A common question I get from people who started investing later in life is:
How do I make up for lost time? Is there a better option than ‘save as much as you can’?
If you had asked me this question in years past, I would have said, “Not really.” After all, assuming you can’t increase your portfolio returns, what other option do you have to catch up besides saving more?
But then I realized that I was misthinking this question. ‘Cause I shouldn’t have focused on how to get more money (through higher returns or higher contributions), but how do you get more weather. After all, if you can get more time, you can use that time to save more money, make more profit, and catch up financially.
But how do you get more time? Unfortunately, paying for it is not an option. as i said in chap. 21 of Keep shopping:
Although you can always earn more money, nothing can buy you more time.
But what if instead of to buy more time, you could gain more time?
Well, it is possible. How exactly? According to the data, the answer is… exercise. Exercising regularly to improve your strength and cardiovascular health is the most effective way to increase how much time you have left on this Earth, all else being equal.
However, don’t just take my word for it. Consider what Peter Attia, a physician and longevity expert, has testified on the subject. In this podcast episode of The Drive, Attia, and exercise physiologist Mike Joyner, MD, discuss how proper cardiovascular fitness can add three to five years to your life expectancy and six to eight years to your life expectancy. As a reminder, life expectancy is how long you live, but life expectancy is how long you live. while in good health. So having six to eight more years of health really means six to eight more years of living the life you want.
But what do you have to give up for this period of extra health? Much less than you think. Assuming you spent four hours a week exercising, 50 weeks a year for 50 years, that would be 10,000 hours of exercise in a lifetime. That’s just over 1 year of time. But, during that year, you’ll likely gain an additional six to eight years of health without disabilities. In other words, Every hour you spend exercising is likely to give you six to eight hours of extra exercise. healthy life.
There is no other lifestyle change that comes close. To illustrate this, consider the case of smoking and nutrition. As Attia said in this episode of the Huberman Lab podcast:
Smoking is about a 40% increased risk of CAM [all-cause mortality]…means that at any given time there is a 40% increased risk of dying relative to a non-smoker.
In statistical terms, we would say that smokers have a hazard ratio 1.4 (ie, a 40% increased risk of MCA) relative to non-smokers. A hazard ratio it is simply, “a measure of how often a particular event occurs in one group compared to how often it occurs in another group, over time.” In this case, the event is death (ie, all-cause mortality) and the groups are smokers and non-smokers. So a hazard ratio of 1.4 means that death is 1.4 times more likely for smokers than nonsmokers at any time.
On the nutrition front, someone who never eats fruits and vegetables has a hazard ratio of 1.35 compared to someone who eats five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, according to this meta-analysis. This means that the increased risk of dying from smoking (relative to non-smokers) is almost equivalent to the increased risk of dying from never eating fruit/vegetables (relative to those who eat five or more servings of fruit/vegetables per day ) .
So what is the risk ratio associated with not exercising? According to Atiais 2.0 when comparing those in the bottom 25 percent of cardiorespiratory fitness (across VO2max) to those in the 50th to 75th percentile of cardiorespiratory fitness. This means being in the bottom 25 percent of cardiorespiratory fitness (for your age and gender) double your chance of dying relative to someone in the 50th to 75th percentile. So, just by becoming better than average, your chance of dying (relative to someone with low cardiorespiratory fitness) would be reduced by 50%.
But, we can go further. If we compare someone in the bottom 25 percent to someone with an elite cardiorespiratory fitness level (ie, those in the top 2.5 percent for their age and gender), the hazard ratio jumps to 5.0. That’s a 400% increased risk of death (ACM) if you’re in the bottom 25% relative to the top 2.5%. In other words, being in the top 2.5% of cardiorespiratory fitness reduces the risk of death by 80%. These figures are so extreme that states of attia:
That’s probably the strongest association I’ve seen for any modifiable behavior.
Think about what this means. Attia, who is one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable experts on longevity. in the world, states that the behavior most strongly associated with extending your life is—exercise.
He didn’t say he ate blueberries or meditated or followed a specific morning routine (despite the benefits all of these behaviors provide). She said to exercise and to exercise until you are in the top 2.5% for your age and gender (with respect to your VO2max).
