September 14, 2015
Suppose you want to live as long as possible. Suppose you also want to look as good as possible doing it.
Suppose you want to maximize your hormone balance, your drive, your fertility, your strength, your power and your cardiovascular capacity.
Suppose you want to step back, investigate every shred of exercise science research, and inject only the most highly effective and proven strategies into your life – even if it's not for the primary sake of preparing for masochistic sufferfests like triathlons, marathons, obstacle races or other feats of physical endurance – but rather simply because you want to maximize longevity and look good naked.
Whether it’s total food intake, exercise, sunlight, protein, or work habits, we often think we need to do way much more than we actually need to do to get the results we want. But why crank out those extra reps or put in those extra few hours if you don't actually need to? After all, failing to heed the minimum effective dose can often cost you money, time, and mental real estate.
Sure: if you want to do an Ironman triathlon or a multi-hour obstacle race or be competitive at the Crossfit games you certainly need to put in some extra hours and do some more athletic, sport-specific training, but as I've written about before, all that extra volume isn't necessarily good for you, and it certainly isn't necessary for being as fit as humanly possible while simultaneously maximizing your lifespan.
So what would an exercise program look like if you do just want to look good naked and live longer? What would things look like if you decided that being the first person to the finish line of a triathlon wasn't as important to you as looking and feeling like a million bucks for as long as possible? While I touched on this in a recent podcast entitled “The Best Workout To Look Good Naked“, I decided it would be a good idea to pen a strategy for you. So let’s take a look. And get ready to take some serious notes.
———————————–
What Is The Minimum Effective Dose Of Exercise For Longevity?
I’m on a constant quest to figure out the sweet spot of exercise for you, especially when it comes to discovering the ultimate balance between health, performance, and longevity.
I've written many articles on this topic before, including:
–What's the Minimum Amount of Exercise You Can Do?
–Is Exercise Bad For Your Heart?
–Is It Possible To Exercise Too Much?
–How Much Should Kids Exercise?
Earlier this year, The New York Times published an article entitled “The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life.” The article discusses the results of two new studies that investigated how much exercise you need to actually get longevity benefits. Before jumping into the results of these studies, it’s important to note that rather than being controlled or randomized studies, this research relied on people’s memory recall of their exercise habits. What this means is that similar to diet studies that rely upon memory recall of meals, this data can be prone to human error, but can still give us important clues.
In the first study, it was found that people who did not exercise at all were at the highest risk of early death. Those who exercised a little (not meeting the current American Heart Association guidelines of 150 minutes per week but at least doing something), lowered their risk of premature death by 20%. Those who met the current exercise guidelines of 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise enjoyed greater longevity benefits and 31% less risk of dying compared with those who never exercised.
But the greatest amount of exercise benefits came for those who tripled the recommended level of exercise and exercised moderately (mostly by walking) for 450 minutes per week (a little more than an hour per day). These people were 39% less likely to die prematurely than people who never exercised.
What's even more interesting is that after 450 minutes per week, the longevity benefits of exercise plateaued, but they never significantly declined. Even people engaging in 10 times or more the recommended exercise dose gained about the same reduction in mortality risk as people who simply met the 150 minute per week guidelines. They didn’t get any healthier, but also (contrary to what many believe) they also did not increase their risk of dying young.
The other new study reported in the Times reached a similar conclusion, but this study focused more on exercise intensity, and stands in stark contrast to other studies that have suggested frequent, strenuous exercise might contribute to early mortality. In this study, it was found that meeting the exercise guidelines significantly reduced the risk of early death, even if that exercise was moderate in intensity (such as walking). No surprises there.
But for those who engaged in occasional vigorous and high intensity exercise, there was actually a significant additional reduction in mortality. Those who spent up to 30% of their weekly exercise time in vigorous, intense activities were 9% less likely to die prematurely than people who exercised for the same amount of time but only moderately. People who spent more than 30% of their exercise time doing strenuous workouts actually gained an extra 13% reduction in early mortality, compared with people who never broke through the same intensity barrier. Even among the few people in the study who were found to be completing the largest amounts of intense exercise, there was no increase in risk of death.
