Named Protocol
A list of physical tasks you want to still be able to perform in your last decade, worked backwards into what you train today. Attia's own list runs to picking up a 30 lb child from a squat, a 30-second dead hang, and a VO2 max above 30. His starting prescription is three hours a week across four pillars.
The tasks are Attia's alone. The training underneath them is where the rest of the panel has spoken, and the sharpest split is on the high-intensity share: Rhonda Patrick's read of the research is that about 40% of people get no VO2 max improvement from moderate work at all, and 20 to 30 minutes is the entire high-intensity allocation in a three-hour week.
2 backed by another expert · 1 nobody else has addressed
What Attia trains
Zone 2 1 hour a week to startsteady aerobic work you can still hold a conversation through. It takes 80% of his own cardio time once he is past the beginner three hours.
Backed by the panelWhat the rest of the panel says
What Attia trains
Strength 1 hour a week to startscored on where your muscle mass ends up rather than on sessions attended. He wants patients at or above the 75th percentile for ALMI, the arm-and-leg muscle measure off a DEXA scan.
Backed by the panelWhat the rest of the panel says
What Attia trains
VO2 max 20-30 minutes a weeklonger intervals rather than short HIIT bursts, across one or two sessions. This is the pillar the panel argues about.
DisputedWhat the rest of the panel says
What Attia trains
Stability 10 minutes a day, 6 days a weekbreathing, scapular work, cat-cow. He says an hour in one block is worse than ten minutes daily, because the point is the neurological pattern.
No one else has weighed inWhat the rest of the panel says
No one else has weighed in on this one.
See what the other experts said
Every line checked against the panel. Verbatim quotes, timestamped to the second, deep-linked to the tape.
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The list Attia reads out in episode 261. He says he keeps several of these, and that some entries already push the bounds of what he can do today, which is the point of writing them for your 80s.
Reading the list off his own sheet, with the loads attached · 2023-07-10
“place a 30 lb suitcase overhead strength also Mobility dead hang for 30 seconds strength and stability Farmer Walk for for 1 minute with 25% of body weight in each hand”▸ Peter Attia, on the record @ 08:48
The one task with a lab number on it · 2023-07-10
“produce a V2 Max above 30 milliliters per minute per kilogram”▸ Peter Attia, on the record @ 10:35
The minimum effective dose, if three hours a week is all you have · 2023-07-10
“if you only had three hours a week to commit to this you know I think you'd have to put probably an hour of that into steady state aerobic training zone two I think you'd have to put an hour of that into strength training”▸ Peter Attia, on the record @ 30:22
Why stability gets split across the week instead of blocked · 2023-07-10
“you're better off doing 10 minutes a day six days a week”▸ Peter Attia, on the record @ 31:22
A list of physical tasks you want to still be able to do in the last decade of your life, used backwards as the specification for what you train now. Attia's version has about 18 entries, from picking up a 30 lb child off the floor to producing a VO2 max above 30.
Picking up a 30 lb child from a squat, a 30-second dead hang, a farmer carry for 1 minute with a quarter of your body weight in each hand, three miles in an hour on foot, 20 lb up four flights of stairs, treading water for 10 minutes, and a hex bar deadlift of your body weight for 5 reps, among others. The full list is on this page.
Four pillars. If three hours a week is all you have, Attia puts an hour into zone 2, an hour into strength, 20 to 30 minutes into longer high-intensity intervals, and the remaining 30 to 40 minutes into stability at 10 minutes a day.
Above 30 ml/kg/min, which Attia says buys you the ability to walk up a 6% grade at 3 miles an hour. Worth knowing that this is his target for your final decade, not a floor for today: the figure given on Huberman's channel for a man now is 35.
The task list is Attia's own and nobody else has taken a position on it. The training underneath it is checkable, and one of the four pillars is genuinely contested. The line-by-line check is on this page for Pro members.
Educational synthesis of what these experts said on video, not medical advice.