Podcast Transcription:Your 2026 Body Blueprint — Part 4: The Cardio You Actually Need After 40 (VO₂max, Zone 2, and Longevity)

Ted Ryce: So if you've been listening to Peter Attia or Rhonda Patrick, or just spending time in the longevity world, you've heard claims about VO two Max being one of the strongest predictors of how long you'll live. What is that really true? And do you need to be an elite endurance athlete or have the VO two max of an elite endurance athlete for it to matter? 

And how do you apply the knowledge about how to build your VO two max without turning yourself into a triathlete or a marathon runner? So today I'm gonna cut through the confusion, explain what actually matters about cardio after 40, and give you clear principles. On how to build your cardiovascular system, your cardio, respiratory fitness as it's often referred to in the research. 

So we'll talk about how often, how hard, how to measure progress, and that's what we'll cover in today's episode. Now a quick recap. This is episode four of my 2026 series. Episode one was about what happens to our health and our bodies as we age. 'cause age is not just a number, it's a great thing to say, but we have to be aware of what actually happens as we get older. 

Episode two, I talk about metabolic health, weight loss, and GLP one drugs. In episode three, I talked about building muscle, building strength and power, and why they're non-negotiable if you're after longevity. Now in this episode today, we'll talk about your cardio respiratory fitness. The system that, listen, you can be lean, you can lift weights, but if you're not training your cardiovascular system, it's aging faster than you realize. 

So this episode is about helping you to understand what's happening and how to protect and even rebuild that system. So let's talk about how to the, our cardiovascular system ages. Here's the model I want you to keep in your head. Your heart is a pump. Your arteries are pipes, and your aerobic fitness or cardio. 

Respiratory fitness is how much oxygen you can deliver and use under stress. And when we're talking about that, we're talking about your brain, your heart, I mean. Circulation affects everything, including your muscles. So there's some great research from Dr. Benjamin Levine that shows a pretty clear pattern. 

In your thirties, your arteries gradually lose elasticity. Why do you, why do you care about that? Well, as you probably know, blood pressure more specifically, high blood pressure is one of the most serious, let's say, negative things. That can happen to your health, and we're not gonna get into the details of high blood pressure, but it's one of the most important things that you can track over time for your health and by your fifties, if you're not working on aerobic exercise, your heart actually begins to shrink. 

So your arteries lose elasticity and stiffen. Your heart starts to shrink after 50 and in your, the later decades of your life. In fact, the ages 70 structural changes happen that you can't go back from. We'll talk about how you can reverse aging of your heart in this episode, but just know if you are just starting at 70, you're too late. 

I mean, it is what it is and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It doesn't mean that you still can't improve your fitness, but you're gonna be limited. By the structural changes that happen, okay? You're, don't expect big things to happen. You're gonna have more energy and but now is the time to invest in it. If you're not in your, let's say, late sixties or seventies or beyond, now is the time to invest in it. 

So again, it doesn't mean you're doomed. You should still take action. But the message here is build reserve early and maintain it because the heart adapts to demand, but only if the demand is appropriate and consistent. Now, we'll talk about that a bit later, but I wanted to talk to you about why I've been so into cardiovascular training. 

Since 2009, and I didn't learn this from Longevity Podcasts with Peter Atia. In fact, I grew up in bodybuilding culture in the eighties and nineties, so strength, muscle aesthetics, that was kind of what I was into and. I was also into martial arts, and I actually did a lot of cardiovascular exercise, but it wasn't like structured. 

If I, if you asked me, Hey, I'm gonna go work out, what would I be doing? I'd be lifting weights. I did cardio, but it wasn't structured. It wasn't even intentional. It was just like, I don't have a car. I have a bike, so I'm gonna ride my bike with my friends. Right where I was in school, they made me run. So I ran. 

When I got into Brazilian juujitsu in my late twenties, that's when I started realizing, wow, you know what? You can be strong, but there's another level of fitness. And if you've ever done any type of grappling sport or combat sport or played soccer, uh, you know what I'm talking about, especially not when you were younger, but like in your late twenties or early thirties. 