At this point, you may be wondering what qualifies as moderate and what qualifies as vigorous.
Moderate intensity aerobic exercise is when you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break into a sweat. Think of it this way: you're working at a moderate intensity if you're able to talk but unable to sing the words to a song during the activity.
Vigorous intensity aerobic exercise is when you're breathing hard and fast, your muscles are burning, and your heart rate has increased significantly. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
So what’s the ultimate takeaway message from these two studies?
Researcher Klaus Gebel, who led the second study, put it like this:
“…try to reach at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week and have around 20 to 30 minutes of that be vigorous activity…”
Gebel also notes that a larger dose of exercise, for those who are so inclined, does not seem to be unsafe.
———————————–
How To Look Good Naked
OK, so it's clear from the data above that you need at least about 21 minutes per day of structured exercise if you want to live a long time, and that is of course with the understanding that you're not spending the rest of the day sedentary or sitting (a subject I tackle in detail in my “Biohacking The Hazards of Sitting” infographic here).
But it's one thing to live a long time, and it's entirely another thing to actually look as good as possible doing it.
Frankly, no matter what looking good naked means to you, you're going to need a bit more structured advice than a blanket recommendation to “…try to reach at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week and have around 20 to 30 minutes of that be vigorous activity…”, right?
When it comes to having a body with adequately low body fat to be cut and ripped but adequately high body fat to optimize hormones and fertility, high enough muscle mass to be strong and look good, but low enough muscle mass to where you're not a short-lived, cancer-prone bodybuilder, and enough cardiovascular fitness to be venous and vibrant, but not so much cardiovascular fitness that you're overtrained from excessive volume, you need the minimum effective dose of…
…cardiovascular fitness, muscle endurance, strength, mitochondrial density, metabolic efficiency and stamina.
That's it.
You check those boxes, and you're going to hit every basic component of fitness and look really damn good doing it.
————————————–
Ben Greenfield's “Look-Good-Naked & Longevity” Program
So, now let's delve into exactly what a structured exercise program would look like if your goal is to check all of those boxes to achieve the ideal combination of fitness, longevity, and a nice body.
I first began to think about how such a program would look when I read an article on my friend Mark Sisson's website about “5 Ways to Get the Most Bang for Your Workout Buck.” Read more here. In the article, Mark describes the minimum effective doses of exercise necessary for maintaining cardiovascular fitness, improving muscular endurance and aerobic capacity, improving overall physical fitness, increasing metabolic health, and controlling blood sugar. My only beef with the article is that not much attention is given to strength and maintenance of muscle mass, two critical components of longevity. But nonetheless, the research cited in the article is quite solid, and definitely influences the recommendations I'm about to give you.
Ultimately, to be fit, live a long time, and look good naked, you need:
1: Maintenance of cardiovascular fitness.
Definition: Cardiovascular fitness is simply defined as the maximum amount of oxygen you can utilize, also known as your VO2 max.
How to do it: based on the results of the research study “High-intensity interval training every second week maintains VO2max in soccer players during off-season.“, the minimum effective dose for cardiovascular fitness maintenance is five 4-minute high intensity rounds at 87-97% of your maximum heart rate, with approximately 4 minutes (full recovery) after each round to allow you to recover sufficiently.
Summary: For the minimum effective dose of cardiovascular fitness perform five 4 minute hard efforts with full recoveries once every two weeks. Got it? OK, let's move on.
2: Maximum muscle endurance and aerobic capacity.
Definition: The amount of work your muscles can endure and the amount of time you can “go to battle” keeping your force output high.
How to do it: For improving muscle endurance while simultaneously increased aerobic capacity, nothing beats Tabata sets. In this study, four times a week for four weeks, participants performed one single four-minute Tabata protocol (that's 20 seconds all-out exercise, followed by 10 seconds full rest) with a single exercise. In this case, exercise choices included burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, or squat thrusts, but for Tabatas, you could also use things such as running, treadmill, indoor or outdoor cycling, rowing, kettlebell swings, etc. Compared to four steady-state 30 minute treadmill exercise protocols per week in the control group, the Tabata group (which, if you do the math, was performing just 16 total minutes of exercise per week) saw massive gains in both aerobic capacity and muscle endurance, and there's plenty more Tabata research to go around.
