When the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a paper1 a few weeks ago showing a long-term correlation in older adults between strength training and living longer, many media dutifully reported the intriguing main finding: just 90 to 120 minutes per week of resistance exercise was linked to:

• a 13% lower risk of all-cause mortality (ie, risk of dying from any cause)

• a 19% lower risk of cardiovascular mortality (dying from heart-related causes)

• a 27% lower risk of neurological disease mortality (dying from dementia, etc.)

Mortality risk means the chance of dying; the bigger the percentage decrease in that risk, the greater the impact on longevity. As obvious or intuitive as it might seem to some people, moving your body against weighted resistance, this study suggests, could play a significant role in helping you live longer.

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But it doesn’t compare to cardiorespiratory training, and that’s one giant takeaway that nearly all the media posts on this longevity paper didn’t mention:

Cardio alone was associated with a 26% to 43% lower risk of death, compared with people who did neither cardio nor strength training.

That equates to a roughly 2x to 3x larger reduction in mortality risk than strength training alone. The study authors themselves acknowledged cardio as superior, stating on p. 881 of the journal: “[W]hile either sufficient aerobic or resistance training alone reduced mortality risk, aerobic activity conferred greater benefit”2 (italics mine).

Though not a novel declaration, it’s an important reminder that in the constellations of physical movements that may well help you live the longest, combining strength and cardio training creates greater benefits than either one does by itself. If you had to pick the exercise category with the single biggest longevity upside, aerobic fitness—affectionately abbreviated in our culture as VO2 max—is king of the exercise hill.

The paper also concluded that respondents who regularly did strength and aerobic training had up to 45% lower mortality risk than people who did little-to-no exercise.

The big takeaway: “For people who are less active, the key message is that small amounts can still matter,” said Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors, in Harvard’s press release about the study. Also: “Building a routine gradually may be more important than trying to do a lot at once.”

But let’s look beyond only the headlines, at what this study also revealed, which you won’t find anywhere else—partly because most media reports on these results were cursory and/or misleading, and also because the full paper hasn’t been publicly released.

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Other notable features from this Harvard longevity analysis

AGING with STRENGTH obtained, upon request, a copy of the full text of the paper from one of the Harvard-affiliated authors, on which the reporting below is based.

Other less obvious findings from the full-text of the paper include:

1. a counterintuitive ratio of exercise minutes per week to increased cancer risk

2. strength training’s association with reductions in neurodegenerative (ie brain) diseases may be overstated in the data, due to reverse causation

3. doing more minutes per week of strength + cardio training was linked to reduced longevity gains compared to more modest levels of training

4. a structural weakness in the resistance-training data reporting that arguably calls into question how accurate this paper’s analytical model is

I examine each of these in greater detail below. (If you’re interested in how this research was conducted, please read this footnoted explanation.3)

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Where, how, how often and with whom you strength train is about as personal a fitness choice as there is. That choice, in my experience, tends to correlate not only to what you want your body to look like but also how you want to feel by the time you hit the showers.

Two different kinds of gym workouts

If the goal is to punch that timecard, execute your routine, lift the weight and book a gym win, your workouts tend to go in one direction. If the goal is more akin to rebooting your operating system by going long, hard and deep into your strengths, exhausting yourself into a palpable physical, mental and emotional restoration—well, then, your workout probably goes in a different direction.

I’ve spent years regularly going in that second direction, through supersets. Supersets combine strength training with aerobic and mental conditioning that, according to scientific research that bears out my experience, confer a unique set of physical benefits that regular gym workouts don’t.

Below, I explain the physiology of those gains and the cyclic compound effect they generate. I also describe my personal lower-body strength supersets routine that AGING with STRENGTH paying subscribers can use as a customizable blueprint to condition your all-important posterior chain, as well as your aerobic fitness and mental toughness.

What are supersets?

Supersets are more intense versions of regular workouts. The word superset refers to executing sets of two or three different exercises in rapid succession without much rest in between—and then repeating that cycle for an entire workout. Supersets may incorporate different muscle groups—legs and chest, for instance—or blend related exercises focused on just one muscle group.

