Transcript
Can cardio help yuh live longer?
And by how much?
And what type is best?
What the Science?
I’m on Day 2 of my fitness journey, and even though I hate cardio I wanted to figure out exactly what the research says I should be doing. I chose longevity as a target because I’m not a professional athlete so I don’t need to optimize for performance.
→oi! LESS TALK MORE SCIENCE
Right. This 2018 study followed over 5,000 men for 46 years. One of the best metrics for cardiovascular health is called VO2 max- how much oxygen your body can take in and use during exercise, but it takes lots of lab equipment to measure. Back in 1970 they had middle-aged men get on an exercise bike and they used a cool technique from this paper to then estimate their VO2max. They compared that one number to mortality rates 46 years later. The results were amazing!
Those in the top 5% of VO2 max survived on average 5 years longer than the bottom 5%, with pretty continuous results in between.
And it’s not just this study. A meta-analysis of 33 studies found similar results.
Soo I’ll be trying to get into the “top 5% VO2max club.”
But what type of cardio will do this most efficiently? I’ll talk about that soon! Hit that follow, and join my Discord for the real fun!