Death is Inevitable, Decline is Inevitable, But RATE of Decline is in Our Control.

🚗 Yesterday’s long drive consisted of this podcast…

It was pretty fascinating (and fully-fact-checked✔️)

I dedicated the best part of two hours to this, and the best part of an hour pulling stats and writing this post - I hope you’ll dedicate 5 minutes to reading 🙏🏾

Here are just a few of my key takeaways 👇🏻

Firstly, a couple of quotes from the podcast;

- “Death is inevitable, decline is inevitable, but RATE of decline is in our control”

- “Training for the aging process is like investing in a pension. It’s never too late to start, but you’ll ALWAYS wish you had started earlier”

- “No pensioner has ever said “I wish I was less strong and less fit””

Let’s talk specifics, and stats 👇🏻

🫁 🫀 VO₂ max

This is the measure of your cardiorespiratory fitness - essentially how well your heart, lungs and muscles use oxygen during exercise. According to Dr Peter Attia (Doctor, longevity specialist, and data obsessive), it’s the most powerful predictor of all-cause mortality.

Some quick stats that hit me hard:

- Moving from the lowest fitness category to just below average reduces your risk of death by 50%

- Being in the top 5% for fitness levels (VO₂ max) results in a fivefold lower risk of death.

- The benefits of improving your VO₂ max outweigh stopping smoking, lowering blood pressure, or reducing cholesterol (these things are not to be underrated)

You don’t need to be an athlete to reap the rewards. Just moving out of the “unfit” zone creates huge changes in your health trajectory.

💪 🏋🏻‍♀️ Then there’s muscle—another major pillar for longevity.

Peter refers to muscle mass and strength as “retirement savings” for your body. Not for aesthetics, but because:

- Muscle helps you recover from injury and illness

- Muscle supports metabolic health and insulin sensitivity (helping keep body fat at bay)

- Higher strength in later life equates to lower risk of falls, frailty and early death

In his words:

“You want to be the 80-year-old who can get off the floor unaided and carry your own suitcase - not just survive.”

So if you’re training now, or thinking about getting started - just know that it’s never too late, and always worth it.

Train for your future. Invest in your health. Your older self will thank you.

(And if you’re curious, I highly recommend giving this podcast a listen.)