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The Peter Attia Drive

#261 ‒ Training for The Centenarian Decathlon: zone 2, VO2 max, stability, and strength | Peter Attia, M.D.

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.77.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2023

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

View the Show Notes Page for This Episode

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In this special episode filmed live in front of readers of Outlive, Peter answers questions revolving around his concept of the centenarian decathlon. He starts by defining the “marginal decade” and how that shapes his training for the events and activities that make up his personal centenarian decathlon. Peter explains how he coaches patients through the challenges of customizing their own list and building out a training plan, including how to set fitness goals early in life in preparation for the marginal decade. From there, he dives into training within the four pillars (zone 2, VO2 max, stability, and strength), including the minimum effective dose, how to split your time, his personal protocols, and other considerations. Additionally, he touches on bone mineral density, female-specific considerations, working through injuries, and the profound impact training can have on the overall quality of life.

We discuss:

  • The best interventions for longevity [2:15];
  • The marginal decade and the centenarian decathlon [4:45];
  • Peter’s personal list of events for his “centenarian decathlon” and how he helps patients create their own list [8:00];
  • Determining your fitness goals early in life in preparation for the marginal decade, metrics to track, and more [15:00];
  • How does playing sports like tennis, basketball, or golf fit into training for the centenarian decathlon? [24:15];
  • Training within the four pillars: minimum effect dose, how to split your time, and other considerations [27:45];
  • Advice for the older person and why it’s never too late to start [33:45];
  • Bone mineral density and other female-specific concerns and considerations [36:15];
  • Training advice for those with minimal access to a gym or equipment [39:30];
  • Injuries: prevention and working through existing conditions [41:00];
  • Cardiorespiratory training: how to split time between zone 2 and VO2 max training, and different modalities for a true zone 2 workout [44:15];
  • VO2 max training: modalities, Peter’s protocol, and how to monitor progress [54:45];
  • The profound impact training can have on the overall quality of life [58:15]; and
  • More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everyone, welcome to the Drive Podcast.

0:13.0

I'm your host, Peter Atia.

0:14.8

This podcast, my website, and my weekly newsletter, I'll focus on the goal of translating

0:18.7

the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone.

0:22.4

Our goal is to provide the best content in health and wellness, full stop, and we've

0:26.6

assembled a great team of analysts to make this happen.

0:29.4

If you enjoy this podcast, we've created a membership program that brings you far more

0:33.2

in-depth content if you want to take your knowledge of the space to the next level.

0:37.3

At the end of this episode, I'll explain what those benefits are, or if you want to learn

0:41.1

more now, head over to peteratiamd.com forward slash subscribe.

0:46.3

Now, without further delay, here's today's episode.

0:51.0

Welcome to a special episode of The Drive.

0:53.6

For this week's episode, we're going to release the live AMA that we recorded celebrating

0:58.5

the release of Outlive, which was recorded in April.

1:01.2

We received a good bit of feedback from those who were invited and able to attend this episode

1:06.7

live, so we decided to make it more widely available.

1:10.4

Our AMAs, of course, are typically reserved only for our subscribers, so if you're not

1:13.9

a subscriber, this might give you a bit of an idea what our AMAs are like, although this

1:18.1

is not the typical format.

1:19.8

Usually our AMAs go a little bit deeper into content than this one, but nevertheless,

1:23.6

hopefully this gives you a sense of what we're up to.

1:25.7

In this episode, we really focus the entire conversation around the Centenary in Decathlon.

...

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