The centenarian decathlon, introduced by longevity expert Dr Peter Attia, provides a framework for reverse engineering your aging and focusing on healthspan AND lifespan. It can also serve as an excellent thought experiment and practical guide for physical goals.
The question is fairly simple. Assuming you reach 100, what are the ten tasks you would like to still be able to do?
This could be anything! Wanna drink strawberry wine in a rocking chair reminiscing about When we were young ? Put it on the list. Running against the wind through The Suburbs as you blow past other 64 year old Beatles. Check, check and check!!
You could put the practical stuff there too I guess, and lots of ppl will have overlap there. Picking up grandkids, traveling and getting off the john banos without assistance always make a lot of lists.
In the early 2023 CD 100 YHC surveyed the pax the day before the beatdown and so we ended up working on our golf swings, pro creation movements and throwing lazer tight Uncle Rico spirals to our great grand kids. Nothing wrong with these. But this year YHC wanted to look at it from a bit more morbid standpoint and so asked a few patients (some much closer to the real CD) what they miss doing the most in the the 7th , 8th, and 9th decades of life. We would take that list as our decathlon and sprinkle a few musical memory recall tests in for the aging llama neurons.
Duke! put down that geritol and get your Medicare part D(og) card!
Roll the footage!
7 Depaxthletes were ready to roll at the Den but just needed a Q!
Ya hate to see it.
YHC came in flaming on two wheels at a prompt 5:17a.
The lemon truck continues to need intensive care and while grateful for the bum truck it does take a little sweet talking to get rolling in 33 degree gloom.
Safety valve provided what I’m sure was sheer terror from the pax of a possible substitute danger valve q that prolly involved suicides and rhabdo but YHC rescued them mid warm up and we got to it.
Average age of pax present was 40.7 years so if we make it to 100 we have 60 more years of physical decline. The idea is we need to train now to be ahead of that drop off. So if you want to lift a cute warm, giggling 20 lb baby one time then it only makes sense for you to lift a much less cute 40 pound ice cold unforgiving coupon 100 times. Theres complicated math imbedded with rates of muscle decay and dietary intake but for simplicity sake we’ll just let Ronnie cook those books later.
Tha Thang
Complete 10 reps of exercise and add one exercise each round with a lap in between. While running a civic center lap we would try to guess the artist of a few “memory or aging adjacent” songs.
YHC just forgot one tiny little wrinkle that once you get an answer correct you would be eliminated from the potential pax that can guess (or if your Popeye then Guess is just a jeans fad, he has facts only.)
YHC had been tinkering with ways to humble our musical elite and went to bed quite pleased with the potential anguish of only one neutralized pax knowing Arcade Fire while the rest said dumb stuff like Kings of Leon. But again I caution future Qs , if you bring a layup into this Den be prepared for Bruce Mutombo and Shaq Royster to swat it into the rafters and look disappointed you didn’t try harder.
Decathlon:
#1. Getting out of bed
10 Coupon BBSU
#2. Get off the toilet without assistance – 10 butt to coupon jump squats
#3. Load grocery’s – 10 Curls
#4 Pickup Great Grandkids –
10 Thrusters
#5 Dance- 10 Apollo Ohnos
#6. Open a Jar – coupon side carry down and back on middle grip
#7Cut the grass – Coupon cranks
YHC skipped to # 10 as a burpee finisher…
Eating solid food -10 burpees
***Ones we didn’t get to ;
Maybe next year.
#8Getting up from chair –
10 goblet squats
#9 the marital embrace –
10 Coupon wife pleasers
The Songs
“I don’t need your rocking chair”
– George Jones
“Running Against the Wind”
-Bob Seger
“When we were Young”
-Adele
“Glory Days”
-Bruce Springsteen
“Strawberry Wine”
-Deana Carter
“When I’m 64”
-the Beatles
Notes:
– YHCs new tactic wasn’t a complete failure as the Pax had 1-2 penalties when the group dwindled.
– George Jones is pure poetry.
– ABs commentary on Springsteen knowledge equaling US citizenship made the laps melt away .
– YHC did not have the heart to let a solo pax wildly guess at the Beatles after HoneySuckles recent Beatledown anthology so I figured that was a soft toss.
– Ronnie took a great guess at Martina McBride and AB let his 90s country weaknesses show out there for any aspiring trivia Qs.
All together we picked up about 70 40 lb great grandkids, got off the John a few times and remembered a glory day or two.
Naming and counting then some healthy lines were drawn in the sand between trawlers and WHAPS for the upcoming RCR contest.
Wrapped up with big time prayers for Yote and the Goose nest.
HS prayed us out.
Thanks to the gang for sticking around to find my bum truck keys!
America’s Best appropriately suggested that keen eye sight might need to be part of the cent decathlon next year.
Here’s a Dox of Chocolates
Sit down some time with a post-it note or even some spare certified coast guard letter head. Ask yourself the above question and then I challenge you to build your own unique centenarian decathlon. This can be a guidepost for helping us tailor our physical training and for allowing our health span to stay on course with our lifespan.
But wait , there’s more.
Look at the list again and consider some harder yet inescapable truths.
One day you’ll get up from the toilet unassisted for the last time. (Hopefully after reading a thoroughly good blast)
One day you will throw your child in the air for the last time.
One day you may twirl your M in the kitchen for the very last dance.
Get out of bed, Hike a trail, open a jar of pickles…you get it…At some point you will do every single thing on your list for the very last time and most likely not even know it.
Considering the value of these events later in life is impactful but what if we flip the timeline back to the present.
Seeing the gift in each moment as it comes and that God has provided us the means to be in the present.
And if we can do that then maybe Springsteen was wrong.
Maybe these ARE the glory days.
Run against today’s winds.
Reject tommorows rocking chair.
And make sure you can taste the strawberries along the way.
Grateful for an opportunity to lead you fellas.
SYITG
Dox
