How you can train in the last decade of your life, according to Peter Attia

By the last decade of our lives, many of us are already in poor health. But Dr. Peter Attia, a doctor and a lifespan influence, does not believe it should be.

Our later years, he claims, are something that we can now start training.

At the New York Times Well Festival on Wednesday, Dr. Attia that the way to increase your chances of enjoying that decade as much as possible was “it was very intentional about how you would prepare for that.”

Dr. Attia said he spoke with his patients about training for ‘a hundredths of decathlon’. The idea is to make a list of the 10 most important – and most difficult – physical activities or movements that you want to be able to do in the last decade of life.

For him, these include being able to walk easily, drive a racing car (Dr. Attia is an avid Formula 1 fan) and sit on the floor to play with children without getting help back.

For many of his patients, he said, sex, dancing and independent living often high on the list. “It is actually a very complicated physical and cognitive task as you get older,” said Dr. Attia.

Depending on where they are starting, he said, people from in the forty now may perhaps do certain types of training, for example, or balance activities-to be able to dance in their 80s.

Many recommended health habits, such as often exercising, good food, getting enough sleep and managing your emotional health, people can help people achieve their decathlon goals and enjoy their last decade.

But it can be difficult to do all that in a busy life, he acknowledged. To give priority to the activities that will give the biggest advantage, he said, “Make the balance of how you are doing on each of those things.”

A person who sleeps only five hours a night will probably get the biggest advantage of increasing that up to seven hours a night. From no exercise to 90 minutes a week, he added, could significantly reduce the risk of death of a person.

“There are few things you can show that will have so much effect,” he said. “While if someone trains seven hours a week, go to nine hours a week, it is very marginal in his win.”

Dr. Attia emphasized the benefits of strength or resistance training with heavy weights, which according to him were just as important as cardiovascular or aerobic exercises. He emphasized its importance in particular. Women’s bodies produce less estrogen with age, making them more sensitive to osteoporosis, injury and ultimately death.

This type of training can not only reduce your risk of death later in life, he said, but it can also improve your quality of life.

“I mean, did you ever meet anyone at the end of his life who said,” God, I wish I had less muscle, I wish I wasn’t that strong “?” Asked Dr. Attia.

“It makes a huge difference,” he added.