You start to feel, whoa, this is intense exercise. And I wanna tell you something. In my early thirties, something changed After hard jujitsu sessions, I wasn't just feeling tired, I was wrecked. I'd lie on the mat for 10 minutes just so I could walk out, get in my car and drive home because I literally had trouble driving. 

If I push myself to get home fast to eat. Oh, I wish I knew what I know now. I wish I knew then what I know now, right? I think I said that correctly. So what scared me was what happened? How am I feeling this outta shape in my thirties, even though I'm lifting weights and I'm doing jiujitsu regularly? I hadn't lost discipline. 

I hadn't stopped training. What I learned was I lost aerobic capacity Again, I was lifting, I was doing intense jiujitsu sessions, but I wasn't building a base, and everything changed when I learned this simple truth. If all you do is high intensity work, you can start to lose fitness as you fail to recover from it, and as you get older. 

This insight reshaped how I train and coach to this day. And I have to credit the book MMA Conditioning that I read back in 2009 from Joel Jameson, who's been on my podcast. He's also been on Peter Atias podcast. But I had Joel on way on, uh, uh, I mean, I have my podcast longer than Peter, just kind of a, a little flex. 

Let me flex for a second here. But I had Joel Jameson on, I think at least once, maybe even twice, to talk about this because this is so important. He's the one that introduced me to this, and it's been something I've focused on ever since. So let's talk about. What VO two max actually means in plain English. 

So VO two max gets talked about like it's a magic number, but here's what it really is. It's a rough measure of how big and capable your oxygen delivery system is. It reflects how much blood your heart can pump, how well oxygen is delivered, and how well the muscles can use it. That's why it tracks so well with health outcomes, not because of necessarily. 

The training that you're doing or that you're doing cardio, but you've built your system in such a way that you have this tremendous reserve and. Reserve is what determines, now I'm using that word. It's not like from the research, but that's how I think about it. It determines how well you handle stress, how quickly you recover, how resilient you are when something goes wrong. 

In fact, one of the most powerful things that came out of the whole COVID craziness that we all went through was that cardio respiratory fitness. There was a study done by the Mayo Clinic and they were talking about how cardio respiratory fitness needs to be tested because it's such important biomarker and mark my words, the doctor of the future, let's say if things go in the right direction with healthcare. 

'cause they may not. Cardio respiratory fitness is something the doctor of the future will test because it's so important in terms of how much inflammation you have, your resistance to getting sick, and so much more so if you have low reserve or low cardio, respiratory fitness, you're fragile. Even if you lift weights and if you have high reserve, you're more durable. 

So one important thing about the, talk about VO two max, because if you listen to Peter Atia in particular, he just talks about VO two max, like all the studies looking at VO two max and, and it's so clear the link between longevity and VO two max. But I'll tell you something, and this is. Part of a conversation I've been in more recently, much of the research linking fitness to longevity actually didn't test VO two max in labs, right? 

That is the way to determine it. They used exercise performance tests, so treadmill, speed, duration, workload, and they used it to guesstimate. Someone's VO two max or or the VO two maxes of the people who are part of the study. So this tells us something important. You don't need a lab test to apply this. 

We'll talk about that in a bit, but what you do need is some type of measurable aerobic performance. In other words, if you're the type of person, like I hear people talk, oh, I do cardio. I'll go for a run for 30 minutes. Or I'll get my steps in. That's cardio, right? No, no, no, no. Look, just how you would track your workouts to make sure that your progressive overloading and getting stronger in the gym. 

You test yourself to make sure your aerobic performance is improving, ideally, or at least maintaining. I'll say it like this for you. If you're only doing cardio a couple of times a week for 30 minutes, you are getting in worse shape cardiovascularly, not because you're not trying. It's because our system, as we age, starts to fall apart and there's a specific amount of fitness, or let's say cardiovascular exercise that you need to do to make sure this doesn't happen. 

