Stopping before you're exhausted, Operating despite sickness & Huberman’s Exercise Protocol

The Stoplight System, Sick in Bangkok & The Importance of Exercise Plans

Happy Sunday!

I’d love your thoughts on a few things before we dive in:

Some housekeeping…

• I plan to use Sunday posts (which paid subscribers get full access to) to share three ideas I’m applying to improve my longevity in the realms of fitness, food, sleep, relationships, mental health, and everything in between. 

• Thursday posts are free for everyone and will continue to be strategy infused personal stories to help us live longer, healthier, and more purposefully.

• Please tell me what you think about this structure by commenting on this post or replying to this email. Don’t be shy to give me honest feedback — I want Longevity Minded to be the most valuable resource it can be for you. 

Now let’s get into it.

Here are this week’s three simple, practical, and actionable strategies to be a little healthier and more resilient in life…

Stop Before You’re Exhausted

A key to consistency is stopping before you’re exhausted. 

There will be times when you want to, or have to, redline it and push yourself beyond exhaustion. But most of the time you engage in a habit should be practice. Doing enough to improve but not so much that you want to quit. 

Paradoxically, pushing yourself too hard too often results in worse results than just consistently doing enough of what needs to be done each day over the long term. 

Take Zone 2 cardio for example. Low-intensity Zone 2 training should comprise 80% of your cardiovascular training as it’s critical to building a foundation of strong aerobic health. Zone 3 training feels much harder than Zone 2 yet is referred to as a “garbage zone” because you’re going too hard to improve mitochondrial health and build an aerobic base but not hard enough to improve your VO2 max or high-intensity short-duration endurance.

The Stoplight System

To gauge intensity in exercise or any habit you want to consistently repeat, think of your effort on The Stoplight System: green, yellow, red. 

Green is practising. Putting in the reps. Showing up each day. Getting a little better. Green light should be 80% of your training.