The 4 Fundamentals For Maintaining Your Health – Part 1 of 2

Want to make more money, have more time, and have more fun? The best place to start is your health.

Not only does having lots of money matter very little if you don’t have your health, but also having appropriate amounts of energy to get the important things done in a day will be directly proportional to how healthy you are. In addition, the mechanisms and protocols that you need to engage in to improve your health can be modified to improve your business as well (time blocking, progress tracking, focused effort, etc).

Consider this article one part a reminder of the importance of recommitting to your health and one part a checklist of the key things to focus on.

There are 4 areas of health that you must pay attention to:

1. Exercise
2. Sleep
3. Nutrition
4. Mental Health

Before discussing each one separately, it is worth noting that while increasing your lifespan is an obvious goal, a more important goal is increasing your “healthspan.” Healthspan is the amount of time that you are able to fully move your body, have full mental faculties, and engage in the activities that you enjoy. Living to 102 isn’t much fun if you can’t do the things you have wanted to since age 75.

For a lot more on this topic of “healthspan”, I encourage you to check out the book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia MD and Bill Gifford.

NOTE: Please consult your doctor before making any lifestyle changes to ensure they are right for you.

1. Exercise

With only moderate attention paid to the other 3 areas, exercise is arguably the single most important thing you can do to improve your health. It is the closest thing to a wonder drug that the world has ever seen.

Your muscular strength, lung capacity, and bone density will all deteriorate with age. Therefore, since you are the youngest today that you ever will be, you must increase your strength and cardiovascular performance to a level such that any deterioration will still leave you in a great position to enjoy life in your later years.

Here are a few things to consider for your exercise habits:

• Resistance training is critical – Lifting weights, using exercise elastic bands, or engaging in calenstetics will help you increase your strength and bone health. Studies show that strength is one of top indicators of quality of life in our later years.
• Walking is a super exercise – With the perfect amount of impact on your body, the ability to easily vary your speed, and also replicating one of the most fundamental movements we use as humans, walking should be something that everyone incorporates into their weekly health routine. It also has incredible benefits for helping to control excess body fat
• Use Zone 2 cardio, but don’t forget to sprint – Don’t like doing cardio? Well, you are likely going too hard. There are 5 heart rate zones from zone 1 to zone 5. Zone 1 is sitting at a desk, or going on a light walk, whereas zone 5 is an all-out sprint. Zone 2 is where your heart rate is elevated, but you are still able to carry on a comfortable conversation. This could be a brisk walk, jog, cycle, swim or whatever you prefer to do to get that heart rate up. The benefits of zone 2 training are cast for your mental and physical health. Try 30 mins of zone 2 training, 3 days per week. If you stick with it, you will shock yourself at how hard and fast you are eventually able to go without much effort. Further to your zone 2 efforts, add in 30 seconds of an all-out effort (zone 5) 3 days a week. This will help your heart get strong and prepare you to take on bursts of work that can sometimes happen in life (think of the sprint to your gate at the airport to make a tight connection).

Once again, please consult your doctor before making any lifestyle changes to ensure they are right for you.

Find a way to exercise with friends and/or family – One of the best ways to stay in shape over the long term is to pick up hobbies that include exercise as part of it. Try pickleball, join a run club, have a regular long bike ride or hike with your family each week, or do some resistance training with a partner while you binge on your favourite show. Combining exercise with spending time with the people you enjoy just might be the ultimate life hack.

The Centenarian Decathlon

Your exercise today is preparing you to live a great life into your later years. The Centenarian Decathlon, invented by Dr. Peter Attia, is a great list of 10 things that you should aspire to be capable of doing for your entire life. The key is training yourself today to maximize your health span tomorrow.

Here is the official Centenarian Decathlon list:

1. Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail.
2. Get up off the floor under your own power, using a maximum of one arm for support.
3. Pick up a young child from the floor.
4. Carry two 5-pound bags of groceries for five blocks.
5. Lift a 20-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment of a plane.
6. Balance on one leg for 30 seconds, eyes open. (Bonus points: eyes closed, 15 seconds.)
7. Have sex.
8. Climb four flights of stairs in three minutes.
9. Open a jar.
10. Do 30 consecutive jump-rope skips.

Check out August’s “Into the Blue” newsletter for The 4 Fundamentals For Maintaining Your Health – Part 2 of 2 where we will look at some powerful protocols for your Sleep, Nutrition, and Mental Health.