Summary: In most studies, 2-4 Tabata sessions per week are used. My recommendation is to target two Tabata sessions per week, especially if you're doing everything else included in this article.
3: Maintenance of ideal ratios of strength and muscle mass.
Definition: The maximum amount of strength you can muster in one tightly-packed group of muscle fibers – in other words: hard, wiry strength. Paul Jaminet at the Perfect Health Diet recently wrote an excellent article outlining why this is a better approach compared to purely trying to pack on as much muscle fiber as possible.
How to do it: Sure, you can get strong and muscular doing Crossfit-esque workouts that require maximum deadlifts in two minutes or ungodly amounts of snatch reps or bodybuilding workouts that have you doing bicep curls until you're bleeding out the eyeballs, but none of that is sustainable when it comes to maximizing longevity. Remember, you want to be able to do maintain strength and muscle when you're 20, 40, 60 and 80 years old. For this, I recommend simply two workouts per week:
1) a super-slow lifting protocol exactly as described by Doug McGuff in his book “Body By Science” – specifically 12-20 minutes of just a few choice multi-joint exercises with extremely slow, controlled lifting (30-60 seconds per rep) and relatively high weights;
- Super slow upper body push (e.g. overhead press)
- Super slow upper body pull (e.g. pull-up)
- Super slow lower body push (e.g. squat)
- Super slow lower body pull (e.g. deadlift)
2) a high intensity body weight circuit program exactly as described in this study, in which a pair of researchers designed a 7 minute workout to maintain strength and muscle in as little time as possible. Each exercise below is simply to be performed for 30 seconds with 10 seconds of rest in between exercises.
- Jumping-jacks
- Wall sits
- Push-ups
- Crunches
- Step-ups
- Squats
- Dips
- Planks
- Running in place with high knees
- Lunges
- Push-ups with rotation
- Side planks
Summary: do two strength workouts per week – one with slow controlled heavy lifting and one with high intensity, light, body weight-esque movements.
4. Maximum mitochondrial density.
Definition: Mitochondria are the power plants of your cells, mitochondrial biogenesis is the creation of new mitochondria, and mitochondrial density is simply having as many mitochondria packed into your muscles as possible so that you can utilize more fat and more glucose.
How to do it: In this study, a workout consisting of four 30-second all-out cycling sprints significantly activated mitochondrial biogenesis in the skeletal muscle of human subjects. In another study, three sets of five 4-second treadmill sprints with 20 seconds of rest in between each sprint, performed three times per week did the same thing. One other study showed four to six 30 second bouts of all-out sprint cycling with four minutes of rest done three times a week also improved important components of mitochondrial health. As you can see, when it comes to maximizing mitochondrial density, it all comes down to short, intense sprints.
Summary: The Tabata sets I already mentioned will likely cover most of your mitochondrial bases, but if you have just a bit more time to spare, then either after your strength workouts or your stamina workouts, perform a few brief sets of very intense sprints (e.g. five 4-30 second sprints). Yes, you read that right: these sprints can be as short as 4 seconds. Consider this to be the icing on the cake, and squeeze it in where it's convenient. Alternatively, you could just mark one spot on your calendar once every week or two to perform four to six 30 second bouts of all-out sprint cycling with four minutes of rest between each bout.
5. Optimized fat burning, metabolic efficiency and blood sugar control.
Definition: maximizing the body's ability to generate ketones and burn fatty acids as a primary source of fuel, while avoiding frequent fluctuations in blood sugar.
How to do it: I have a very comprehensive podcast on simple steps to turning yourself into a fat burning machine, and it basically comes down to this: 1) do one short, aerobic workout as many mornings as possible a week, preferably in an overnight fasted state; 2) avoid frequent snacking; 3) save all your carb intake for the end of the day and up until that point eat high amounts of healthy fats with moderate amounts of proteins; 4) stay mildly physically active all day long (e.g. standing workstation, jumping jack breaks, etc.). and 5) stay anti-fragile by exposing your body to frequent fluctuations in cold and hot temperatures.
