Want to Live For a Decade More?
Exercise has the greatest influence to shape how we will live out the rest of your lives. Peter Attia’s book Outlive illuminates why daily exercise can do this. It’s what I think about on an unmotivated Tuesday morning when I’d rather be doing 80 other things than going to the gym. Yet I remember Attia’s words, and voila, I lift or run,.
The supreme benefit of exercise is that it extends healthspan — the part of life when we are free from disability or disease. If two hours of exercise a week can give us roughly two decades more healthspan, I take that trade.
If we neglect exercise — as is so easy to do — we’ll suffer 10–20 years earlier than those who exercise. Memorably, Attia tells the tale of a friend’s mom, Sophie, who in her early 70s underwent a steep physical decline that began when she slipped and fell while gardening, tearing a muscle in her shoulder. That soon escalated into back pain so severe that she could no longer garden or play golf, her two primary passions. She sat around the house, feeling depressed. This led to a descent into dementia in the last couple of years of her life, before she died of a respiratory infection at age 83. She had spent the last decade of her life being unable to participate in any of the activities that had given her pleasure.