With supersets you’re typically:

• lifting only 50% to 75% of your maximum…

• which enables doing more reps that build into a wall of fatigue…

• because you’re resting only 30-90 seconds between sets…

A muscular flow state

That’s how mental toughness enters the superset equation: when each set leaves you breathless, you don’t cool down; you keep going. Your mind must convince your body to hit the next set in the rotation as soon as your heart rate begins to settle, without losing proper form or technique.

You sweat a lot more, burning more fat than you do in a regular workout.

And, in a major breach of gym protocol nowadays, you don’t have time or desire to look at your phone in between sets. You’re in a muscular flow state.

In case you missed it…

Posterior-chain workouts are the ones I enjoy supersetting the most, because they’re the biggest and arguably most important muscle groups, and engaging body and mind to work them to sweaty exhaustion produces as close to a calming physical reset as you’re likely to experience in a public space. As we age, lower-body strength is the engine of our mobility and supports a powerful core.

Supersets are also just plain fun because they demand all your attention; you’re captivated. I admire and respect those regular gym workouts I described above, but I often can’t carve out regular workout times that make them a habit. So whenever I do have a glorious 90 minutes or more to work out, I tend to train in supersets.

Turns out, there’s no shortage of science to support the feelings I’m describing.

The unique advantages of training with supersets

Supersets do two useful things at once: they shorten the session and keep your heart rate up. When researchers compare combining exercises this way against the conventional one-lift-at-a-time approach, the muscle and strength gains come out about the same, while the combined version finishes in roughly a third less time.12 The 50–75% load is heavy enough to build muscle and light enough to keep moving while you tire, and that pairing—moderate weight, short rest—produced the biggest changes in a 45-study review: a 4.3% drop in fat mass, a 1.9% gain in muscle mass, and a 6.3% rise in VO2max.3

If you target the same group of muscles with supersets, fatigue within those muscles accrues, and you move less total weight than you would resting fully between straight sets. Thus, the harder sessions can demand longer recovery before you train those muscles again.4

The muscle-mental resilience superset cycle

There’s one more major advantage supersets offer that the literature doesn’t mention.

Cutting the rest between sets trains local muscular endurance and, over weeks and months, builds a fitter system—one that recovers faster between efforts and tolerates more discomfort before the urge to quit takes over.

Growing more tolerant of discomfort is the definition of mental resilience.

Your ability to endure discomfort yields a physical payoff that builds mental toughness. The toughness makes the next hard session more tolerable, which produces more physical gain, which feeds the toughness again.

This cycle yields and compounds, yields and compounds. You may find that it starts to show up in other areas of your life, away from the gym or fitness. If that sounds a bit Nietzschean, there’s a reason superset workouts require more recovery time than regular gym routines.

My lower-body superset routine: a triple-strength workout

Here’s my typical 90 minute posterior-chain superset routine, which hits several related muscle groups to build muscle, modestly increase VO2 max and train mental resilience.

I’ll describe the specific movements, the number of sets and amount of weight I use for each, and estimated resting times. This is not prescriptive but rather a template anyone can adapt and edit to their liking. Tune it to your body type and fitness goals.

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I spent the last couple weeks thinking—and the last few days researching and writing—about sex. Specifically, sex after 50 and everything it offers and doesn’t offer. (If you’re in your 40s, you are, of course, welcome. There is plenty for you here, too.)

Sex after 50 is a vast and complicated subject, and writing about it wrong is incredibly easy. So I did what any self-respecting reporter with a perfectionist streak and a hearty interest in continual, lifelong sex would do: I dove into the data, all the data I could find, to see what grand portrait would emerge about how people have sex in midlife and beyond, how they fail to have sex and how they adapt—when they can’t get what they want—to at least get what they need.

The Aging with Sex special report

I put dozens of hours of reporting and fact-checking into the 10-page report below, which paying subscribers can access. The report covers 10 topics and offers a list of summary takeaways:

• How Often Are Older Adults Having Sex?

