How to Workout for Health, longevity & Quality of Life
There are three main reasons people decide to exercise:
To improve their looks and increase chances of mating success
To improve their performance in some sport or event
To improve their health & their quality of life
There’s always some overlap between these goals, but you can optimize for one specifically.
In this article, we’re going to discuss training practices for maximizing health & quality of life.
If you have any questions unanswered, you are welcome to email me at info@FitnessSimplified.org or comment below!
Related: What Does it Mean to Eat ‘Healthy?’
Defining the goal
The terms “health & quality of life” may come off as a bit abstract, or may mean something different to one person compared to another.
To keep things simple, we can define this goal as the reduction of risk from chronic disease, reduction of risk from injury or pain, improvements in physical function & well-being, and the improvement in energy throughout a day.
In order to accomplish this goal, there are two parameters we will set:
These goals are accomplished with as little time investment as possible
Since we are trying to maximize quality of life outside of our workouts, it can follow that there is as much time as possible outside of our workouts; meaning our workouts take as little time as possible.
We train every relevant physical quality to some degree, while prioritizing the physical qualities that have a greater overall effect on health & quality of life
For best results, you will need to develop all measures of physical fitness to some degree. However, some will be more impactful than others. This will be explained more in the writing to follow.
In regard to what qualities of physical fitness we will aim to improve, the following will be included:
Increase skeletal muscle mass
The amount of muscle mass a person has is tightly associated with the state of their health and risk of chronic disease such as sarcopenia, osteopenia, type II diabetes, and others [source].
Improve cardiovascular fitness
There are many ways to measure cardiovascular fitness, the full scope of which we won’t cover in this article.
VO2max, though, is considered the best way to measure CV fitness.
VO2max has the strongest association with length of life than any other measurable variable [source].
Improving your VO2max is also considered the best way to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, the #1 cause of death worldwide.
Improve capacity for power production
Strength refers to how much force a muscle can produce; power refers to how quickly a muscle can produce that force.
With sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle function and muscle size, this is one of the first things to go [source].
This can be a big reason people lose their physical independence, and greatly increases risk of falls; a common cause of death among those older than 65.
Improve mobility across various planes of motion
This won’t fight off aging or disease as potently as the previously mentioned variables, but can greatly improve general functionality day-to-day.
Now, a routine that successfully improves all of these variables without consuming your whole life can be tough to put together.
However, that’s exactly what the remainder of this article will cover.
Resistance training
This is the first “big rock” of training for health, longevity, and quality of life.
The term ‘resistance training’ is a broad term that can be used to characterize any exercise in which your body is working against resistance and the limiting factor of exercise is your body’s ability to produce force against that resistance.
For instance, when you run you are technically working against resistance (gravity), but the limiting factor is not your body’s ability to produce force.
Therefore, running cannot be categorized as resistance training.
A set of squats where you hit technical failure at rep 8 can be characterized as resistance training, though, because you are working against resistance and the limiting factor is your body’s ability to produce force.
Other activities that can fit under the umbrella of the term ‘resistance training’ include weight training, calisthenics, resistance band exercises, power exercises, etc.
The overarching goal of these workouts is to build strength, power, and muscle.
Ideally, this will be done using all major muscle groups and building strength through various planes of motion.
These workouts should be completed 2-3x per week with 1-3 days of rest in between.
They are most efficiently done with some sort of power or plyometric exercise first, followed by standard strength training.
Depending on a few variables, these workouts will likely take 30-60 minutes in duration.
Here’s an example of a workout:
1) Pogo jumps
5 reps per set, 1:00-1:30 rest in between sets, 2-3 sets
2a) Cossack squats
12-16 reps, 2-3 sets
2b) Push up
RPE 7-8, 2-3 sets
2c) Dumbbell side raises
10-15 reps, 2-3 sets
3a) Romanian deadlifts
6-10 reps, 2-3 sets
3b) Windshield wipers
12-20 reps, 2-3 sets
3c) Crunches
RPE 7-8, 2-3 sets
Among the goals of a training program for health, longevity, and quality of life, resistance training will cover three:
Increasing muscle size
Increasing capacity for power
Improving mobility
As long as you perform most of your resistance training exercises through a full range-of-motion, they will be sufficient for improving mobility (and arguably better than stretching).
Cardiovascular conditioning
This is the second “big rock” of training for the goal at hand.
Cardiovascular conditioning refers to any exercise in which the limiting factor is your cardiovascular system.
In other words, your body’s ability to deliver oxygen & fuel to the working muscles.
Terms you can consider synonymous, for our purposes, include: cardio, conditioning, endurance training, aerobic training, etc.
There are 100s ways you can go about doing this.
Broadly speaking, there are three main categories we can fit cardio workouts into:
Continuous, steady state work
Doing the same modality at the same intensity for a given period of time
Interval based work
Doing the same modality at alternating intensities for a given period of time
Mixed modality work
Using multiple modalities either at the same intensity or alternating intensities for a given period of time
Example workouts might include the following:
Steady state cycling for 30 minutes
Interval run between 7 minutes per mile and 10 minutes per mile
Interval run/walk between 10 minutes per mile and walking
10 calories on an AirDyne, 20 cycles of jump rope, 20 foot weighted carry repeated for a given number of rounds
Similar to resistance training, this type of workout should be done 2-3x per week with 1-2 days of rest in between.
In many cases, it makes the most sense to alternate days where you do cardiovascular training and when you do resistance training.
Incorporate something fun
Everything we have discussed so far has included activity that will yield some specific adaptation.
This section will not discuss exercise that leads to specific adaptations, but is something I would argue is equally as important.
When I say ‘incorporate something fun’ I am essentially saying to identify and practice a physically active hobby that you enjoy.
Some examples of these might include:
pickle-ball
basketball
golf
gardening
paddle boarding
hiking
Rock climbing
dancing
martial arts
etc.
There are many reasons why I’d say it’s good to do so, some of which include:
Providing a reason for the resistance and cardiovascular training, as those tend to make physically active hobbies more enjoyable and safer
Improving adherence to being active
The best training programs have have some parts that are purpose-purpose driven and others that are enjoyment-driven. When you have something physically active in the schedule that you genuinely look forward to doing, the likelihood that you remain active for the long haul increases significantly.
Satisfy the desire for community and connection with others
Not only do people become increasing isolated with age, the world itself is becoming one that promotes isolation. Having some enjoyable physical hobby can be a great way to counteract this.
Improve and maintain your coordination
Your coordination, like other fitness variables, will fade if it is not used. Usually, hobbies of this sort can help to simulate those pathways in the brain and help you maintain your coordination.
Putting it all together, an example week:
With all of this stuff put together, here’s what a week might look like:
Monday: full body resistance training
Tuesday: 30 minute steady-state bike ride
Wednesday: full body resistance training
Thursday: mixed modality cardio
Friday: full body resistance training
Saturday: 1-2 hours of pickle-ball
Sunday: walk through a nature trail
It’s worth noting that you don’t NEED to do something everyday.
For instance, you really wanted/needed, you could remove one of the resistance, cardio, and recreational days.
This would leave you with 2 resistance days, 1 cardio day, and 1 recreational day.
For most people, that’s enough to get most of the benefits.
It’s also worth noting, though, that more is better for most people; provided you can recover from and sustain the activity level.
At the end of the day, there’s a high need for customization to your personal lifestyle when it comes to any effective program.
Helping people with this personal customization is part of what I do with my coaching. If you’re interested, you can inquire here.
However, I hope that this article has least given you a good idea of what it looks like to exercise when your goals are purely health, longevity, and quality of life.