Summary: As you can see, this step is more lifestyle based. Start off each day, before eating, with 10-30 minutes of very light activity (yoga, walking the dog, doing yard chores, etc.), take at least one cold shower each day, visit the sauna at least once per week, avoid non-nutrient dense carbohydrates, and be as active as possible all day long. One research study shows that you can even get excellent blood glucose controlling results with something as simple as a 15 minute walk after your main meal of the day.
6. Stamina (optional, but highly recommended).
Definition: the ability to move at low-to-moderate intensities for 90+ minutes (it's at about the 90 minute mark when your glycogen levels become depleted and you must significantly begin to rely upon fat as a fuel).
How to do it: Stamina isn't really entirely necessary for looking good naked or living a long a time, but I personally like to know that if necessary I could hunt down an animal, ride my bicycle nearby city, hike over a mountain range, or survive for a significant amount of time in a zombie apocalypse. Contrary to popular belief held among marathoners and triathletes, this does not require a 2-3 hour death march every weekend. The human body, as I talk about in by book “Beyond Training“, is actually quite good at going for long periods of time, and only requires brief dips and forays into stamina. So I recommend that one to two times per month, you go do something long, like a backpack hike, a big bike ride, a Bikram yoga session, or anything else that combines low-to-moderate physical activity intensities, endurance, and mental focus.
Summary: Again, unless you're signed up for something like an obstacle race, a bicycling century, a triathlon or a marathon, this last step isn't really necessary, but should you want to add the stamina feather to your cap, just get out and do something that takes 90+ minutes at least once per month. If you really want to challenge yourself, you could even make that session something like “The Hardest Workout In The World“, a Spartan race, or any other crazy fitness adventure from rafting to rock climbing. The rest of your innate physical endurance will easily be built by simply ensuring you keep your butt out a chair all day long.
————————————–
Summary & A Done-For-You Approach
So that's it. Once you put it all together, it's actually not too daunting:
- To maintain your cardiovascular fitness and VO2 max, do five 4-minute intense intervals once every two weeks.
- To improve your aerobic capacity and muscle endurance, do 2-3 Tabat sets a week.
- To maintain the ultimate combination of strength and muscle mass, do one 12-20 minute super-slow strength session per week and one 7-14 minute high intensity body weight workout per week.
- To maximize mitochondrial density, do a short series of sprint bursts one to three times per week (e.g. five 4-second all-out sprints with 20 seconds of rest).
- To increase fat burning and metabolic efficiency, include fasting, avoid snacking, avoid sitting, and figure out ways to engage in low-level physical activity all day long.
- To increase stamina, do something 90+ minutes at low-to-moderate intensity one to two times per month.
That's it.
When you do the math, you're really not spending any more than 30-60 minutes per day on getting fit, looking good naked and living a long time. And in my opinion, that's definitely do-able.
Like I mentioned, what I've described above is not designed to turn you into a super-athlete. It's designed to give you an amazing body and a long lifespan.
A couple more things…
First, I personally designed a “Look-Good-Naked Longevity Plan” on TrainingPeaks and also at GreenfieldFitnessSystems.com in downloadable .pdf format. In both versions, all of this is laid out for you on a weekly calendar that you can print and that syncs to your computer, your phone, etc. In this 8 week program, I give you daily, step-by-step instructions for the exact muscle training, fat burning, cardiovascular and mobility protocols that have been proven by research to maximize every second you spend exercising. Pretty much everything you've just read, all conveniently spelled out for each week. Whether you want to look good naked, get massive gains in fitness (or of course, both!) you can rinse, wash, and repeat this 8 week cycle throughout the entire year. It's 27 bucks for the .pdf version or 47 bucks for the TrainingPeaks version and you get to keep it and access it forever. Enjoy.