And another thing is there's no need, at least at this moment, to chase elite athletic numbers because if you listen to, again, I'll, I'll use Peter Atia because I've listened to some of his interviews and I get a lot of clients who have read his book Outlive, which is. Just a great all around book and they're thinking like, oh, I need to do cardio like six days a week and I need to finish with intervals and like, I need to basically become an endurance. 

I, I, I'm just gonna become a cyclist. Right? A competitive cyclist. 'cause that'll cover the bases. You don't necessarily need to do that. What we know is the biggest benefit comes from going from low to moderate or moderate to good. Right. You don't necessarily need to be elite. We're still working out. Do do people with high VO two maxes at the elite level, what type of benefit does that really confer to longevity or preventing disease? 

And you know, is it worth it because it's a tremendous amount of time that you'll need to spend to develop an elite. DO two max. So the goal is not to necessarily be elite, it's to get to a level that you can sustain and maintain for decades. And there's something else I wanna say here that I think is important. 

None of the people that you know, the centenarians that have made the news, these people weren't necessarily doing. All this exercise and maintaining their VO two maxes. I mean, I don't want to go off on a tangent, but just know like we haven't worked out longevity yet, but we're starting to, okay, so don't go crazy with VO two max thinking. 

It's the number one thing. That you should focus on is something you should focus on, but you want to stay balanced. So now that I have that out of the way, let's talk about the cardio zones that matter. Let's get concrete instead of abstract systems, let's talk about zones. So let's talk about what the foundation is, and this is one of the biggest lessons I got from Joel Jameson's work and having a conversation with him reading his book, is that lower intensity cardio. 

Builds your aerobic base. What does that do? It does all types of things, but one of the most powerful things that it does is because of the cyclical. Pumping of blood from your heart to your extremities and back from your extremities via veins into your heart. Your heart starts to go through a process called eccentric hypertrophy versus what happens with weight training sometimes is you can lift weights in a way that causes concentric hypertrophy. 

What does that mean? You can look those up. On Google for a comparison, but basically your capacity gets bigger when you do aerobic exercise. You can pump more blood versus the concentric where things can constrict. In fact, some guys. Maybe women too will lift weights in such an extreme way that they'll develop high blood pressure because of what happens to their vascular system. 

The arteries start experiencing or going through this concentric hypertrophy and it can start increasing the um, pressure because. There's more tissue there, right? So let's talk about zone two Now. Zone two is how you deal with it. So how do you know you're in low intensity? Zone one, zone two, you can breathe through your nose and you can speak in full sentences. 

That's called the talk test, and that's what I'm gonna keep referring to as we discuss zone training here. Because if you're already very into this. If you're an athlete and you're wearing a chest strap measuring your heart, you're probably already aware of your zones, your heart rate, max, et cetera. 

Right? And I don't even want you to try to get the two 20 minus your age to figure out your. Heart rate max and then trying to do a 60 to 70%, like the way you actually test, just a quick aside here, if you're really in zone two, is you test the amount of lactate that you have in your blood. You don't need to do that, okay? 

We don't need to be that crazy with training. Of course, if you want to do that, you have the time. Great. I'm not gonna discuss it in this episode partly because I don't do it. 'cause I don't think there's a need. I'll play around with it later and I'll report back, but just know you don't need to do that. 

Use the talk test. So I often demonstrate this with clients, so if I can say, I could keep going like this for a while and hold a conversation like this is what I did for my client the other day. So I'm talking to you now and let's just pretend I am walking fast and I can still talk to you. And I'm not having trouble speaking to you, and let's say I'm like going on a light jog, and you know what? 

I'm in fairly good shape. Why? Because I do cardio several times a week. So I could keep talking to you while keeping this pace. And why this matters is it causes that eccentric hypertrophy of your left ventricle, which improves efficiency recovery, and again, that heart structure over time. What you wanted to shoot for if you have the time, and we'll talk about this a bit later, at least 30 minutes and up to even two hours per session. 

