I wanted to understand how many hours per week longevity training would actually take if I added together the more widely known recommendations, expert advice and related studies.
I gathered information about various activities, such as Zone 2 cardio, VO₂ max training, strength training, jumping / plyometrics, mobility, stability, flexibility, balance, and added it all together to have a good overview of the “raw material” I’m working with to figure out how to make this work in a normal week for a regular person. The total basically comes out to be an additional part-time job.
Note that these are not the recommended adult minimums, these are the numbers I’ve added together based on the various longevity training advice, with the goal of extending healthspan. Here’s the overview table:
| Activity | Weekly amount | Importance | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardio training / Zone 2 | 4 h/week | Cardiovascular health, aerobic base, and lower all-cause mortality risk*. | Arem et al., 2015 JAMA; Peter Attia: Zone 2 and Zone 5 training |
| VO₂ max / HIIT, Zone 4–5 | 1 h/week total session time | Higher VO₂ max is strongly associated with lower mortality risk*. | Peter Attia: Zone 5 / VO₂ max protocol; Milanović et al., 2015, Sports Medicine; Mandsager et al., 2018, JAMA Network Open |
| Strength training | 3 h 30 min/week | Muscle mass, grip strength, legs, posterior chain, functional strength, etc. Crucial for staying independent and physically capable at older age. | Andrew Huberman: foundational fitness protocol; Peter Attia: strength, stability, Zone 2 and Zone 5; Shailendra et al., 2022, resistance training and mortality |
| Mobility / stability / balance | 1 h/week | Balance and functional training are especially important as we age, to help us stay independent and reduce fall risk. 1 h/week is a practical target — some fall-prevention programs often use more. | WHO physical activity recommendations; Andrew Huberman: stretching and flexibility protocols |
| Jumping / power / impact / bone health | 30 min/week | Explosive power, impact, bone stimulus, and fast-force ability. Important for bone health (especially for women) and also just to be able to still have fun at older age, like playing ball games. | Stacy Sims: longevity and healthspan tips for active women; Zhao et al., 2014, jumping exercise and bone mineral density meta-analysis |
Note: This doesn’t include taking breaks from sitting during working days, for example this Columbia University study found notable benefits from walking 5 minutes every 30 minutes of desk-sitting. This would add another 6h 40min/week for someone who works full-time!
Since there are only 7 days in a week, these activities cannot all be separate sessions. Some have to be combined — for example, cardio or strength could be the main session, with shorter mobility, balance, or jumping work added to it.
The next step was to try to imagine what a week could look like including all these activities, here’s a theoretical week including everything. This is not a recommendation or my actual plan, it’s just me trying to split and combine all the activities to one week to see how it could look like in theory:
| Day | Training | Training Time | Daily Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Zone 2 cardio + mobility/stability | 60 + 10 min | 70 min |
| Tue | Strength + jumping/power + balance | 60 + 10 + 10 min | 80 min |
| Wed | VO₂ max / higher-intensity cardio, Zone 4–5 + mobility | 60 + 10 min | 70 min |
| Thu | Strength + jumping/power + balance | 60 + 10 + 10 min | 80 min |
| Fri | Zone 2 cardio + mobility/stability | 60 + 10 min | 70 min |
| Sat | Strength + jumping/power + Zone 2 cardio | 60 + 10 + 60 min | 130 min |
| Sun | Short functional strength + Zone 2 cardio + mobility/stability | 30 + 60 + 10 min | 100 min |
These tables don’t include the commuting time / prep time / taking a shower after training, etc. If that adds around 1 h/day, the real time cost is already around 17 hours/week — and with desk-sitting breaks, it gets to almost 24 hours/week.
This is a lot for a regular person who has a day job and family and friends and just daily stuff that comes up. Following all the longevity optimization advice feels like a huge lifestyle problem, and not just a choice to exercise more!
So what do I do with all this? First experiment: cutting strength training to 2h/week. More on that soon.
*Mortality risk is the risk of death during the follow-up period of the relevant study, not “becoming immortal”.
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