Next, if you're a complete geek and you want to quantitatively track this stuff, then you may want to check out the Greenfield Longevity Panels. Working closely with WellnessFX, America’s top laboratory for concierge blood testing and online access to all your blood testing results, I developed the most complete blood testing package that money can buy. There is one package specifically designed for men, and one for women. This is by far the most comprehensive blood testing package that exists, and I created it for the health enthusiast, biohacker and anti-aging individual who wants access to the same type of executive health panel and screening that would normally cost tens of thousands of dollars at a longevity institute. Virtually all hormones and all biomarkers are covered in this panel. Yeah, it's still spendy, but if you want to test everything you can test, then this one is worth doing at least once in your lifetime, and I personally do it once per year.
In the meantime, you're now equipped with everything you need to know to look good naked and live longer. I suggest you either use my pre-written program or sit down with your own calendar and map each of these sessions into your weekly routine.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about how to live longer, how to look good naked, the minimal effective dose of exercise, or anything else I've discussed in this article? Leave your thoughts below.
Hey Ben. I appreciate all of your fitness and nutrition advice and have read Beyond Training. I am now on chapter 11 of Boundless. I have the audio book so can listen while working out or walking or driving. There is something you might want to make note of. In chapter 11 it says that I can find the eight week workout program via PDF by going to the link and found this book.com/11. However I did that and went through everything, but couldn’t find it. I then just thought to go to the chapter 10 section of the website, and the link was there. In all, the audio book says it’s in boundlessbook.com/11 references but the link is in chapter 10 references of the site. Anyway I found it, but other people may not. I hope this helps. Be well and have a great day!!
What is relatively high weights mean for the slow reps in the strength section? Are we talking 50% of max or 75%? Something else? Should we hit failure?
What about playing sports? At age 59, 9 months post ACL reconstruction (which has gone fine, but I’m still short on endurance, strength & agility/spring), I’m doing 30 minutes of rehab exercises (strength,balance, agility, plyo) 3x a week, tacking on 15 minutes of core + 15 minutes upper body strength while I’m at it, trying to run (um, walk/jog, still building up) a little and shoehorn in some developmental tennis (e.g., hitting with a partner, hitting against the ball machine). Oh, yes, and yard work (involving a shovel, squatting, bending, pulling), and hiking from time to time. I eat, sleep and rest as much as I can, but the latter gets shorted the most, there’s so much to do . . . I want to get back to being super-active, and I can only be sort-of active. I tend to go too hard too long and then drop like a rock once a week or so. Suggestions? I’m hoping to rejoin my team this fall. (I was a very young retiree, so I don’t have to work for the man, meaning my time is all my own.) Oh, and that “listen to your body” concept? My body doesn’t communicate with me, or if it is, it whispers in a way I can’t hear. I don’t know I’ve overdone until the next day, typically. Thanks for any suggestions.
Hi Barbara, Playing sports is definitely encouraged as a fun way to get your exercise in… so long as you're conscious of your abilities/limitations. I have a ton of resources on my site for many of the other topics you touched on in your question (recovery, overtraining, sleep…) You can do a search at https://BenGreenfieldFitness.com. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, just go to https://BenGreenfieldFitness.com/coaching.
Ben,
In the Get Fit Guy podcasts you state to do two days (Mon/Thurs) Strength, and two days (Tues/Fri) Power. Here you seem to say one day strength and one day power. Which is best?
Hey Ben, I’m trying to buy your 8 week look good naked program but I appears to have disappeared. Is it still available?
Thx
Ben
Hey Ben, I’m trying to buy your 8 week look good naked program but I appears to have disappeared. Is it still available?
Awesome stuff. I just have a couple questions:
1) I’m guessing you recommend ketosis as the best nutritional plan to go with this? And do you recommend a certain number of calories per day?
2) Can I combine different workouts on the same day? If so, how long should I wait after moving from one session to the next?
Thanks!
Honestly, all of these things depend on a number of factors like your lifestyle, level of fitness, diet, height, weight, etc. If you're interested in a more direct, customized approach, I'd be happy to help you via a personal one-on-one consult. Just go to https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/coaching and then choose a 20 or 60-minute consult, whichever you'd prefer. I can schedule ASAP after you get that.
This is marvelous. I have a suspicion though – this came up in my study of primal workouts and diet too.
