What Are We Really Training For?
When we talk about training, whether strength, cardio, breath, or stretch, we’re not just preparing for a race, a class, or a body transformation. We're training for life.
At the heart of any health-conscious routine lies a deeper goal: to increase healthspan, the number of years we live in good health, with strength, mobility, mental clarity, and emotional resilience. It’s not only about lifespan (how long we live), but about living well for longer, staying physically capable, cognitively sharp, and emotionally fulfilled into our 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond.
We are training for the things that matter most:
- To be able to get on and off the floor with ease
- To walk up stairs without strain
- To play with grandchildren
- To carry our shopping, garden, travel, and dance
- To enjoy independence and dignity
- To keep doing the activities that bring joy and meaning to life
But many of the age-related problems we associate with getting older, from stiffness to fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, and low mood, are not inevitable consequences of age. They are often the result of long-standing patterns in movement, sleep, diet, and stress. The good news? Patterns can be changed.
Ageing Does Not Equal Decline
Yes, ageing comes with biological changes, including reduced hormone levels, slower tissue repair, and increased oxidative stress. But the body is remarkably adaptable. Through movement, nutrition, breath, and recovery, we can delay, reverse, or prevent many of the most common "symptoms" of ageing.
Some of the most common health challenges we see as people age include:
- Osteoporosis: loss of bone density
- Sarcopenia: loss of muscle mass and strength
- Joint degeneration and arthritis
- High blood pressure
- Elevated cholesterol and blood sugar levels
- Weight gain and insulin resistance
- Cognitive decline and memory issues
- Poor circulation and cold extremities
- Mood disorders (especially anxiety and depression)
- Reduced cardiovascular fitness
- Chronic pain and stiffness
- Loss of balance and increased fall risk
But these issues are not age-dependent. They are habit-dependent.
When we consistently challenge our cardiovascular system, lift heavy things, stretch and recover, and regulate our nervous system through breath and rhythm, we begin to reshape the trajectory of our ageing.
The Five to Thrive Framework: Designed for Healthspan
This blog introduces the Five to Thrive framework:
A daily rhythm of strength, cardio, breath, stretch, and growth. Each pillar targets different systems in the body, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, emotional, and when practised together, they create a full-spectrum approach to ageing well.
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency and intelligent effort. The goal is to remain capable, resilient, and engaged in life. It’s about being able to do what you love, without pain, limitation, or fear.
Let's Do It
Through this series, you’ll learn how to train in a way that supports long-term health, mood regulation, hormonal balance, metabolic efficiency, and brain function.
You’ll understand why:
Strength training is key for your hormones, bones, brain and muscle mass
Cardio training supports your heart, blood vessels, mitochondria, and metabolism
Breathwork allows you to regulate stress, circulation, and cognitive clarit
Stretching maintains joint health, fascia, and nervous system balance
Growth practices connect you to joy, meaning, and emotional resilience
Strength
Your biological anchor for stability, hormonal balance, and long-term capacity. The Most Powerful Medicine You're Not Prescribed
If we could bottle the effects of strength training into a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world. Strength is the single most underrated tool for protecting both the physical and mental body across your entire life; Especially for Women!
From a young age, many women are taught, directly or indirectly, to be small, thin, light, and quiet. The cultural message is clear: take up less space. But when it comes to health and longevity, this conditioning is dangerous!
Women need muscle mass. In fact, we all do.
As we age, both men and women experience a decline in sex hormones:
In women: oestrogen, progesterone, and oxytocin drop significantly, particularly around menopause and then they almost disappear completely.
In men: testosterone and growth hormone gradually decline from midlife onwards.
These hormonal shifts don’t just affect our cycles or libido, they influence energy levels, inflammation, blood sugar regulation, mental clarity, bone health, and importantly, body composition.
The loss of oxytocin a hormone deeply involved in social bonding and emotional regulation, is also linked to increased abdominal fat and weight gain brain fog, inflammation, just to mention a few ways oxytocin affects us, especially in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.
Strength training, however, can help balance this by stimulating the release of muscle-derived signalling molecules (myokines) that positively influence mood, metabolism, and hormonal health.
While HRT (hormone replacement therapy) is now being recognised as an effective support during menopause, particularly for women struggling with hormonal symptoms, it's not the only answer. Lifestyle still matters. Supporting the body through targeted strength training gives you access to your body's own internal pharmacy, without side effects.