• The Types of Sex Older Adults Are Having

• Having Sex Is Good for Your Health

• Masturbation: Important, Protective and Healthy

• Polyamory and Consensual Non-Monogamy

• A 30-year Sex Recession (Thanks, Internet)

• Men: Erectile Dysfunction

• Women: Genitourinary Syndrome & Sexual Dysfunction

• Sex and Testosterone | Sex and Estrogen

• Major Barriers to Sex in Europe, Australia & Asia

• Takeaways: An Actionable Summary of the Data

How I reported it: I created this report by pulling together every credible study on sex after 50 I could find — 2015 through 2026, comprising a total of 39 footnoted sources. Then I ran it through more than a dozen rounds of fact-checking, with the help of two top-tier AI models I work with almost daily to analyze large data sets.

Sex does not stop at 50, and it’s good for your health

That’s the major headline of this report. Roughly half of adults in their 60s are still sexually active. But sex most definitely changes. Often the changes, whether from E.D., menopause, stress, or lack of a suitable partner, are navigable. For many many people of a certain age, sex becomes many things that are not intercourse.

The biggest barrier, according to the research, is partner availability and personal health. On a very bright note, the data now link regular sex to lower mortality, better cardiovascular markers, less depression, sharper memory.

The hitch in the story is that most older adults with a sexual problem never raise it and, apparently, most doctors rarely or never ask. That’s too bad, because many of the problems sex after 50 may present are treatable, by which I don’t mean just medically.

Over the coming weeks I’ll break down Aging with Sex into strategies, including:

• the cardio and strength exercises that most benefit good sex

• addressing E.D., estrogen and testosterone treatments

• what happens when traditional intercourse isn’t an option

Until then, here’s the 10-page Aging with Sex special report, which provides a foundation for all the above:

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The BLUF (bottom line up front): Research into the biology of long-living older adults reveals unique differences in so-called super agers and centenarians vs other people, and suggests what we can do to help us live longer, too.

The bodies and brains of very old and healthy people are roadmaps with some useful directions for people interested in aging with existential strength.

Two recent studies examined complementary facets of what separates so-called super agers—people who live well into their 80s in superb health—and centenarians from everyone else. Each report suggests that the biology of staying remarkably fit in body and mind may be far more flexible than most people over 50 have been led to believe.In other words: the new science supports the idea that moving your body with purpose daily, and feeding it whole food and clocking sufficient sleep, puts you in position for maximum healthy longevity. (For paying subscribers, here are several actionable recommendations to move and feed your body like its 1899).

What the centenarian & super ager studies revealed

The research on Swiss centenarians (press release here; scientific paper here) finds that certain 100‑year‑olds have blood protein patterns that look more like those of middle‑aged adults.

The new examination of brain tissue taken posthumously from “super‑agers” in their 80s (decent NYT summary here; scientific paper here) finds that they made roughly twice as many new brain cells as their peers, helping them keep unusually sharp memories.

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Together these findings suggest that, even very late in life, the brain and body can stay far more youthful than we once thought.

Here are the actionable strategies & suggestions on how to implement them:

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There’s a saying in pro hockey: One shift at a time. It means focusing not on the ultimate goal—winning the game—but on winning only your next 45-second shift on the ice. Stacking small wins consistently is a proven strategy for achieving big goals.

The problem is that the Longevity Industrial Complex tries to convince you otherwise.

On Substack and a growing number of online media sites that have traded their credibility for say-nothing clickbait, wellness “experts” shill longevity through this one thing you should buy: a popular supplement, an expensive membership or a silly workout regimen featuring an AI image of a fake ripped 60-year-old.

As is often the case, though, the simplest solutions tend to be the most effective.

After more than a year of reporting on healthy longevity, I’ve collected a lot of thoughtful, actionable longevity advice from scientists, researchers, doctors, athletes, coaches, nutritionists and actual, ass-kicking older folks. Instead of spending your money on supplements and apps, they talk about a way of creating what I call practical longevity—one shift at a time.

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In its simplest form1, practical longevity boils down to three simple commitments.

Ignore most of what the Longevity Industrial Complex says

Commitment 1 — Stop trying to live to 100

A lot of “healthy aging” marketing tries to convince you longevity is measured in years—the more, the better—and can be acquired by credit card. Health & wellness chiselers2 tend to portray longevity as a competition you can win, if you just invest in their bullshit product, at their bullshit price, despite zero clinical evidence that it works in humans.