I can just about believe that this set of exercises – plus, a very careful diet, compared to most Americans – may be adequate to *maintain* a ripped physique. But I’m really having trouble believing that this set would *create* a ripped physique in someone with some belly fat and some slight general pudge, like me. Especially at an older age – I’m 59.
The only answer, of course, is for me to try it for a few months and see. At least I won’t be over-training, so I won’t get injured, and will be able to add more training if this doesn’t do it.
I’m at 200 pounds, 5’11” tall, so a BMI of 28 or so; pretty good muscle mass in my upper body, from surfing (and doing *nothing* else except some walking). I’m also curious, if you have a ripped physique, is there a typical BMI range? I’m thinking that, if so, it would tend to be on the high side of 25 – I can’t see getting down to 180 pounds and also being ripped, but again, we’ll see.
Looking forward to it!
Hi Ben,
Thanks for all your interesting information!
Quick question for the superslow lifting protocol you have 4 exercises, and specify 30-60sec per rep, yet the workout is meant to be 12-20 minutes. Do you make up the workout to 12mins by doing more reps of each exercise? or is it literally ONE 60sec rep then move to the next exercise? i.e would only take 4 minutes?
Sorry for the confusion
Thanks
Nicole
Every time… Recovery time… ;-) You recover between sets.
I am distraught. I can not find answers to my health issues anywhere!
I’ve been low carb: moderate protein for 4 years. I am a 46 yr old woman, I have “taught” group weight-lifting and yoga/Pilates for 25+ yrs. I worry much about my Wright but I’m not over-Wright. (Eating d/o in tht past). I had a horrific head-on collision st age 17 resulting in coma, facial and knee reconstruction, and numerous back and neck injuries. Ever since I went low/no carb, I HAVE FELT HORRIBLE!!! My joints ache and I have insomnia! My old neck and back injuries came back! I lost my 18 year fitness job, and I can’t get well. I have confounded many doctors and 2 accupuncturists. I feel sick when I go high fat/ low carb. When I add in carbs, my energy comes back, but I do not know how To do this w/o gaining wt. Please please help. My last doc punctured my cervical spine and I had a spinal headache for days. I can’t figure out how to eat and keep the weight off, and SLEEP!! PLEASE PLEASE HELP.
MA, did anyone reply? zdb
I’m a 55 yo male. Currently, I weight train 3 days a week (Max OT workout) and run the other 3 days. My bp and pulse are great.
My question is … Should I ditch this? It seems like Im OK, but I’m always looking for ways to compress this.
No need to ditch it, there's other complimentary practices in there – like foundation training and sauna..
(Especially as the 2 strength training methods you mention are very interval training like, both body by science and 7min workout, so I’d actually go down to only one more high intensity session per week)
“Thats it” how daring haha ! :)
This is an interesting article, but I strongly feel like these guidelines aim to maximize and not optimize things, and by that I mean its a heavy program. First, one hour a day can be a lot for most people, but most of all, 3 tabata\hit per week is enormous considering how uncomfortable these are !
Seriously, as an amator athlete I naturally have this kind of training, mostly from specific game training, but if I were to stop, there is no way I’d do such a dense program.
I’d do 2 30min strength training, one to 3 easy runs\cycle a week and put some 10min intervals in them, live life and call it a week! It might not MAXIMIZE but i’d bet I’d have 80℅ of the benefits, without accounting for the alleged stress from “having to do so much”. I mean off course for some it might fit, and if someone loves training then perfect. After all, you never said your article was targetting average people :).
For my taste I’d train a little less intensely, but overall I really like the structure and the mention of cold shower and yoga(\meditation).
Nice work thank you !
Thomas,
I’m afraid this program is not “heavy” or high volume by any means. It may look like a lot when laid out in writing, but if you look at the numbers and Ben’s recommendations in regards to frequency, there’s only 81 min of intense exercise per week, and that’s IF you perform the max amount of sets for each component. Breakdown below.
-3 tabata sets x 4 min each
-14 min of intense bodyweight circuits
-15 min of HIIT sprints
-20 min of super slow sets.
