A Simple Summer Workout

What we can do to live longer and healthier lives

The outdoor pool at UCSB where I swim 80 laps three times per week in under 50 minutes (breaststroke). Next month I’m shifting to freestyle.

A few weeks ago I read Peter Attia’s excellent book Outlive on the art and science of longevity. And for the first time in my life I’m now proactively considering becoming a centenarian.

In his book he argues that if you can stay away from the chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and diabetes) that kills 80 percent of people over 50, you have a very good chance at living a healthy life until hundred or beyond.

And how to do this very small feat? Five simple things: exercise, nutritional biochemistry, sleep, mental health, and supplements. And of course don’t smoke, which increases risk for cancer a few thousand times, and don’t drink alcohol.

Refreshingly, he also mentions in the book that he’s not a believer in a miraculous new technology from Silicon Valley or an amazing medical breakthrough to get us to living until hundred or beyond. It’s will simply take good old hard work.

Of course, I thought, I have to put all his scientific insights into practice and see how I can integrated them into my own already very active lifestyle. And what better time than during the long summer break.

Since I’m already following his tactics, the real value of the book was to hear the science behind this lifestyle and to understand how I can improve my own fitness program to stay healthy today but also over the next few decades.

As I read the book, learning about what to track and monitor (VO₂ max, heart rate, glucose et cetera) I realized that my Apple Watch SE (2020) can already do all of these things. To track CGM (continuous glucose measurement) I would need to sign up for a paid subscription with Signos (which I might later this year).

On a daily basis I only track the three following data points available in the Fitness app on the Apple Watch: Move (1,000 calories), Exercise (90 minutes per day), and Stand (8 hours per day). But over time I’m very interested in VO₂ max, heart rate, and glucose levels.

Based on his recommendations I designed the following summer fitness program: