Good morning. It’s Friday, February 28th.

In today’s email:

• Learn: Rethink Your Workout Plan

• Listen: Live Longer and Better

• In the News: Healthness?

• Brain Games: Kyudoku

I was a guest on the “Home of Healthspan” podcast this week.

Check it out on: Apple | Spotify 

Stat of the Day

The increased effectiveness of boosting mitochondria and their function from doing high intensity exercise, compared to just Zone 2 or endurance exercise. (NIH Study)

Learn

Rethink Your Workout Plan

I just finished my first running race in a long time.

I didn’t train at all for it and it was just 5 miles - but wow it felt good to go “fast” again.

There’s such a high when the adrenaline kicks in at the start of the race when you hear the national anthem surrounded by thousands of other runners ready to get after it.

The day couldn’t have been better - 65° morning without a cloud in the sky as I ran along the water.

My lungs were calling out as I pushed a pace that I hadn’t hit during my morning solo runs in forever. My feet moved faster and faster - it was creating such a high that I kept pushing harder, despite the discomfort.

Zone 2 Exercise

Most of the time when we work out it’s in Zone 2. This scale refers to the level of intensity from 1-5.

Zone 2 is technically 60-70% of our max heart rate - it’s when we can continue to hold a conversation, but maybe not too easily.

Basically you can run or bike with a friend.

The benefits of Zone 2 are immense:

• Mental health - it’s a sweet spot when our brain releases endorphins, those neurotransmitters that make us feel good.

• Cognitive health - our brain produces more brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) proteins that promote more brain cells. It’s why I find the best solutions to a problem when I go out for a sweaty run.

• Heart health - at this level our body is burning fat as its source of fuel. The more fat stored on our body that is burned, the more we prevent the build up of glucose in our blood vessels and insulin resistance.

Maybe the best part - zone 2 workouts aren’t intimidating. You can kind of take it easy - and you don’t have a long recovery so you can do it again tomorrow. 

But here’s the key - you shouldn’t ONLY do Zone 2 workouts.

New research shows that we need to do more intense workouts too.

Getting close to max heart rate (Zone 4 and 5) is more efficient for optimizing our mitochondria. These are our little powerhouses. Every cell has tons of them - they take in our fuel (food + oxygen) and turn it into energy.

So it’s incredibly important to do more high intensity workouts and sprint interval training.

To get the most benefit - do it more often. The top results were from the people in the study who had the highest frequency of high intensity - doing more of these workouts (6 > 4 > 2 sessions/week) is better!

This can feel daunting - especially if you’re not someone who does sprints right now. But those are exactly the people that get the most benefit from even the shortest high intensity workouts.

Just 1 minute of fast jump rope or a few sets of jogging for 2-3 minutes and sprinting for 30-60 seconds can make a huge difference. The best part is that it doesn’t take a lot of time.

80% of exercise can still be in Zone 2 - but that other 20% really matters.

You’re an athlete - don’t be afraid to go all out and show yourself what you can do.

The New Smoking?

A new study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine just stated that:

The research showed that women who got the most sunlight live longer than those that mostly avoid the sun.

If you’re thinking - hey I live in Chicago, what sun are you talking about??

The study was conducted in Sweden - so also a place with short days this time of year and brutally cold temps. So that’s no excuse.

Humans are meant to live outside. We shouldn’t be cooped up at our desk or living on our couch.

Last year, we set out the goal of hitting 1,000 hours outside in a year. It’s only the end of Feb so it’s still possible if you want to go after this goal.

You can track it using an app like NatureDose - it tracks your time outside without you having to even do anything.

Want to live longer? Get outside and move real fast.

And if you need any motivation - maybe sign up for your next race or challenge!

Thrive25 Partner Spotlight

Max just restocked his Momentous Essential Protein (as well as some Zinc and Tongkat Ali supplements) for his daily smoothies - getting 40% of his RDA in every shake.

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We are a proud customer and affiliate of Momentous - please consider buying products from Momentous to support our mission.

Listen

Live Longer and Better

Apple | Spotify 

I had an awesome conversation with Andrew McConnell, CEO of Alively.

It started as a discussion around things like optimal nutrition and what supplements matter.

But then we got a lot deeper into stuff like…

• Perfection might be crushing our health

• How to raise strong kids in our modern society

• The most powerful tool we have is the power to pause

• How the relationships in our life determine the quality of our life

Let me know what you all think!

H&L in the News

Fitness Meets Future Medicine - Healthness: Technogym’s new Healthness initiative transforms fitness into precision preventive medicine, using AI-driven data to predict disease and prescribe personalized training for longevity and peak performance. (Athletech News)

Rethinking Obesity - Beyond BMI: A new definition of obesity challenges BMI, focusing on body fat and health risks. This shift could change treatments, prescriptions, and how we define a "healthy weight." (NYTimes)

Alone in the Cosmos?: If humanity is truly alone in the Universe, what does that mean for our purpose? This philosophical paradox challenges us to embrace solitude, forge meaning, and reclaim our place in the vast cosmic silence. (Big Think)

Brain Games

Kyudoku

This one is a 3/5 on the difficulty scale, but not too bad. Reminder: Kyudoku is a 6x6 grid where you need to use logic to find nine unique numbers (1 to 9) so that each row and column has a sum of 9 or less. The 8 highlighted in yellow is given.

Here’s a little help to get started. Because we know 8 is given, we can’t use 8 again (gray boxes) and we can also eliminate any numbers that would make the sum of the row or column with the given 1 more than 9 (blue boxes). Again, this is a little tougher - good luck!

Credit: Brainzilla

** For answer, scroll to the bottom of the email

Product Recs

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Thanks for another great week!

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Brain Games Answer

We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.

This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

To health!