The centenarian decathlon is a mental model to identify and train for the most important activities of daily living and performance desired at the end of life.

“the centenarian decathlon basically forces us to be specific in what our metrics are in that last decade of life and it allows us to back cast from there because forecasting from wherever you are today will almost without exception fail to get you where you need to go because you'll end up missing the mark by slipping underneath it instead you want to start with where you need to be at the very end and work your way backwards”

“so even if you could convince me that no no the just work out for the sake of working out is is is is better than sitting on a couch i would say you're absolutely correct but now we're going after a really hard problem which is to be in the last decade of your life what we call the marginal decade and be incredibly robust physically”

“the centinary IND cathlon becomes the scaffolding upon which I actually think of this”

“and everybody's going to pick different events these can be activities of daily living these could be very specific you know recreational activities I think it's a good idea to have both in there and the more specifically you train for those the more directed your training is”

“this idea of a centenarian DE cathlon came to my mind in part because decathletes are generally regarded as the best overall athletes despite not being the best in any one of the 10 things that they do now of course centenarian de cathlon is not an actual event maybe some people will do de cathlon when they're centenarians um but even becoming a centenarian is not necessarily the objective right we don't have that much control over how we stretch our genes that said what I imagine is in the last decade of my life what do I want to be able to do and how do I begin to train for that now and when you take that look at the future and you say look these are the things I want to be able to do you can apply metrics to those activities you can say hey if I want to be able to hike on uneven surfaces to the tune of you know two mile round trip in an hour um that requires this much cardiorespiratory Fitness this much strength this much balance and”

“this idea of the centinary and de cathlon this idea a that um the best way to avoid this fate um when you're in your middle age when you're young whenever is to be very deliberate and specific about the type of training and of course nutrition that is necessary to have the most physically robust final decade of Life what we call the marginal decade”

“this idea of the centinary and de cathlon this idea that um the best way to avoid this fate uh when you're in your middle age when you're young whenever is to be very deliberate and specific about the type of training and of course nutrition that is necessary to have the most physically robust final decade of Life what we call the marginal decade”

“it's you really do want to create a program that you can keep up with for years and decades and also you keep that timeline perspective of okay I don't need to increase in a insane amount because what I want to do is not get injured be able to do something that I can do find enjoyment out of it and find Value”

“the thing I want to train for is to avoid this I want to come up with an event an athletic event that will be done at the end of my life and everything between now and then will be training for it and so I just came up with this idea called the centenarian to cathlon not because it implies that one has to live to a 100 to compete or not even to imply that it has to have 10 events but simply as a mental model to say what are the most important activities both activities of daily living and activities of performance that I want to be able to do at the end of my life and how well can I define them how well can I understand the physical traits that will be necessary to execute them and then how much can I reverse from there or backcast from there what I need to be doing today to increase the probability of doing those things tomorrow to the highest level”

“once you have a person's centenarian de cathlon goals you break them down into what is required so if you give me your list and you you know we can take that list and we can say oh this requires a V2 Max of 31 milliliters per kilogram per minute this requires an ability to sit this you know this way or this requires this much strength in this domain this requires this type of hip loading etc etc and then we can evaluate where a person is today and then say oh okay well obviously today you can do all of those things but here's the predicted trajectory of decline on each of those things and will you be above your benchmarks in 40 years or will you be below them”

“what are the most important activities both activities of daily living and activities of performance that I want to be able to do at the end of my life and how well can I define them how well can I understand the physical traits that will be necessary to execute them and then how much can I reverse from there or backcast from there what I need to be doing today to increase the probability of doing those things tomorrow to the highest level”

“the centinary in De cathlon is an idea that came to me in the summer of 2018 — and it's — it's an idea that occurred in an instant but it was really the result of many years probably four years of suffering so to speak”

“the centinary in De cathlon not because it implies that one has to live to a 100 to compete or not even to imply that it has to have 10 events but simply as a mental model to say what are the most important activities both activities of daily living and activities of performance that I want to be able to do at the end of my life and how well can I define them how well can I understand the physical traits that will be necessary to execute them and then how much can I reverse from there or backcast from there what I need to be doing today to increase the probability of doing those things tomorrow to the highest level”