Longevity medicine expert and physician Dr. Peter Attia believes cardiovascular fitness can be improved at any age. In a recent YouTube video, he examined a study between two age groups who implemented aerobic exercise and found that both were able to dramatically improve their fitness with a six-week training program.
Having collaborated with other masterminds of health like Dr. Rhonda Patrick and neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Attia has become widely respected in the fitness industry. Not only does he break down extremely complex topics into understandable lessons, but he also applies the knowledge he has acquired, sharing his best practices for optimal living.
Regardless of age, Dr. Attia believes you can improve your cardiovascular fitness — and the best part — it doesn’t have to take that long. In less than two months, you too can reap the benefits of an aerobic workout program as illustrated by his deep dive into an important study.
Dr. Peter Attia Breaks Down How Cardiovascular Fitness Can Be Improved At Any Age
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Attia believes aerobic capacity and strength are just as malleable as cognition.
“I think you can make the case that the physical system, so aerobic capacity, strength, is even more malleable than our cognitive systems and we know that our cognitive systems are quite malleable. There was a study that did a six-week aerobic exercise training program to assess changes in Vo2 max, oxygen consumption of course, work load, and endurance.”
Taking a closer look at the study in question, Attia examined individuals who stuck to a six-week aerobic training program. One group averaged 80 years old whereas the other group averaged 24 years old. What made the results so astounding was the fact that both showed significant improvement to their Vo2 max by the tune of 13%. On top of that, both groups displayed a 34% improvement in maximal workload.
“Now, in the older group, these people averaged 80 years of age, in the younger group, the people averaged 24 years of age.
In both groups, there was about a 13% improvement in Vo2 max, a 34% improvement in maximal workload, so that’s basically how many watts could you hit, and then a 2.4-fold improvement in endurance capacity.”
He does note that the 24-year-olds had much higher levels than their counterparts.
“I found this staggering. And I would not have predicted this prior to seeing this study. Now, of course I want people to understand that the absolute levels of all of these things were significantly higher in the 24 year olds, that’s a given. They put out more watts, they have a higher Vo2 max, etc.”
Given that both groups improved dramatically, Dr. Peter Attia says that supports the idea that cardiovascular fitness can be achieved regardless of age.
“What we’re talking about here is the malleability of the system. What we’re talking about here is how much could individuals improve in six weeks.
The answer is they both improved dramatically and I should point out something else. This particular study followed the six-week training cycle that I just described with an 8-week de-conditioning period.”
Lastly, Dr. Attia underlined that the older you were in this study, the quicker you lost those gains after the six-week training program.
“What’s worth pointing out here is that the older group declined much faster than the younger group. So, both groups were able to see significant gains but the older you were, the quicker you lost those gains with inactivity,” said Dr. Attia.
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Gaining and retaining muscle mass remains a top priority for Attia and his colleagues. As of late, Dr. Patrick detailed her four ‘most important players’ for building muscle. She believes protein intake, resistance training, Omega-3s, and heat are all essential to ensuring growth over time.
Although it’s more challenging to hold on to muscle as we age, Dr. Peter Attia stresses that cardiovascular improvements are well within our reach. The study he provided also shows how effective a simple aerobic six-week training routine can be for people of varying fitness levels.
Watch the full video from the Dr. Attia MD YouTube channel below:
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