Relationship b/w exercise volume & health: minimum/optimal dose, and can too much shorten lifespan

This clip is from The Drive podcast: #151​ - Alex Hutchinson, Ph.D.: Translating the science of endurance and extreme human performance. Originally released on February 28, 2021, you can watch the full interview here: • #151 - Alex Hutchinson... .
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The Peter Attia Drive is a weekly, ultra-deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking…and a few other things. With over 30 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including fasting, ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more.
Peter is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. His practice deals extensively with nutritional interventions, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, emotional and mental health, and pharmacology to increase lifespan (delay the onset of chronic disease), while simultaneously improving healthspan (quality of life).
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[@supernova5107]

I would think that the ideal amount of exercise would be completely individual to the condition of the participant.

[@StrutZ007]

Definitely... Recovery ability does scale to a point though I feel an advanced athlete will eventually reach a point to where any additional stressors will not only reach diminishing returns but be counterproductive. Finding that sweet spot is the ultimate quest

[@StrutZ007]

I think about this question all the time. I have friends doing crossfit every day sometimes twice a day and still not seeing the gains they want. My thought is noway they can fully recover from these workouts but maybe I'm wrong. I can get away with 3-4 intense anaerobic workouts a week if I am doing everything else right i.e. mobility, diet. More than that the signs of overtraining creep in.

[@richardsilmai9038]

your body never lies so, learn to listen to it. it's like nailing where there's a point to stop. depending on your intention

[@netty062]

I have to 100% agree with the 10 mins a day having a very beneficial effect for newbies. Was 40 lbs overweight in 2018, 50 yo f. Started resistance training 10 mins a day, 5d/wk, reduced sugar and flour and lost 25 lbs over 6 mos. Did not eliminate carbs and did not eliminate sugar or flour just reduced. Now I eat LCHF and have lost another 10 lbs with about 20 mins of resistance training 5 days/week. Always walked every day before weight loss and during.

[@rogeredwards4871]

Seems to me the people ive met in their 90's and 100's didn't do much, if any intense exercise at all. They had active lives like people in Okinawa Japan, planting and working in their garden, squatting, doing fair amount of walking, getting plenty of sleep and eating less

[@mikybinns9343]

We are all individuals, some of us are addicted to training even to the point of self destruction. I've got the T-shirt, listen to your body if it hurts even a little bit its telling you to stop, pain is the final signal, learn too recognise the more subtle ones.

[@ststrength5044]

Long time lifter(competed in PL till 41..48 now). I will admit the overuse injuries have taken its toll due to "too much" volume. I did make changes after PL which has helped but do feel the effects of over 30 yrs of moving barbells. That being said the benefits have outweighed the "issues" (better body comp, muscle mass, function and better well being compared to peers) . Volume definitely in my case had to be reduced considerably. I will push here and there but know my limits. Supplementation, nutrition and sleep are definitely a priority more than ever. Good interview💪

[@theloniuspunk383]

What if I (by working) am at a moderately high heart rate for 9 hours a day? I am also cycling to work and sometimes stressing my tendons quite a bit. Is this bad for my heart? Can I get stretched heart cells?

[@andypcguy1]

Why stop competing? Sure you can't beat the guys in their 20s-30s but find a new goal. It's good to test your capabilities from time to time.

[@psychways]

The guest is just too preoccupied with running. Prof Tim Noakes was a marathon runner who developed diabetes. Fortunately he fixed his problem with diet.

[@ratherrapid]

at some point, as a life time exerciser now age 74 I decided with my weight work to quit the sport of weight lifting and lift for life extension. Ditto the running. The gents have nailed the problem but apparently research on optimal exercise for life extension has yet to be done. Seems to me somebody should do some research exclusively with the 1% and quit confusing the issue with unhealthy subjects.

[@sandiegojoey1]

I'd love to see some kind of venn diagram showing where healthspan/lifespan, strength, and endurance overlap. On one end of the spectrum you have running skeletons who are incredible examples of cardiovascular endurance but very frail. On the end of the spectrum you have the bodybuilding and powerlifting folks who are physically strong and will avoid the pitfalls of sarcopenia while having the V02 slightly better than a couch potato. I'd assume both are better than doing nothing, and are also likely to have a better diet than the standard American diet, but neither seems to be "optimized" for all three categories (healthspan/lifespan, strength, endurance). I'm trying really hard to be what you might call a hybrid athlete where there's an even balance of strength and endurance where healthspan is a priority.