I've never done a two hour session. A structured two hour session, but I'll regularly do 90 minutes if I have the time, and we're talking about three to five days per week. That's how you build a base that makes everything else possible. However, it's very time intensive. Let's talk about zone three. So this is the moderate zone. 

You gotta be a little bit careful here because the reason why people are so. Talk about zone one and zone two so much is because you can do a lot of it and it doesn't affect recovery. It's not a big load on your body for recovery. But when we start getting past zone one, zone two, and into zone three, it's more challenging to recover from. 

It's more challenging to do, but if you're mentally tough, you can push through that. What you can't push through, however, is if you're recovering or how fast you recover from it. Again, we're not talking about how you feel. We're talking about can you recover from it in a way where you can perform better the next time you do your workout. 

So too much Zone three crowds out, recovery and base work, you gotta be kind of intentional. And this is zone three. I rarely use zone three with clients and. How it feels is you can talk but not comfortably so. It would be something like, yeah, okay, so I'm training. Yeah, and this is hard. This is way harder than zone zone one and zone two, but yeah, I can still talk to you, right? 

That's kind of how it should sound. Now when we get to zone four and zone five, this is what we call high intensity interval training. So this is the type of training, if you look at the research, it raises your VO two max much faster. Than the other types of training. However, what many people will point out is that you will raise it quickly and you'll hit a plateau fast. 

So you'll raise it really quickly, but within eight to 12 weeks, maybe 16 weeks of doing, of focusing just on high intensity intervals, uh, you might hit a plateau. Now we're still, the research is still not fully confident here, and there's a lot of conversation and even controversy about this, but just understand generally that's what we know. 

So how does it feel? Oh man, you can't talk in zone four, zone five. It's like you are so focused on breathing that you're only able to say words or phrases you are working. And why it's important is this maintains the ceiling. It's really great to push yourself hard because you get a lot of bang for your buck. 

You can also. You also improve mitochondrial health. Uh, I'm sorry. You build more mitochondria, you improve the mitochondria that you have, you improve your stroke volume, your peak capacity. But when we're talking about doing high intensity work. What I find is one time a week is usually enough. If you do more than, uh, a one time a week, you're gonna have to change. 

And we'll talk about this on, on episode seven on how to put this all together. I'll give you a few different ways of how you can do this, but you're talking about if you do two times a week or even three times a week, which some research does, it needs to be your main focus. You'll have to back off everything else that you're doing with the exception of that zone one slash zone two work. 

So. Why don't love doing three times a week is because you wanna balance this with strength training and longevity is your goal. That's what I believe is the best way to do it. And once per week, it's usually enough. A, again, if you're exceptional in your recovery, you might be able to get away with twice. 

Uh, twice is the most I'll do it. By the way, very important here. Some sports basically take you to the edge, not basically they take you to the edge. For example, I count Juujitsu training as high intensity. Why? Because it's like five minute rounds or sometimes more, and with very short rest. So it takes me to my limit. 

And so the most I'll do juujitsu per week is twice because it starts affecting my ability to recover. If I do three times a week, my body also gets more achy. So just understand you're more is not better. The right amount is better, and this is where people burn out when they overdo it. So let me talk to you about a study that is so important. 

One of the most famous studies in this area showed that previously sedentary middle aged adults were able to reverse 20 years of heart aging. In about two years, and again, the key was in extreme workouts. What they did was they worked out with weights twice a week. They did lower intensity cardio three times a week, and then one hit training for week. 

There's some nuance there, and I don't want to go into. The specifics of this study because I want to stay focused on what you are gonna actually do. Again, we'll talk about that in episode seven, but just understand that the combo was regular lower intensity aerobic work, zone one, zone two, plus some higher intensity sessions, one per week, and, uh, strength training twice per week. 

So the takeaway isn't to do the exact protocol, but the takeaway is this, that even if you're out of shape. And have been for a while. Yes, your arteries have stiffened, your heart has shrunk if you are over 50, but you can still reverse, let's say 20 years of aging to make you look like a 30-year-old, to make your heart in cardiovascular system look like a 30-year-old if you do the right approach. 

