I want to feel good, age minimally, look decent, and maintain physical function as I age. This setup aims to optimize for those goals while being as minimal as possible. In order to improve and check on your general health, you need some level of tracking.
Apple Watch - After using it for a couple of months, it provides high-quality insights into your baseline health and any changes. I specifically monitor resting heart rate, VO2 Max, and active energy as these are the best proxies for overall health and are strongly linked to mortality outcomes. Only ever view timelines of a month or longer so noisy data gets averaged out. Look for trends, not outliers.
Smart Scale - Provides a rough, interpersonally reliable measurement of body fat %. Easily syncs into Apple Health data, which feeds into the MacroFactor app automatically. Look at averages, not daily weight (which fluctuates due to a lot of factors).
MacroFactor - Food tracking app that also accurately calculates (not estimates) your daily caloric expenditure. This lets you set up precise calorie goals, which prevent unnecessarily hard diets or an unoptimal ratio of fat:muscle loss/gain. All macro recommendations in the app are backed by solid research.
Food Scale - Necessary for serious calorie tracking.
Labs - Can easily get through Quest if you pay out of pocket. If you ever feel off, a baseline lab result is invaluable. Get at least CBC + CMP + thyroid + iron.
Meal Timing - Likely doesn't matter too much, but to be optimal, eat 3 meals each with at least 40g of protein. Eat your last meal several hours away from bedtime. Aim for 1.4g of protein per pound of weight if you lift weights (minimizes muscle loss during weight loss, optimizes muscle gain during weight gain).
Circadian Rhythm - Any serious health routine should heavily prioritize a well-maintained circadian rhythm. This means 7-8 hours of sleep, a dark/quiet/cool room, regular wake times, and sunlight during the day. I speculate lots of contemporary health issues (mental health, heart disease, obesity) stem from modern life's intense assault on our circadian rhythms. Modern light pollution is so unnatural and disruptive it kills babies.
Morning
Wake up with a series of smart home lights filling my bedroom with light. The room is otherwise blacked out. Take supplements. Weigh on a smart scale.
Hydroxyapatite Toothpaste - Less risky and more effective than fluoride
Creatine - Take 5g a day don't bother with loading.I speculate 10g a day may provide a slight additional benefit. Just helps with muscle gain/preservation by allowing you to lift ~20% more in the gym or get in a couple of extra reps. Slight, not instantly noticeable benefit. If creatine doesn't help, that is actually a good thing and means you have been blessed with naturally saturated creatine levels. Cognitive benefits of creatine don't appear until much higher doses. Taking it after a workout might be better than before.
Source: MASS Research Review
Multivitamin with Iron - Iron deficiency is common enough to make sure yours includes it. No great evidence for multivitamins impacting mortality outcomes. Worth it as a blanket insurance policy for deficiencies.
Fish Oil - Fat likely helps absorption of other vitamins. Decent evidence for mental health and heart health.
Sunlight - Arguably the most important but hardest to get. If you work a 9-5 like me, your best bet may be simply not wearing sunglasses, even though windows block much of the beneficial light. Morning sunlight aligns your circadian rhythm and sets off a cascading effect of other important biological/hormonal processes.
Day
Walk 10,000 steps - I do this at lunch to also get sunlight on my skin and hitting my eyes, which sets your circadian rhythm. Also gives the Apple Watch a chance to record a VO2 max data point. Anecdotally helps with my mental health and gives me a time to reflect. 12% lower mortality per 1,000 extra steps per day.
Drink a couple of liters of water - Some will argue this is not needed, but I feel my skin looks better when I do.
Night
Try to get 8 hours of sleep. Even slight sleep deprivation harms muscle hypertrophy, workout performance, workout recovery, memory, and mood. Your body "remembers" how much sleep you've missed out on. Sleep extension is an underappreciated intervention for health and recovery. Sleep is tracked with Apple Watch.
Red Light - In the evening I turn off overheard lights and turn on a red light floor lamp to limit blue light exposure.
Magnesium Glycinate - 48% of Americans don't get enough. I find it helps with sleep. Lowers blood pressure.
AMRAP - I do my last set of an exercise As Many Reps As Possible to ensure I am hitting failure and providing adequate stimulus. Depending on how many I hit, I may up the number of reps I do for that exercise (# of sets remains constant) so I am progressively overloading.
Workout Tracking - In a simple static note, I track each exercise, the amount of weight, and how many reps/sets I do. You must track to ensure progressive overload, the main stimulus for hypertrophy.
Progressive Overload - I progress over two factors, reps and weight. My sets for an exercise are static (3 or 4). If I hit a lot of reps on my last (AMRAP) set, I increase the reps. When I am at 12 reps per set for an exercise and need to progress, I increase the weight and reset the reps to 8. Below are the factors you should prioritize when maximizing hypertrophy.
Weekly Sets (Volume) - We have not found the upper limit to the dose-response of volume for muscle hypertrophy. However, the returns start to diminish past 10. 20 fractional sets (indirect sets counted as 0.5) per week for a given muscle will get you most of the well-established, time-efficient gains.
