Setting yourself up for a strong back-half with the “50 at 50 goals”…
VO2max >50 ml/kg/min
Resting heart rate: <50 bpm
Heart Rate Variability (rMSSD): >50 ms
If you want to go for bonus points…
Sum of 6 skinfolds <50mm (male)
Mid-thigh girth > 50cm
For those without access to VO2max testing, assuming average running economy, that’s ~sub 23 min 5K fitness. Or, in keeping with the theme… < 50 min 10K
A VO2max of 50ml/kg/min at age 50 puts a male in the top 5% aerobic fitness for all males - higher than a typical male in their 20’s & is a truly elite level of fitness for a female.
The 50 ml/kg/min should be easy (in fact my goal is 65 by 50), the 50 bpm resting heart rate I should be able to get next year but that 50ms rmssd…I only ever score that high the day after an illness or hangover, usually it’s much much lower…
I wish I could get my resting heart rate down. I get a lot of exercise, I don’t smoke, I’m not overweight. If anyone has a particular type of exercise program that has worked to reduce RHR, I’d love to hear it.
I think the key issue may be the type of exercise that you (or any of us) is doing. I haven’t looked into this yet, but I wonder if the type of exercise that optimizes Vo2 Max is the same as that which lowers resting heart rate; has anyone here looked at this? Exercise, VO2 max, and longevity | Mike Joyner, M.D
Some ways to lower your resting heart rate (just searched this up):
I’d look into HRV. If low, work on all the relaxation strategies. An over activated sympathetic or under activated parasympathetic nervous system will make it hard for the HR come down. The intrinsic HR is around 100 bpm (heart cells in a dish). A big strong heart doesn’t need to beat as much at rest (you get from years of cardio exercise), but not enough recovery will keep the HR higher.
Here is the answer from Rhonda Patrick:
Basically the Nordic protocol >90% of max heart rate for four intervals of 4 mins each separated by 3 minute rests.
Brian Johnson mentioned in one of his interviews that his eating window was from 6 am to 12 noon and that he ate in that window because it maximally lowered his RHR. My n=1 is that if I exercise in the am, eat at least 3-4 hours before bed, hydrate, don’t drink alcohol I can maintain a RHR in the 50’s. My typical is in the 60’s at night.
Thanks for this post. I love goals and metrics to hit. I wonder if we can add to this list - grip strength by age, top sprint speed, bp, body fat %, APO-b ? I just turned 60 and can hit 50 RHR on rare days, HRV hit 50’s most days and a calculated V02 max about 45 ( 15.3 x ( max HR/ RHR)
Daily 20 mins of true HIIT would likely lead to higher cortisol levels, eventually causing lots of physical stress and probably burnout. This isn’t a long term lifestyle that most aging individuals can or should adopt. Instead, limit your HIIT to 2-3 times a week and get longer/steadier cardio sessions in between via your favorite method. Yoga, walking, trail hiking, running, biking, swimming, etc…
Be after lifestyle changes and long term gains, not short term peaking. Lots of HIIT will peak whatever base you’re at, until your body gets so physically stressed from cortisol you get injured.
In 20min of exercise I mean like 2 min of 100% heart rate. Not 20 minutes. Lol. Like 5 min warmup, 40 sec @100% then 3 min @60% then back to 40 sec @100% then 3 min @60% then back to 40 sec @100% and then cool down.
Well no, doing 3 40 seconds intervals with 3 min recovery wouldn’t get you anywhere close to 100% max heart rate. The proposed protocol is 4x4 minutes, so 16 minute total, with maybe 3 minutes recovery, a 5-10 min warmup and cool down. Thats quite a tough session, but you probably wont hit 100% during the first 4 min interval, more likely towards the end of the 2nd interval.
Doing this every day would properly be insance, even 2 times a week would be too much. The 80/20 principle is almost universally recognized upon runners: you should do 80% of your training at low, relaxed, "conversational "intensities, i.e. “Zone 2”, and 20% at more demanding intensities. But those souldn’t all be a all-out vo2max interval sessions, but also “threshold”, “tempo” and some short sprint or “repetition” workouts. Recommended percentage of 100% mhr training is typically 5 percent, so if you do this 4x4min workout (16 min total), you should run 320 mins (5h20min) a week. So this would include 80% of easy running – 256 min, let’s say 4 hours – and an additional 50 minutes or so of slower fast running, for exemple 5x10 minutes of “threshold pace” with short recovery intervals, of a big 50 min chunk of marathon pace (tempo) running.
You maybe know “Goodhearts law”: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” (Goodhart's law - Wikipedia)
So, in this case, uniquely targetting VO2max doesn’t seem a good idea to me. Doing a lot of HIIT might increase your VO2 max, but that isn’t all there is to fitness. Endurance, stamina, efficiency all are important too. Your heart must be able to function well at many different intensities, and you don’t want parts of it to hypertropny while others stay underdeveloped (only doing long endurance is bad too); Flexibility and versatily are key ; the ability to easily adapt to different stresses and stressors- very short at very high intensity as well as very long at low intensity, as well as everything in between.
Thanks for this approximation. So with my maxHR at 190 (i sprint a few times a week on a treadmill and that’s the number) and resting HR of 60+/- gives me 48.5 VO2max. This is decent for a 53 yr old who doesn’t really endurance train?
Also, heavy lifting really makes your heart rate and breathing rise as well, like a heavy workout shoukd, so maybe a positive here as well?
HIIT 20 minutes daily is WAY TOO MUCH for an average athlete. Maybe a professional cyclist during his prime can handle two hours of HIIT per week as part of his 20 hours of cycling per week during peaking phase.
Thank you, @RapAdmin. I had it officially tested in-grad school and i was 52 VO2max, so I’ve moved up the percentiles as I’ve gotten older (and actually trained, instead of just backpacking and jogging and drinking beer) assuming your approximation is relatively correct.
My max HR hasnt changed much since i was 24 (it was tested at 193 then and I’ve seen it hit 190 on the treadmill). I dont think i can — or should — get this higher without worrying about heart attacks. I’d guess my RHR has risen as I’ve accumulated the damages of aging. If i can get this down (and my blood pressure, which is “decent” at 110/70 but not amazing for CVD longevity), this would benefit me in higher VO2max and probably a number of other things.
Correct. I am big fan of Stephen Seiler’s work and his 3 zone approach. Zone 1 under AeT, Zone 2 over AeT/under AnT, and Zone 3 over AnT. From his studies the top athletes spent more like 10% of their training in purely Zone 3 (that’s Zone 5-6 for the classic models). Also they have recovery weeks and their training is periodized. High intensity is very powerful but it can also back fire badly if overused.
