My Centenarian Decathlon Plan

How to fight frailty with fitness: training for Independence Day 2062

I will live to 100. I set this goal last year, when I turned 50. We marked the occasion with a family trip to Hawaii. My 80-year-old mom came over from Germany and delightedly joined us in all of our adventures, including snorkeling with turtles. She’s an inspiration–flourishing and loving life. I intend to follow in her path. No midlife crisis for me. Instead—a halfway celebration! 

My mom at age 80 on top of Mount Haleakala in Hawaii

For a 50-year-old in excellent health, living to 100 isn’t a pipe dream. It’s a goal, and a realistic one at that. Or so at least thinks Northwestern Mutual: their 13-question online longevity calculator predicts I’ll live to 100. (Ok: self-serving—they want to sell me financial products!) A recent article in the Wall Street Journal similarly highlights statistics that show 50-year-old women today in excellent health have a better than 25% chance of living to 97 (and 10% to 102!). 

So living to 100 is now my goal: I bet I can join the centenarian club! To increas my odds, I’m following lots of tips from Dr. Peter Attia, whose podcast on longevity I’ve been listening to for about two years. In his new book Outlive he lays out strategies and practical tactics to, well, “outlive”.

Outlive means living long and living well. It means exceeding the expected lifespan and health span. For me, it means traveling, being outdoors with my kids (and their kids and grandkids!), being intellectually active, and, most of all, being independent and strong, all the way to my marginal decade–the last decade before I die, which according to my plan will be my 10th decade. 

Outliving means being a kick-ass centenarian. The catch? You have to train for it, by competing in what Dr. Attia calls the Centenarian Decathlon.

It’s a cool concept: you figure out what your ideal life looks like at age 90 or 100. You identify a dozen or so things you want to be able to do to feel fully alive. Then you backcast from there to actively train for it. You resolve to fight off frailty with fitness.

Here’s my vision: It’s July 4th, 2062. I’m 90 years old, and I’m camping with my family in the Eastern Sierras. I’ve spent the afternoon walking along Convict Lake with my grandchildren, squatting down several times to look at bugs and flowers. Now it’s evening time, and the sun is painting the granite mountains in a warm glow–my favorite time to take photos. I’m cooking dinner outside for my family of 17, pouring water from a 2-gallon water can into the pot. I lift my great-granddaughter off from a tree stump and carry her over to the bench for dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll be going kayaking with my daughter, but first I’ll crawl into my Bean teardrop trailer for a good night’s sleep.

Photo credit: Bean Trailer

My teenagers think I’m crazy. My active, healthy husband, who is 10 years older than me, chuckles that I’ll be on my own for that journey. I smile at their skepticism: it’s my life and it’s my flourishing final decade I’m preparing for now. 

And prepare we must: a day camping seems like no big deal today at age 50. But how many 90-year-old grandmas have you seen trotting two miles around a lake, over rocks and roots, and at 4,000’ altitude no less? How many gray-haired great-grandmas have you seen squat on the ground with their great-grandkids to examine a tiny black obsidian rock fragment to see if it’s an ancient arrowhead? How many people in their 90s do you know who wouldn’t struggle to carry a gallon of water or two from a pump to a picnic table to do camping dishes?

I bet not many! And that’s no surprise: Without planning, fitness declines precipitously as we age. We lose 5-7% of our aerobic capacity each decade, and 5-8% of muscle strength—starting in our 30s or 40s; a decline that accelerates as life goes on*. 

Fortunately, fading fitness is not fate. With the right training program it’s possible to slow the per-decade decline by about half, reducing both the loss of muscle strength and aerobic performance to 2-4% per decade. Writes Attia:

By age eighty, the average person will have lost eight kilograms of muscle, or about eighteen pounds, from their peak. But people who maintain higher activity levels lose much less muscle, more like three or four kilograms on average.

I’m following a version of the training plan for longevity that Dr. Attia outlines in Outlive, a plan which systematically targets four areas:  

• Stability - walking over rocks and roots without falling or climbing into a kayak

• Strength - carrying large water cans from the pump or lifting up a toddler

• Aerobic performance - walking a mile or two at altitutde without getting exhausted

• Anaerobic output - chasing after a toddler who is heading for danger

Improving fitness in these areas drastically increases longevity. Take aerobic performance, measured by VO2 Max, your body’s maximum ability to utilize oxygen. In Outlive, Dr. Attia quotes a 2022 study that shows that “someone in the least fit 20% has a 4.09 times greater risk of dying than a person in the top 2% of their age and sex category.” Another study shows that “poor cardiorespiratory fitness carries a greater relative risk of death than smoking.” Muscle strength has a similar impact: “Subjects with low muscle strength were at double the risk of death.” It’s no surprise that this chapter in Outlive is titled Exercise: The Most Powerful Longevity Drug! 

A good Centenarian Decathlon training program covers all four areas. So that’s what I’m working on! I used to just run to stay fit, mostly slower, longer jogs listening to podcasts. Now, after resolving to outlive, I’ve added in twice weekly free weight circuit sessions of an hour each; these sessions combine stability and strength. I’m also running fast, at 90%+ of my maximum heart rate, on at least one of my weekly 3-4 runs.

A typical weight workout at my gym

Training for the Centenarian Decathlon has made my exercising more varied and purposeful. Maybe most importantly, it’s given me a clear, long-term goal—one that’s much more personally meaningful than looking good in a dress on date night or even running a sub-two-hour half marathon.

When I’m tired in the morning and tempted to stay in bed, I call up my Independence Day 2062 vision. I feel the delight of being in the outdoors with the people I love—and it’s suddenly worth it to put on my workout clothes and hop on my e-bike to ride the six miles to the gym. I’m off to train for the Centenarian Decathlon. I’m off to outlive.

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* See Outlive chapter 11, Exercise: The Most Powerful Longevity Drug, for sources and details. It’s may favorite chapter in this outstanding book!