Articles
One question per article, answered in the first paragraph. Every claim links to a study page that says what the study does not show.
- How much should you carry in a farmer carry? The standards, and the research gap behind themAttia’s standard is body weight for a minute in your 40s. There are no population norms and no health outcomes for carrying. What to use instead, and how the app sets your load.Strength · 13 October 2026 · 5 min read
- How many steps a day actually matter? Fewer than 10,000, and it depends on your ageMortality risk falls with steps up to about 6,000–8,000 a day after 60 and 8,000–10,000 before, then levels off. The 10,000 figure was never a finding.Aerobic · 13 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Fitness age, health age, cardiovascular age: what the numbers on your watch measureGarmin, Apple, Oura and WHOOP each turn wearable data into an age. They measure different things, all rest on estimates, and a VO₂max error of 6 mL/kg/min is more than a decade of normal ageing.Aerobic · 13 October 2026 · 7 min read
- Could you get up off the floor after a fall? Why the sit-and-rise test is about more than fitnessNearly half of uninjured fallers over 72 could not get up unaided. Falls happen to a quarter to a third of people over 65 each year. What the floor rise test measures, and what reduces falls.Stability · 13 October 2026 · 6 min read
- How to test your own fitness at home: ten field tests, what you need, and which have real normsA home fitness assessment in about 40 minutes: ten field tests across strength, aerobic capacity and balance, the equipment each needs, which ones have published norms, and how to read the result.Framework · 13 October 2026 · 8 min read
- Grip strength by age: what is normal, and which chart to trustMedian grip peaks near 51 kg for men and 31 kg for women in their thirties. What the main charts say by age, why they differ, and how to use one.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 6 min read
- Does grip strength predict how long you live?Each 5 kg of lower grip goes with about 16% higher mortality in three large datasets. What that means, what it does not, and why it is not proof.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- The 40 push-up study: what it found and what it didn’tFirefighters who did 40+ push-ups had fewer heart events, but the top group had one event and the authors ruled out an independent link. The full picture.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- How long should you be able to dead hang? There is no normNo peer-reviewed adult norms exist for the dead hang, and no study links hang time to lifespan. Where the popular numbers come from, and how to use yours.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- You lose strength faster than muscleIn people in their 70s, leg strength fell about three times faster than leg lean mass, and strength, not mass, predicted death. What that means for you.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- How much strength training is enough for longevity?In a 2022 meta-analysis, mortality was lowest at about 40 minutes of strength training a week. How far to trust that, and what training does at any age.Strength · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- What is a good VO₂max for your age? Two sets of norms, and why they disagreeMeasured FRIEND norms and predicted Cooper norms give different answers after 60. The medians by age, how fast VO₂max falls, and which table to trust.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- VO₂max and longevity: what ‘five times the risk’ actually meansThe fittest people in a 122,007-patient study died at one fifth the rate of the least fit. What that means, what it does not, and why it is observational.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- How accurate is Apple Watch Cardio Fitness, and Garmin’s VO₂max?Independent lab tests find Apple Watch reads VO₂max about 6 mL/kg/min low. Garmin did better in small studies. What that error does to your percentile.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Estimate your VO₂max without a lab: the 12-minute run and the 1-mile walkCooper’s 12-minute run and the Rockport one-mile walk: the protocols, the equations, who they were built on, how close they get, and how to repeat them.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Is zone 2 overrated? What the evidence says about easy cardio and weekly minutesZone 2 is a real threshold, but heart-rate bands find it poorly, and a 2025 review finds no case for it as the best intensity. What weekly minutes do show.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- The four-flight stair test: what your time can and can’t tell youIn the only published study, people with high treadmill fitness averaged 46 seconds to climb 60 stairs, and low-fitness people 82. What that tells you.Aerobic · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Can you stand on one leg for 10 seconds? What the study actually foundAdults aged 51–75 who failed a 10-second one-leg stand had 1.84 times the mortality of those who passed. What that means, and what it does not.Stability · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- The sitting-rising test: how to score it and what your score meansThe exact scoring rules for the floor sit-and-rise test, what the 2012 and 2025 mortality studies found for each score, and where the evidence stops.Stability · 12 October 2026 · 6 min read
- Five-times sit-to-stand: normal times by age, including under 60Reference times for the five-times sit-to-stand by decade, why the two main sources disagree by 3–4 seconds, and what the 15-second cut-off means.Stability · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Balance with eyes closed: how long should you stand on one leg at 40, 50, 60?Average eyes-closed one-leg stance times by age from Springer 2007, a British cohort tested at 53, and why the two differ. Every number sourced.Stability · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- How common are falls after 65, and what actually reduces them28–35% of people over 65 fall each year. What WHO and CDC figures show, what 108 trials found about exercise, and why getting up off the floor matters.Stability · 12 October 2026 · 5 min read
- Backcasting your fitness from 85: what’s evidence and what’s judgmentAttia’s centenarian decathlon works backwards from late-life tasks. Which parts rest on evidence, which are judgment, and how our line is set.Framework · 12 October 2026 · 7 min read