And of course, keep it up. So let's talk about. Testing here. So look, are you an elite athlete? Great. Go get a VO two max test done in a lab, because that is the gold standard. However, if you are not an elite athlete, and of course if you're just, you know, if you're very fit and you're like, you know what I want, I want to be very scientific about this, go ahead and get your VO O2 max test done. 

Understand it really, it's probably not that important to do there. There might be some arguments there. I definitely push some of my clients to go get a VO two max test, but what you want is. To have some sort of metric that you can do every, say, eight to 16 weeks, and that could be a one mile run or a 12 minute run, or a 2000 meter row or a five to 10 minute, uh, bike effort. 

Or what's called the Rockport walk test. You don't need all of 'em. You just need one that reflects sustained aerobic effort. So make sure you choose some type of test. Again, what you're trying to do is if you run, if you take the run one mile run. Great. How fast do you run that one mile. If you choose a 12 minute run, how much distance did you cover in 12 minutes? 

And when you retest, how much distance do you recover in 12 minutes? Right? If you do a 2000 meter row, what's your time on that and try to beat it. Same thing with a five or 10 minute bike effort. And the Rockport walk test. Okay, so there's something there for you. Start testing yourself. It is so important, and you don't need to do all of them. 

Just choose one, choose your favorite one, and then choose the thing that you do the most because there is gonna be some element of skill, or let's say adaptation involved. For example, you can take a world-class marathon runner, but you put 'em in the pool or, or you know, make him swim laps and his heart's gonna be in shape, but he's not gonna have the. 

Skill to swim well is gonna be much harder for 'em. And if you throw me in the, I'm gonna get totally exhausted if you put me in the water, right? For example. And it's not because I'm outta shape, it's because my efficiency sucks, right? I can swim, but I'm not, you know, I'm talking about swimming, like with good technique in a way that you can keep up for an hour. 

I'm not gonna be able to do that, so just choose one. By the way, I didn't mention swimming here, but it's something that you can do. So choose one. You just need one that reflects sustained aerobic effort. And if the your performance improves, then your aerobic fitness is improving. But if it's maintaining or if it's getting worse, then you know you've got some work to do because what you're currently doing isn't working. 

So just to talk about this strength will keep you capable. I even trained a CEO one time who, uh, had a Porsche. Brand new, beautiful Porsche, and he was struggling getting in and out of the Porsche, and then he was quite, he looked fit and he did a lot of cardio. But then when I asked him to show me his squat. 

His squat was like he struggled doing a squat and it was definitely not a strength issue, but there was something going on there. So, and a mobility issue that we had to work through. So strength keeps you capable, but cardio keeps you resilient. After 40. You don't choose one. You do both. Okay. Period. That is the way. 

So that is it for today's episode. Next episode we'll talk about nutrition for longevity, what we know, what we don't know. We'll also talk about supplements because the training is the stimulus, but food and supplementation can help you a lot. So it it, we're gonna get into. Everything that I know that matters for nutrition. 

So a lot of what's out there, you know, especially with fad diets, it, it's not really the principle. They're not telling you the principles. I'm gonna get into the principles. So just to wrap up here. That is what's in the next episode, and just understand that VO two max, it's not a vanity metric. It's really a sign of your vulnerability and you don't need to be elite, but you need to build it so that you stay fit if you want to make love in your fifties, sixties, and seventies. 

If you want to travel the world, if you wanna walk around Europe and explore, just like you said you do, when you'd retire, you need a VO two max that's high enough to allow you to do those things. Once it gets too low, you're in big trouble. Okay? Once it gets too low, you, you start developing the other heart disease called heart failure, which again, no time to talk about that in this, but just understand. 

Cardio cannot be ignored. It needs to be part of your regimen if you're 40 and above. That's it for me. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Hope you took a lot away. Hope you're beginning to understand why cardio is so important and see you on the next episode.