👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #89 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4.5 min read):
🏃 Fitness benchmarks for quality of life
Cardio fitness and strength are two of the biggest indicators of a quality life—free of disease, with more energy and ability to do the things we love, longer.
But how much exercise do we have to do to get these benefits?
There are measly government guidelines like 150 minutes a week.
Or more aggressive numbers from leading health experts like 300 minutes a week.
But as Dr Peter Attia points out, we’re asking the wrong question.
Because 30 minutes spent dicking around the gym, scrolling socials, without much intent is very different to 30 minutes of punching the clock, super setting compound exercises with good form, going 1-2 reps shy of failure on each set.
So the inputs (e.g. time spent training) aren’t that helpful.
Rather, we wanna look at outputs (our level of cardio fitness and strength).
Then we can determine if what we're doing is working, or if we need to up our game.
Peter Attia’s benchmark for this stuff is a pretty good yardstick: be in the top 5% for cardio fitness and strength for your age and gender (which I’m guessing is a pretty accurate goal for most people reading this).
But obviously, the better quality of life we want, the more/better we have to train for it.
So how do we measure our strength and cardio fitness?
The following are the metrics Dr Peter Attia uses with his patients. And fair warning, it may trigger anyone with high school beep test demons.
🫁 VO2 Max (measure of cardio fitness)
1. The Cooper test: run as far as you can in 12 minutes
People swear by it. And at it.
It sucks. But it works.
Plug your distance into a calculator and you’ll get a pretty good indicator of your VO2 max.
Then, you can use the grid below to see where you’re at for your age and gender.
Top 5% = Elite
(you can also use your resting heart rate to determine your VO2 max but it's not as accurate).
💪 Strength
1. Dead hang: hang on a bar for as long as you can
Top 5% = women: 1.5 mins, men: 2 mins
2. Farmers walk: carry 75% of your body weight (or 100% for men) for as long as you can
Top 5% = 1 min
3. Broad jump: jump as far as you can from a standing position
Top 5% = your height (e.g. 6ft person can jump 6ft)
4. Step downs: step down off an 18 inch (45 cm) box as slow as you can
Top 5% = at least 3 second descent
Now we've got a more specific direction than "150 minutes a week".
And can tailor our training accordingly (plenty of ideas in the cardio prescription, the strength training handbook, and anti-glycolytic training).
Focus on results, not just hours spent moving.
Measure progress with VO2 Max via the Cooper Test (or resting heart rate), and strength through dead hangs, farmer's walks, broad jumps, and slow step-downs.
And train for the quality of life you want.
📱 Spren is now free
Just like our strength and cardio, optimising our body fat and muscle mass are also critical to optimising our health.
But scales can't tell the whole story.
Spren is a reliable body scanner you can do in 5 mins at home.
It uses your smartphone camera and AI to give a breakdown of your muscle and fat makeup. Like having a Dexa scan (with 97% accuracy) in your pocket.
When I first mentioned Spren back in newsletter #65, it was $23/month. The body scan tool is now part of the free plan.
So if you wanna track and improve your body comp, try it here.
🚣 Rower resistance
There's a good chance anyone who’s spent time in a competitive team sports environment will also have spent a significant amount of time on a rowing machine — most likely as a punishment.
Crank the resistance to 10 and pump out 500m as fast as you can.
Though that last sentence should probably be in all caps with an exclamation mark, because that’s how the instruction was usually delivered.
Also usually delivered, an incredible amount of lower back pain.
Poor technique, I thought.
Turns out the problem may have been less to do with my technique, and more to do with the unquestioned expectation of setting the resistance to its max…
Time to meet Lizzy Carson.
She’s a former CrossFit Games competitor, holds a handful of world records on the Concept2 indoor rower, and now teaches rowing seminars.
Here’s what she has to say about it (note: “the damper” is the resistance):
“I would say 85 to 90% of people should have the damper at the 1 setting no matter what. Usually, if I find someone who comes into my facility and sets the damper up to 8 or 9, that usually means that they have no experience with rowing. If somebody has a damper setting of 3 or 4, then chances are they really know how to row.
The damper setting is the amount of wind resistance that you allow into the flywheel, and it's controlled by the damper on the side. Ten is maximal wind resistance, and most people's form will break down at such a high setting. If a 300-pound man is going for a world record of 500 meters or less, and they've been rowing for a really long time, and their form is good, then they might be able to get away with it. But for most people, it’s not going to yield a great result.
Most people accidentally set the damper too high because they just have no idea what it does.”
I feel called out.
So the high resistance cooks our form, decreases our performance and increases our chance of injury.
Keep the damper low. And if you're interested, plenty more technical rowing tips in this article with her.
👋 Want more? Join the wait list for my fitness studio/online coaching program at Hexa Life (or follow along here)
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service and is not a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information given in this email is general in nature, written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
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