatest investor of all time, recommends index funds as the best way to invest your money.

Over the past 30 years, the S&P 500 index has delivered a compound average annual growth rate of 10.7% per year.

8. Become a Volunteer

You might think that volunteering is a hobby older people use for socializing and connecting with their community. But let me show you why you, as a 20-something young man, should give your precious time to those less fortunate.

You’ll meet new friends.

After you graduate from school and college, making friends gets harder. Your friends might have scattered all over the country for work, so any activity that helps people bond can be helpful, especially if you’re an introverted extrovert.

It’s a form of social networking – a way to connect with people in power.

Trying to build a network of valuable people can be really tough when you feel like an outsider. But many charities are organized or funded by large corporations or local government. So volunteer work is a good way to enlarge your network.

A great way to meet like-minded people.

Decades from now, when people ask how you met your wife, would you prefer to say you met her at a charity event or in a club?

More Fun Activities for Men in Their 20s

If you haven’t found the best manly hobby for you yet, have no fear! Here is a huge list of hobbies for young men. Check this list for all the best hobbies for men in their 20s.

Sports

Watching movies is great, but you can’t beat some organized sports if you enjoy meeting new people and keeping fit simultaneously. Amateur sports are a fun way to find a hobby, so why not reach out to your local sports center or sports club?

  1. Soccer
  2. Rugby
  3. Football
  4. Squash
  5. Tennis
  6. Table Tennis
  7. Badminton
  8. Surfing
  9. Skiing
  10. Snowboarding
  11. Skateboarding
  12. Archery
  13. Rowing
  14. Sailing

Exercise

  1. Weight Lifting
  2. HIIT
  3. Crossfit
  4. Cycling
  5. Spin Classes
  6. Yoga
  7. Pilates

Martial Arts

  1. MMA
  2. Kickboxing
  3. Boxing
  4. Muay Thai
  5. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
  6. Karate
  7. Wrestling
  8. Taekwondo
  9. Tangsoodoo
  10. Tai Chi
  11. Kung Fu
  12. Kendo

Artistic & Creative Hobbies

  1. Drawing
  2. Sketching
  3. Painting
  4. Clay Modelling
  5. Sculpting
  6. Photography
  7. Videography
  8. Learn to play a musical instrument
  9. Listening to music
  10. Origami

Financially Rewarding

  1. Investing
  2. Creating Passive Income Streams
  3. Blogging

Social Hobbies

Social hobbies help you meet new people, develop your social life, make new friends and business partners, or find someone special. It’s only possible if you get yourself out there. There’s no excuse for loneliness if you have yet to try a social hobby.

Even if you’re an introvert, become an extroverted introvert by starting one of these leisure time activities.

  1. Start a weekly poker night
  2. Join a cigar appreciation club
  3. Play Video games with friends online or in person
  4. Create a social club around whatever you enjoy

Spiritual Pastimes

  1. Meditation
  2. Bible Study
  3. Practice Mindfulness
  4. Journaling
  5. Start a Bullet Journal

Outside Hobbies

  1. Metal detecting
  2. Geocaching
  3. Gardening
  4. Sailing
  5. Astronomy
  6. Hunting

Life Skills

  1. Cooking
  2. Baking
  3. BBQ
  4. Meat Curing and Smoking
  5. Basic DIY
  6. Blacksmithing
  7. Learn Plumbing
  8. Woodworking
  9. Metal Working
  10. Car Repair

Just for Fun

  1. Juggling
  2. Magic
  3. Build a fighting kite
  4. Collect TV and movie memorabilia
  5. Become a Whiskey connoisseur
  6. Retro gaming

Intellectual Pursuits

  1. Reading
  2. Learn Latin or Greek
  3. Chess
  4. Stamp or Coin Collecting
  5. Learn the history of a musical genre
  6. Discover your Geneology

Still Want More Hobbies?