(Not all longevity supplements are scams, of course. Many show promise or straight-up work, and I’ve written and interviewed reputable scientists about several of them.)

Instead of focusing on reaching a certain age, cultivate the mindset of winning your current age one shift at a time. That’s the better way to “stack wins” (ie, healthy years) and end up a strong and sharp 88, 94, 103 or whatever number your Wheel in the Sky has in store for you.

You already have the facility, the means and, probably, the time to live healthy for as long as your body can — if you apply the discipline to build just two basic habits.

Warning: The two ideas I’m about to share are exceedingly simple in concept, and executing them as daily or weekly habits is exceedingly difficult if you don’t know why you want to. Before you start your practical longevity journey, take time to understand what’s motivating you. (Hint: “Looking better in the mirror” probably isn’t enough…unless it is.)

Dig past the surface rewards to ask yourself why healthy aging matters to you, really. Caveats aside, let’s get into these critical two commitments:

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There are many fitness trackers out there. You probably have an idea of what brand, functionality, price tier and look and feel you prefer: Apple, Garmin, FitBit, Oura, etc.

I’m not here to change your mind. What follows, however, is a comparative chart of popular fitness tracker strengths and weaknesses that you can’t find through a normal online search or Wirecutter reviews.

The chart below, which paying subscribers can view and download, compares several different fitness trackers across a few metrics beyond device cost — such as:

• data accuracy

• health data privacy, ownership & jurisdiction (who owns your data & where it’s stored)

• app subscription comparisons and cost comparison over time

• water resistance (for swimmers, surfers and folks who run in the rain)

• notable privacy incidents (server breaches; ransoms paid, etc) for each company

• and more

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The data privacy and ability to own your health data is a complex area that isn’t often covered by the (numerous) fitness tracker reviews you can find online. For example, one thing I learned researching the downloadable chart (for paying subscribers) below is that FitBit is now owned by Google — which means that Google also has access to, if not owns outright, all the health data it collects from your FitBit device.

Other, Chinese brands treat your health data as you would expect: it’s theirs now and thanks for donating.

The 4-page PDF below, containing a series of charts, covers all the information I mentioned in the above bullet points and presents fitness tracker information you can’t find in one place anywhere else. (NOTE: I used an upper-echelon, paid version of Claude.ai to research and compile this data…and spent several hours vetting it.)

I hope you find it helpful.

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Greetings! This is an exclusive paid subscriber benefit associated with my post, “Do magic mushrooms make you live longer?”

Here’s a quick review of a study from July 2025 by researchers from Emory University’s department of medicine showing how psilocybin extended lifespan in aging mice…and suggesting that it might work on you, too.

The paper, titled, “Psilocybin treatment extends cellular lifespan and improves survival of aged mice,” can be read in its entirety here. But unless you’re a scientist, it’s not a fun read. Instead, below are a well-known researcher’s detailed thoughts on the study, in plain-English, bullet-point form.

One longevity researcher’s review of the psilocybin study

Matt Kaeberlein is a respected University of Washington biologist and a longevity researcher with a reputation for not overstating the science — unlike a growing number of his colleagues in prestigious labs at Harvard (David Sinclair), MIT (Leonard Guarante) and Stanford (Andrew Huberman).

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Greetings, AGING with STRENGTH supporters! This is a paid subscriber in-depth exclusive to my post, “Do magic mushrooms make you live longer?”

The Harvard Gazette recently reviewed1 a September 2025 study, published in Communications Medicine, that found characteristics that may contribute to mealtime shifts and linked specific traits to an earlier death.

What the study found:

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This is a paid subscriber benefit to the post, “Do magic mushrooms make you live longer?”

A recent Nature Medicine review1, titled “Health impacts of microplastic and nanoplastic exposure,” synthesizes current evidence on micro- and nanoplastics — or MNPs — in humans and their potential health impacts.

The study’s findings in detail:

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Greetings! This is a paid subscriber benefit to the post, “Do magic mushrooms make you live longer?”

The table below shows all 16 anti-aging drugs’ disparate effects on males and females, with plain-English explanations of each drug’s mechanism and other key findings from this first-of-its-kind study.

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