This is how you get more time.
And, counterintuitively, this is how you catch up financially. You don’t need to stress trying to save every penny. Instead, you exercise more, reduce your stress, and prolong your life. This is a non-financial solution to a financial problem. And while it may seem unorthodox, for those struggling to save more, it might be the best option available.
Now that we have discussed the general aspects strategy for more time, let’s look at the specific tactic to do it
How should you exercise for longevity?
According to research, people with greater strength and better cardiovascular health tend to live longer than those without. What this study found, “Men who can perform 40 push-ups in one minute are 96 percent less likely to have cardiovascular disease than those who do fewer than 10.” This is similar to the benefits (highlighted above) associated with increased cardiovascular fitness. Therefore, any specific exercise routine you follow should focus on these two pillars, strength and cardio, at a minimum.
And while I’m not a fitness expert (consult a doctor before making any drastic changes to your exercise routine), I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject and found the following works for me:
- Strength (3-4 days per week)
- 1 day of legs (squats, Romanian deadlifts, leg extensions, calf raises, etc.)
- 1 day back/biceps (barbell rows, seated cable rows, shrugs, preacher curls, farmer’s carry, etc.)
- 1 day chest/shoulders/triceps (dumbbell bench press, overhead press, triceps extension, etc.)
- Cardio (3-4 days a week)
- 3-4 “Zone 2” cardio sessions per week (45 minutes on an incline treadmill)
- 1 “Zone 5” cardio session – sprints (5 rounds of 20-second sprints with 2 min rest between rounds)
What are cardio zones 2 and 5? These represent different intensity levels based on your cardiac output (that is, how hard your heart is beating). Zone 1 would be something like a casual walk, while Zone 5 would be high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Therefore, zone 2 it’s a workout at about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.
Technically, Zone 2 is defined as “the highest metabolic work/performance you can sustain while keeping your lactate level below two millimoles per liter.” But for us normal people, you can tell if you’re in Zone 2 if:
- Nostril breathing only: You can do the exercise while breathing only (or mostly) through the nose. If you feel like you need to breathe through your mouth, you’re probably pushing yourself into Zone 3 (or higher).
- Talking is unpleasant.: You can exercise and talk or have a conversation, but it feels a little unpleasant doing it. If you feel no discomfort, you’re probably in Zone 1. And if you feel a lot of discomfort (or can’t talk at all) while exercising, you’re probably in Zone 3 (or higher).
If both conditions are met, you are probably in Zone 2.
In terms of time, I tend to alternate between cardio and strength days. So a cardio day followed by a strength day followed by a cardio day, and so on. I don’t deliberately take rest days because the alternating pattern allows for a lot of rest and unplanned rest days occur quite frequently. Life gets in the way, believe me.
This cardio routine comes primarily from Peter Attia. Blog Y podcast (he’s my fitness guru of choice if you didn’t know). However, I have also learned quite a bit based on experience.
For example, my Zone 2 workout is currently 45 minutes walking on the treadmill at 3.3 mph with a 15% incline. When I started I could only do this at 2.9mph while struggling stay in Zone 2 (ie, I needed to breathe through my mouth most of the time). But, after a few months, I got better and am now able to stay in Zone 2 at a slightly faster pace. For context, Attia does Zone 2 on the treadmill at 3.5-3.6 mph with a 15% incline. If she wants to try a Zone 2 incline treadmill workout, I recommend starting slower (or less incline) and then working up from there.
Of course, there is no “right” way to exercise, just like there is no “right” way to build wealth. People have gotten strong and fit (and rich) in a variety of different ways, so arguing over details seems almost pointless to me. However, I hope that by exposing you to some detail Set, you will experiment more and find what works for you.
I know I am not a fitness guru. But I’m someone who wants you to act smarter and live richer. So I hope you’ll take my recommendation to heart and start making more time for yourself today.
Happy exercise and thanks for reading!
If you liked this post, consider subscribing to my newsletter.
This is post 311. Any code you have related to this post can be found here with the same numbering: https://github.com/nmaggiulli/of-dollars-and-data
