The centenarian decathlon: list what you want to do at the end of life, then work backwards to today
What is Peter Attia’s centenarian decathlon?
The finding
Attia backcasts from the end of life: the things you want to do at 100, what that requires at 80, at 60, and today. He groups the work into four pillars: stability, strength, aerobic performance and anaerobic output.
- Authors
- Attia P
- Published
- peterattiamd.com, "How to train for the Centenarian Decathlon" (AMA #05, 22 April 2019; page dated 18 Jan 2022) · 2019
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- peterattiamd.com/how-to-train-for-the-centenarian-decathlon/
How it was studied
A personal planning framework described by its author. Tagged [A] as an accurate description of what he says; the framework itself has not been tested.
The numbers
His example tasks include getting up off the floor with a single point of support, picking up a 30 lb child from a squat, lifting 30 lb overhead into a bin, getting out of a pool without a ladder, and walking up three flights of stairs with 10 lb of groceries in each hand. He says it makes more sense to focus on the framework than on his own list, because people differ.
In podcast #261 (10 July 2023) he defines "the marginal decade" as the last decade of your life: the decade the age-85 goals are meant to protect.
What it does not show
No trial has tested backcasting or Attia’s task targets. The tasks and numbers are his own judgment.
What Longstanding does with it
The app is built on this idea, with 85 as the line age. Several of its sixteen goals adapt Attia’s tasks; their targets are our judgment, and the test pages on this site say, goal by goal, which targets sit near a published number and which do not.
Related
- Ageing erodes physiological safety margins towards the thresholds for impaired mobilityYoung A · 1997
- The minimum aerobic capacity for independent living at 85 was estimated at about 18 (men) and 15 (women) mL/kg/minPaterson DH · 1999; 2014
- In the same people over time, VO₂max decline speeds up: 3–6% per decade in the 20s, over 20% from the 70sFleg JL · 2005