Longevity Expert reveals ‘Decatlon’ for ‘Train’ for old age

Forget gold medals – this decatlon has to do with your golden years.

Speaking at the latest New York Times Well festival, Stanford Dr. Peter Attia’s aluminum expert and aluminum makes an innovative approach to prepare for old age.

Instead of focusing solely on longevity – the number of years you are alive – the Frame Centers of Attia in Healthspan – the period of past life in good health.

He believes everyone has a “marginal decade”, which means the last 10 years of your life.

“You don’t really know the day you enter that marginal decade, but most people know it when they really are in it,” he said.

“The way to increase the possibility of enjoying that decade as much as possible is to be very deliberate how you will prepare for it.”

As such, he advises “training” for old age in the same way for an athlete to train for a sport, with knowledge that a football player and baseball player have very different training regimes.

He calls this approach a “centuries -old decatlon” – joking that it is not “neither a decatlon nor something exclusively for the centenary.”

What this does is making a list of 10 physical activities you want to be able to do – with pleasure – during your marginal decade and start training for them now.

For example, if you want to be able to play on the floor with your grandchildren – which he pointed out “sounds really easy” but “it’s actually difficult to sit on the floor when you get into the 80s” – you have to practice out of the floor using only one arm for support.

You also need to die 30 pounds so that you can come a baby, especially as muscle strength tends to decline while we grow old.

If you want to be able to take your dog for a nice, long walk – aim to hit 10,000 steps a day now.

If you still want to be able to travel internationally, try setting up a 20 -pound suitcase and climbing 30 stairs without breathing.

Big in cooking or swimming? Keep two heavy bags of groceries up to some staircase flights and practice leaving a staircase without a swimming pool.

The list of everyone will be different – the key is to focus on what you value most and train accordingly.

For his part, Attia revealed that some of the articles on his personal list include: driving a race machine, shooting a bow and arrow, playing with children, standing up on their own and being able to walk easily – including unequal surfaces.

He emphasized that some of these articles are easy to take for granted now – but, without training, there may be a time when they become too difficult, if not completely impossible.

And if you think dancing and sex don’t count – you would go wrong.

“Being able to dance is actually a very complicated physical and cognitive task as you grow old,” Attia said.

While everyone’s training will change depending on their personal goals, he believes – for most people – it will include a mix of aerobics, strength training, balanced exercises and cardio.

Outside the gym, some of the other areas he recommends focusing include maintaining a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, using prescription drugs and supplements as needed and good care for your emotional health.