[@johnbrown2030]

You ever heard of Nick Bare ? he would be smack dab in the middle of said Venn diagram !!

[@sandiegojoey1]

@@johnbrown2030 yes I have, and Hunter McIntyre and Adam Klink too. They’re all young examples of what I think the perfect balance of strength and endurance is. The question is whether that physical balance is conducive to longevity too. Seems like it should be.

[@ZxAMobile]

My aunt lived until the age of 95 she lost her legs in her teenage years and I’ve never seen her with a wheelchair she lays in bed and stares outside of the window our entire life for over 85 years up until the time she died she could hold a full on conversation And had almost nothing wrong with her besides some blindness in the last three years of her life she ate very very little and pretty much took care of herself give or take with some help here and there from the family and the last 15 years of her life she had a caretaker I don’t think exercise is as important as most people make it out to be I think proper sleep diet and genetics plays a much larger role the people that I know that I have lived the longest with minimal injuries and are the healthiest mentally have never worked out in their lives and the only exercise they get is from work and daily activities. Are used to be really big into working out and pushing yourself to the limits but I realized how devastating and life-changing injuries are and how absolutely prevalent they are across the entire board of athletes in my opinion I am starting to become anti-exercise and I think the best exercise is just daily movement and body weight stuff like push-ups squats and jogging with a lot of stretching and warming up basically natural movements we would have made when we first evolved.

[@xu6dt]

Thoughts on David Goggins?

[@MrXrisd01]

Beast

[@jasonwaters382]

Peter raises an excellent question. I don't feel that Dr. Hutchinson really gets down to the research on this in a useful way -- too much opinion. I hope Peter addresses the question more thoroughly on another podcast.

[@Brahmdagh]

What's that ring thing Peter is wearing? Some gadget?

[@smooth_pursuit]

Can’t see his hand at the moment, but probably Oura ring...

[@Brahmdagh]

@@smooth_pursuit Look at 4:36 Have you used it? Is it any good?

[@smooth_pursuit]

@@Brahmdagh yes I have one. It has some interesting data, like overnight HRV, temp & respiratory rate. My experience with it is mixed but a lot of people love it. There are lots of reviews online. PA talks about it elsewhere I think (I believe he may be an investor)

[@smooth_pursuit]

I would recommend it if you want to improve your sleep and can spare the cash...

[@Brahmdagh]

@@smooth_pursuit I see. Thanks

[@jonathancortez7145]

The video picture looks like an Engineer from Prometheus movie.🐸

[@richardmiddleton7770]

There are too many ways to exercise, so you can't just say that too much or too little exercise is bad.

[@petercoderch589]

Exercise in large amounts is definitely extremely harmful and accelerates ageing dramatically. One of the most important factors in ageing is oxidative stress. Exercise significantly increases it beyond what even cigarette smoking increases it. Of course, the body fights back increasing the amounts of endogenous antioxidants like catalase and SOD, as well as inducing SIRTUINS via AMPK signaling, which also increases DNA repair. The poblem is, there is a limit to how much catalase and SOD your body can generate to neutralize the free radicals. And this limit is not very high. I know marathoners and super-marathoners, and they ALL look older than their age. Most super-marathoners have grey hair around age 30. It's true that some people go grey genetically very young, some in their late teens to early twenties. But this is not what I am talking about. I am talking about a pattern seen in a lot of people that run marathons and super-marathons compared to the general population. Most human being go grey around age 50. Facial hair starts going grey at 35, but head hair goes grey at 50 for most people. When you see a cohort of people that consistenly have grey hair 20 years before what is normal for the general public, what does that tell you?

[@johanvandermerwe2928]

Absolutely NOTHING

[@Dan-jo8py]

I always love watching people with addictions to exercise talk about minimum exercise - always tie themselves in knots arguing over more. "Is 1hr a week enough? No, I don't believe the data I'm going to quote for the rest of this is true for this one thing that impacts my personal feelings, it's impossible, must be 3 hours. Ok, maybe 5. 10. 20. I love it. 36 hours a week might not be too much... " 🤣🤣