These four components total 61 min so far. Then there’s the HIIT training that’s comprised of 4 min hard effort with 4 min recovery, done 5 times over, equaling 40 min total. Since this training is recommended every other 2 weeks, for this purpose we can average 20 min/week. Thus, 61 + 20 = 81 min on average of intense training per week, if that (again, only if you’re doing the max sets. Most people it will probably be even less).
Can you specify where he recommends “an hour a day”? If you are referring to low intensity or light movements such as walking, then yes you should try to get that as much as possible, I’d say even more than just an hour a day. Sedentary lifestyles are detrimental to health which Ben has talked about before on his podcast and I’m sure has articles too. Looking at your recommendations, it seems you may do more volume than what he recommends (if you’re doing an hour of strength training, 3 easy runs/cycles which are around 30 min each, and then two 10-min HIIT sessions, that totals approximately 230 min/week).
The stamina component he recommends at the end definitely has its benefits but he does say is optional. It can be simple as walking, it doesn’t have to be running or cycling at a hard pace. I would say if you wanted to do that every other week or whenever you can fit it in, go for it.
Basically, an hour and a half per week of hard training is not much. That’s like saying 11.5 min (again, max) of intense exercise per day. If you are experiencing pain or get burned out, then perhaps there is another underlying factor, such as poor form, malnutrition, lack of sleep, etc.
Hey Ben
As always, freaking AWESOME article.
I do remember seeing this in the beyond training book. I am loving it, but due to uni study and jimmy moore’s keto clarity, haven’t read it too frequently lately. I would like to know how to become a speed reader like you.
So – this sounds like an epic training program (excuse me – beyond training program ;) ), but do you think it’d be suitable for an older adult (eg. 55 year old female who has just started going to the gym) to jump in straight away? or do you think the intensity of each workout should be lowered, and then gradually built up, as necessary?
I think it is suitable for an older adult but it's obviously going to depend on a lot of different things. A lot of it is fasted walking or light yoga, etc, then using heat and cold exposure, then some HIIT. The HIIT is the only place I'd imagine she'd have some trouble but just get her to try and see how she goes!
Ben, as always great advice and I will be following this plan to get ready for the coming summer.
Just a quick question. I don’t have access to weights / a gym. Are there any alternatives to the Strength & Muscle Mass (part 1) exercises eg TRX or similar?
Yep, plenty of alternatives. Probably the best bet for you would be to get my book shape 21, which is basically just bodyweight, and dumbbells. https://greenfieldfitnesssystems.com/product/shap…
Hi Ben, Are you familiar with the Sprint 8 workout (https://www.johnsonfit.com/sprint-8)? I’ve been doing this workout for some time now as I like that I can do a very efficient workout without spending hours in the gym. I was very interested in this article since it sound like it incorporates the same HIIT technique. Thanks for the advice!
Haven't done this, but it definitely looks like HIIT! Just don't overdo it.
Ben – Thanks for the article. Love it. Regarding the 12-minute, slow burn work-out…I find it difficult to do pull-ups or push-ups (with bars) for 12-minutes straight. Is it still effective to do the 12-minute work-out over the course of 20 minutes with short breaks between the 30-60 second reps?
You just done ONE 30-60 second set of the pullups/ pushups etc before moving on to next set! Not a full 12 minutes!
Great article! I am one of those people who want to look good naked, live a long time, AND train for endurance events, mainly marathons and long distance triathlons. I like Which of your TrainingPeaks plans would you recommend to best achieve all three goals? More specifically, what's the difference between the "Ancestral Athlete" and "Polarized" plans? Thanks!
Hmm…be cautious combining marathons and long distance triathlons with those other goals. ;) You may have to sacrifice speed a little bit. Anyways, the best one would be the Ancestral plan, which is based on minimum effective dose of exercise, while the Polarized plan is adapted from the Polarized section of my book at http://www.BeyondTrainingBook.com and is more like pro endurance athletes train…tons of very low intensity volume combined with brief bouts of high intensity.
Thanks! And what plan would you recommend along the same lines for an Olympic triathlon?
This all sounds good to me, and I am ready to give it a try. But here is my question. Is this regimen good for weight loss or do I need to take it to a higher level to really lose weight? I have about 30-40 pounds to lose and a lot of it is belly fat.
