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• VO2 Max Is The #1 Most Important Metric For Longevity. Most Are Nowhere Near Good Enough

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Most men at 75 can't walk 18 holes of golf.

And the average 50-year-old reading this is going to be even worse off than their parents' generation.

Let that sink in.

Walking a full round of golf requires a VO2 max of around 40 ml/kg/min to do it comfortably.

That's your body's maximum oxygen uptake. It's the single strongest predictor of how long you live and how well you live.

The average 75-year-old man in the US is nowhere near 40.

Most are sitting at 20 to 25.

And current 75-year-olds are significantly fitter on average than their children will be.

Here's the brutal math.

→ VO2 max declines 8 to 10% per decade after age 30 if you do nothing.
→ Even trained men lose around 5% per decade.
→ So if you need a 40 at 75, you need to be sitting at around 53 at 50.

What does 53 look like in real life?

It means running a 5K in 20 to 22 minutes at age 50. That's 3.1 miles at a 7-minute mile pace.

Anything slower and you're already on a trajectory where golf at 75 isn't a given. It's optimistic.

Your future health isn't being decided at 74. It's being decided by the numbers you're hitting right now.

Here's the regimen I'd build my aerobic base around starting this week:

The Norwegian 4x4 — once per week

This is the most researched interval protocol for VO2 max improvement. One session per week is enough to move the needle significantly.

→ Warm up for 10 minutes at easy pace
→ 4 minutes as hard as you can sustain, target 85 to 95% max heart rate
→ 4 minutes active recovery at easy pace
→ Repeat 4 times
→ Cool down for 5 minutes

Bike or treadmill preferred. Any cardio method works.

This is not comfortable. That's the point. You're training the ceiling, not the floor.

Daily step baseline — non-negotiable

→ 8,000 steps minimum every single day
→ Increase by 20% every two weeks until you're consistently hitting 10,000+
→ Three 10 to 15-minute walks after meals is the easiest way to hit this without blocking calendar time

Steps are zone 1 and 2 work. They build your aerobic base, improve insulin sensitivity, and support recovery between harder sessions. Don't underestimate them because they feel easy.

The weekly structure

→ 1x Norwegian 4x4 interval session
→ 1-2x easy 30 to 45-minute zone 2 cardio sessions (conversational pace)
→ 8,000+ steps every day as the non-negotiable floor

That's the minimum effective dose for protecting and building VO2 max after 40. You don't need more volume than this to move the needle. You need consistency with this.

Age isn't the problem.

Neglect is.

Are you training in your 40s, 50s and 60s like someone who wants to walk the course with their grandkids at 75? Or like someone preparing to ride the cart and watch?

Hit reply and tell me what your current cardio looks like. I read every response personally.

Andrew