500 Words a Week - Training for Longevity Part 2

I’ve touched upon in the past the 4 aspects for training for longevity highlighted by Dr Peter Attia. Before we continue, a quick review of what we mean by longevity. Longevity being a combination of both healthspan and lifespan, lifespan is how long you live, healthspan being a measure of how well you live. I think we can all agree that we would like our healthspan to match our lifespan, we would like to maintain a high quality of life for as long as possible.

Continuing on from the previous post, things I am enjoying adding to my programme to aid with longevity are below:

1, Heel Elevated Goblet Squat

This is a foundational exercise that could serve a purpose in the majority of programmes, even for high performing athletes with a large training history I believe it’s a fantastic accessory exercise. We are accomplishing so much with one exercise. From a stability standpoint in our training for longevity viewpoint, we are having to control a weight that is distal (away from) our body, by using our large proximal muscles. The addition of the heel elevation (very elevated in the video) easily allows us to get into deep ankle, knee and hip flexion, strengthening these deep ranges of motion and providing mobility work for these positions. Also, the addition of the heel elevation and having the load in front of our body, allows us to work on some of the truly foundational elements of what a squat is. It allows us to achieve the maximum vertical displacement of our pelvis while keeping a nice stacked position with our ribcage positioned directly above our pelvis.

2, Steady State Zone 2 Work

For me, I have taken this as trying to spend extended amounts of time working around 140-150bpm. I’ve been relatively easily able to incorporate 2 x 20 min sessions a week focusing on staying within this heart rate zone. However, I think this dose has been too small to achieve some aerobic adaptations, therefore I will be looking in increase total weekly Z2 volume over next training block. This comes back to the principle of progressive overload and building a minimum viable programme which we have discussed before. Don’t fret if what you programme doesn’t exactly match up with recommendations. Begin with what you think the minimum volume/ amount looks like to try an achieve some adaptations and progress from there. 2 x 20mins in Z2 is easily achievable, trying to get in 3-4 x 60mins could be very hard for the majority of people.

3, Hitting Maximum Heart Rate

This is something I have only recently put in. Part of Dr Peter Attia’s 4 aspects to training for longevity is training your anaerobic peak. I have taken a slightly modified approach to this. Simply put, immediately after one of the Z2  20 min sessions, I’ll give myself 2 mins to try get to as high a heart rate as a I can. This goes in line with the thought process of stressing the body, the anti-fragile philosophy Nassim Taleb dictates in that certain things gain from a little bit of disorder. “Your body benefits from some amount of mishandling, but only up to a point” – Nassim Taleb. I would be careful about utilizing the maximum heart rate work depending upon the population and training history of those you are working with.