The evidence, written plainly.
Short pieces on the studies behind each rule in the plan, and on the claims the category makes that the evidence doesn't support. Every number carries a named source.
Zone 2 or VO2 max first? How to split your cardio minutes
Athletes keep about four in five cardio minutes easy. You don't have an athlete's week. What the split evidence says about spending 60, 90, or 150 minutes.
RPE, translated: what “listen to your body” actually means
“Listen to your body” is useless advice until someone hands you the dictionary. RPE is the dictionary: a 1-to-10 scale anchored to reps you can count.
Training for the decades: the four capabilities worth programming for
Abs are a twelve-week goal. Being able at 70 is a program. The four capabilities the mortality data keeps pointing at — and how a normal week can hold all of them.
How to build a workout routine around the time you actually have
Most plans start with the training and hope the calendar cooperates. This one starts with the minutes you can defend, then buys the best training they afford.
VO2 max: the number that decides what you can do at 70
Your aerobic ceiling, in one number: what it is in plain language, where you stand by decade, how to estimate it without a lab — and how hard it tracks with the long game.
Power fades twice as fast as strength
Strength is how much you can lift. Power is whether you catch the kid coming off the couch — and it leaves first.
Bad knees is not a diagnosis
The evidence on running, quad strength, and stairs points the same direction: the joint that gets loaded is the joint that lasts. What the avoidance actually costs.
The bad-back protocol: train around it, not through it
Most back pain has no identifiable culprit, scans of pain-free adults look alarming, and the evidence keeps pointing at movement. A plan for the week your back goes out.
Carrying your kid is training: the loaded-carry math
The energy cost of hauling a toddler, measured by the same science that studies soldiers under rucksacks — and why the carry is the most dad-compatible conditioning there is.
The floor test: get up without your hands
Sit down on the floor, stand back up, count what you touched on the way. One number tracks with survival over the next decade — and everything it flags is trainable.
Grip strength: the longevity number you can test in a doorway
One squeeze of a dynamometer tracks with lifespan more strongly than blood pressure does. The norms by age and sex, the honest truth about dead-hang standards, and how grip gets trained by accident.
Muscle after 40: how fast it goes, and the minimum that keeps it
The drift is measured, and the floor is cheap: what the sarcopenia literature says about loss per decade — and the smallest weekly dose with a documented effect.
The weekly set budget: how many sets actually build muscle
Sets per muscle per week is the currency of growth. The floor, the solid-return zone, and the line where extra sets turn to junk.
10,000 steps is marketing: the number that matters
The target came from a business slogan, not a trial. Where the mortality curves actually bend — and why steps are a floor, not a goal.
Light or heavy: what rep ranges actually change
Near failure, light and heavy build the same muscle. Heavy buys one specific thing. The zone is wider than the feed sells.
Losing fat and building muscle at the same time: the recomp math
Recomposition is documented, not myth. The deficit line, the protein lever, and who actually gets the friendly math.
Zone 2, translated: the minimum dose of easy cardio
Conversational pace, counted in minutes. The weekly target, the dose-response curve, and why your mouth beats your watch.
20-minute dumbbell sessions that actually progress
Three moves, three days, one pair of dumbbells — and a progression rule that survives your worst week.