Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: The Million-Copy Bestseller

by Peter Attia

start by presenting my patients with a long list of physical tasks that might include some of the following: Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail. Get up off the floor under your own power, using a maximum of one arm for support. Pick up a young child from the floor. Carry two five-pound bags of groceries for five blocks. Lift a twenty-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment of a plane. Balance on one leg for thirty seconds, eyes open. (Bonus points: eyes closed, fifteen seconds.) Have sex. Climb four flights of stairs in three minutes. Open a jar. Do thirty consecutive jump-rope skips. The full list is much longer, with more than fifty different items, but you get the idea. Once they’ve read it I ask them to please select which of these tasks they want to be able to perform in their ninth, or better yet tenth, decade. Which ones do they choose? All of them, typically.