We did a whole episode on belly fat https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/09/episo…
Outstanding article, Ben. It seems like the pieces are all backed by some science but I’m wondering about combining them into a practice as you have done here. Do you have any evidence that the pieces individually or jointly will improve longevity and how you look over time? Have you given this program to others or done it yourself for a period?
I’m especially trying to wrap my biceps around the super-slow HIT protocol. It just looks painful. On this part in particular, do you have any examples of people who followed the protocol over a long period? Any suggestions on how to keep compliance up when working alone in a barbell equipped garage?
This is a wonderful observation, and frankly, I've been incorporating these strategies with my clients for years, but I can't say there's currently long term, clinical research data on what happens when you "combine" a bunch of proven activity/longevity concepts into one program, and whether there is a synergistic effect. Perhaps someday! In the meantime, re: compliance…I won't lie: you just *do* it. No excuses. ;) But this may help: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/e…
When following this workout should I warm up or can I start the workouts cold? If warm up is needed what is the recommendation for warming up?
Great question, I have a pretty comprehensive treatise on the warm-up rules here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/e…
I am currently training for a Half Ironman and looking for a good lifting protocol. Would incorporating the 2 lifting methods you described in the article be the best? Or do you recommend something else for Longer Endurance athletes?
For endurance athletes, it's a whole different ballgame, especially when it comes to lifting. The best resource I can give you is my book on this: http://goo.gl/tQg24
Great stuff. This mirrors the advice in the Bruce Lee book (which was written posthumously based on his notes and letters to friends) "The art of expressing the human body". It says to use fewer higher-weight reps or a higher number of lower-weight reps depending on your short-term objective, but longer term don't ignore doing more lower-weight reps.
What exercises would you recomend for the cardio/VO2 training days?
Check out this article: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/03/best-…
Great article! But the second picture of Dr. Jeff Life: believe he advocates the use of HGH and steroids. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/07/74-year-old…
Yes, this is true. And I do *not* advocate that approach…
Ben, I believe this is your Magnum opus of health articles.
Quick question though, is there any difference at all when it comes to doing the “sprint bursts” once a week versus three times a week per your recommendations? Or is maximum mitochondrial density already peaked when performing it once a week?
Thanks again, Ben.
Technically if you isolate the studies, 3x/week for bursts is necessary, but once you COMBINE the sprint bursts with everything else in this program, once per week is fine.
Thanks for the response Ben!
One more quick clarification. Would there be any benefit doing THREE total rounds of the body weight circuit (the max number of rounds recommended by the study itself) if I am already doing everything in the program altogether? Or will doing a max of two rounds of the circuit as per your article already meet all of the benefits?
Appreciate your time.
Honestly, if you were doing this whole program, three rounds would probably be overdoing it. I'd start with, and probably stick to, two.
Ben,
Love this article!
I switched to a minimalist program this summer and my results have been outstanding.
Keep up the hard work.
Oh! And my big questions are can I do these with Hashimotos Thyroiditis because so far even walking wears me out for the day and makes me feel as if I’ve been beaten with a baseball bat…:(
I'd be tackling the thyroid issues before doing too many of the sprints, although you should be fine with the strength work. Look more into the type of adrenal fatigue approaches I outline here: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/06/how-t… and here in this program: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/products/trainingpl…
Thank you for responding. Ive been on thyroid meds for almost 10 yrs and recently added adrenal meds and feel a little better but the moment I exercise I pay big time. I couldn’t get second link to open, it said “page not found”. And is there a transcript of the Sara Gottfried interview?
I would check out these two resources: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/06/how-t…
I’m a little confused about the difference between the Tabat cycles and other circuit workouts…
For clarification on what a Tabata is, go here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/e…
Fantastic article, but I would definitely think one shouldn't attempt a full 100% all-out effort on a treadmill. The biomechanics are so much different than running outside where you can modulate based on fatigue. I think a stationary bike would be the best choice here.
This article is gold, Ben! It’ll be the perfect round-up for family and friends to want to just get healthy.