The health project part 1

What does being healthy mean? Its easier to define what is not healthy: sickness, auto-immune disease, etc. Could we then say that being healthy means being free of problems? What if you are free of problems, but don’t practice vigorous activity and wouldn’t be able to? I guess this wouldn’t matter if you can do your daily activity, but having a good cardio-vascular system helps with living longer.

Being healthy could mean that we should have a sustainable state to enjoy all our preferred activities for as long as biologically possible.

I plan on living past my 100s birthday while maintaining great autonomy. In this article, I will brainstorm what health means to me to come up with measurable objectives to implement in the next months 😄

When I think about health these terms come to mind:

But also sustainable habits, good nutrition and (lack of) soreness, cramps, headache, etc.

We can regroup most in these terms in theme:

• Strength
• Endurance & Speed
  • BPM, Frequency
• Sleep
  • Energy, Mental clarity
• Nutrition
  • Good digestion, Stable Energy

Plan for each theme

Strength

• Progressive overload
• Create a plan for a full-body workout
• Print a progression table for each of my exercises to see progression in weight lifting
• Do at least 5 min training every day (1 hard set for each group)
  • Like brushing teeth this should be normal hygiene
• Reduce alcohol (alcohol is bad for hormones that promote muscle growth)

What to track: Bench press, squat and deadlift progression. The number of pull-ups.

Other metrics: Different measures of my anatomy and pictures

North star: Defined back muscle, defined arm and abs

Measurable goals

• Bench press to a plate & 25 lb — 185 lb

• Squat to two plates — 225 lb

• Deadlift (good technique) 2 Plates — 225 lb

Tracked through progression table

Endurance and Speed

• Interval training
• Biking to the climbing gym - At least once per week
• One 5k run per week
• Going for longer bike rides and hiking

What to track: Speed and distance in runs and bike rides. Frequency of training. BPM of heart

North star: Greatly improve my stamina and reduce my resting heart rate

Measurable goals

• 30 km/h average bike ride to gym
• 4:20 km/min run
• bike: avg 28-30km/h for more at least 30 km

Tracked through Strava

Sleep

• Stop watching TV and turn off any bright lights 2 hours before heading to bed.
• Relax routine before sleep
  • Listening to relaxing music, reading a book, taking a hot bath, meditating, deep breathing, and visualization
• Regular sleep times
• Optimize environment (cool, quiet, pitch black)
• Stop drinking 1–2 hours before going to bed
• Go to bed only when you’re sleepy
• If you wake up and can’t fall back to sleep within 20 minutes or so, get out of bed

Measurable goals

• Stop waking up in the middle of the night
• Get a better Fitbit score
• Get longer deep sleep times
• Jump out of the bed in the morning

Other objectives

Resting heart rate: Currently around 52. I would like to bring it around 45 through cardio and possibly Wim Hoff breathing exercises and cold showers. TBD

Nutrition is a whole topic by itself, but I will try a strict carnivore diet again. To be discussed in another post!

Wish me good luck with my ambitious health goals and let me know what are yours!