L-Citrulline (8g) - Lots of premade pre-workouts underdose this. Best way to increase nitric oxide/blood flow. Nitric oxide boosters likely help with performance and hypertrophy, but more research is needed.
Carbs - Usually in the form of rice krispie cereal (low calorie, high carb). Need carbs for strenuous exercise, especially if in a caloric deficit.
Beet Root Powder - Works synergistically (over a different pathway) with L-Citrulline by adding nitrates.
(Sometimes) NAC (200mg) - Might be synergistic with L-Citrulline and Nitrates as glutathione may slow the rate of nitric oxide breakdown. NAC increases circulating levels of glutathione better than oral glutathione.
(Sometimes) Glycerol (10g) - Independent pathway of L-Citrulline. Gives a good pump and hydrates muscles, but really hard to swallow in powder form, so I don't use it every time.
Cardio - There is no general "interference effect" between lifting weights and moderate cardio. Good cardio fitness may actually aid muscle gain. You should try to leave as much time as possible between cardio and leg workouts. If you do them on the same day, do cardio after to minimize interference. Try to max out heart rate once a week to stimulate your cardiovascular system. Cardio makes dieting *slightly* easier (but you should never compensate directly by eating more on days you work out) and has innumerable general health benefits. I do 3 types of cardio:
Rollerblading - Enjoyable and goes by fast. Probably more hypertrophic than running and burns a lot of calories.
Moderate Intensity Run - I find this actually boosts my VO2 max the most. Try to keep my average heart rate above 165 and subjective intensity at 7/10. Gives me the best mental health boost.
HIIT Run - I use a custom Apple Watch outdoor run workout. After a short warmup, it is 5X(3 minutes @ Zone 5, 3 minutes @ Zone 3). The idea is basically to keep your heart rate elevated with bursts of fast running followed by steady jogging.
Diet
Eat very high protein. Avoid processed foods because they make hitting macros harder and each additional ingredient is an additional risk. Cook most of your meals.
Carbs - I used to be pro-keto and scared of carbs. Over time, my view has adjusted to embrace carbs for their benefits on exercise performance. You may lose out on gains on a very low-carb diet.
CICO - Calories in Calories Out will dictate your weight, there is no way around this. There are about ~3,500 calories in a pound of fat. There are no hacks to speed up your metabolism. You can simply eat filling foods, eat less calories, and do cardio (but even that plateaus).
Fiber - Reduces the risk of some cancers and increases satiety. Aim for 14g per 1,000 calories. I also supplement with Psyllium Husk Capsules + Water to help feel full when on a low-calorie diet.
Cutting/Bulking - When to cut/bulk depends on your tolerance for fat gain and your specific goals. You cannot force-feed gains with giant caloric surpluses and should always do a very slow lean bulk to minimize fat gain. To prioritize muscle preservation while cutting, keep weight loss below 0.5% bodyweight per week. You can speed things up to 1% bodyweight per week if you're in a hurry. For bulking, gain 0.25% bodyweight per week. If you're desperate to avoid fat gain go below that.
Body Recomposition - The elusive goal of losing body fat while simultaneously gaining muscle. It is possible but becomes more difficult with more training experience, faster weight loss, or lower body fat percentages. Calorie deficits over 500 calroies a day recomposition unlikely (see below). Eat high protein, lift weights, and keep the deficit small to maximize chances.
Body Fat % - Most people looks their best at a low body fat percentage. However, you will eventually hit a hormonally-defined "intervention point" that makes it unbearable to lose more weight. Different people have different points, so you may not be able to be shredded as other people. You can try to make nearing this intervention point more comfortable by doing cardio and eating filling foods (high protein/fiber).
I have personally experienced and witnessed a spiral of adding too many skincare ingredients and then adding more ingredients to address side effects of the initial ingredients. Minimal is better. Add ingredients slowly and one at a time.
Morning:
Thick moisturizer
Mineral-based suncreen - (I don't trust chemical sunscreens and they're bad for coral reefs). Sun damage is the primary driver of aging. Retinol usage makes sunscreen mandatory.
Night:
Salicylic acid (or benzoyl peroxide) face wash
Retinol
Thick moiusturizer/Vaseline - Also called "slugging". Improves skin. Doesn't clog pores. Locks in moisture.
Things I Avoid
Health in the modern world is (almost) more about avoiding bad things than adding good things.
Chemical Sunscreen
Very processed foods
Non-stick pans - Use cast iron or stainless steel.
Plastic cooking items or storage containers
Unfiltered tap water
Parabens
Phalates
Ultrasonic humidifiers
Mouth Breathing
Polyester - opt for cotton when possible.
Purified bottle water - Bottled spring water has more minerals and avoiding plastic bottles (microplastics) all together is best.
Cold water baths - They stiffle hypertrophy. Do them earlier in the day than weight lifting if you still want to do them.