Why Strength Training Works: Muscle as a Metabolic and Endocrine Organ
Muscle isn’t just about aesthetics or brute force. It’s a metabolically active tissue that communicates with the brain, bone, liver, fat, and immune system through myokines and hormonal signalling molecules.
When you lift weights or engage in resistance-based movement, your muscles contract, and in doing so they release a cascade of biochemical signals. These include:
- IL-6 (Interleukin-6) → Modulates inflammation and improves fat and glucose metabolism
- IL-15 → Supports lean muscle growth and reduces visceral fat
- BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) → Enhances neuroplasticity, learning, memory, and emotional regulation
- Osteocalcin → Released from bone during strength training, supports insulin sensitivity, and brain health. Increases serotonin in the brain.
- Irisin → Converts white fat into energy-burning brown fat; may reduce cognitive decline
- Adrenaline & Noradrenaline
→ Boost mental alertness and energy; tightly regulated by nervous system balance
These powerful molecules influence:
- Inflammation
- Blood sugar control
- Brain function
- Bone turnover
- Immune signalling
- Mood and motivation
- Hormone balance
- Fat metabolism
Muscle Loss and the Danger of Being Under-Muscled
We often talk about the risks of being overweight, but we rarely talk about being under-muscled, a condition that may pose even greater risks to long-term health and independence.
As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass and strength. This process is known as sarcopenia, and it begins in your 30s if you don’t take steps to prevent it.
Sarcopenia and muscle loss contribute to:
- Increased fat accumulation
- Insulin resistance and high blood sugar
- Poor mitochondrial function
- Increased inflammation
- Weakness and poor balance
- Cognitive decline
- Bone loss and osteoporosis
- Loss of physical independence
The same goes for osteoporosis. Bones are living tissues that respond to load. Walking and stretching alone are not enough. Without strength training, bones do not receive the mechanical signals they need to stay dense and resilient.
As Dr Gabrielle Lyon puts it:
“Muscle is the organ of longevity. The more muscle you have, the better protected you are from nearly every chronic disease of ageing.”
What Does Strength Training Look Like?
- Bodyweight training: squats, push-ups, pull-ups, lunges
- Resistance bands, kettlebells or dumbbells
- Slow, intentional movements with load
What matters is that you're challenging your muscles enough to stimulate growth and adaptation. If it feels easy, it’s not building new muscle.
Start With:
4–5 days per week
15–30 minutes per session
Cardio
Train Your Heart to Support Your Brain, Body, and Energy for Life. If strength training is the anchor of physical resilience, then cardiovascular training is the engine that keeps the entire system running smoothly. The heart, lungs, blood vessels, and mitochondria all work together to deliver oxygen, nutrients, and energy to every organ, including the brain.
When we talk about “cardio,” we’re not just referring to sweating or burning calories. We're training the endurance system: the ability of the body to keep going, recover faster, and remain alert, oxygenated, and mentally clear, no matter your age.
Why Cardio Matters for Longevity
Cardiovascular fitness is one of the strongest predictors of lifespan and healthspan, even more so than body weight or cholesterol levels. A well-trained cardiovascular system helps prevent and manage:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Type 2 diabetes
- Arterial stiffness
- Stroke and heart attack
- Fatigue and breathlessness
- Cognitive decline
- Mood disorders and burnout
- Sleep dysfunction
- Poor recovery and inflammation
A healthy heart is also essential for maintaining energy and joy. It allows you to hike, swim, run after kids, climb stairs, dance, travel, to keep doing the things that make life meaningful.
As Dr Peter Attia writes, “The most overlooked organ in the pursuit of longevity is the heart.” But through training, we can make the heart stronger, the arteries more elastic, the blood richer in oxygen, and the mitochondria more numerous.
The Two Types of Cardio You Need
To build a long-lasting cardiovascular engine, you need both Zone 2 and Zone 5 training. Each one targets a different system within your endurance capacity.
Zone 2 Training: Your Mitochondrial Superpower
Zone 2 is low to moderate-intensity aerobic work, where you can still breathe through your nose and hold a conversation, even though you’re moving continuously.
This is the zone where your mitochondria (the energy factories in your cells) are trained to become more efficient at using fat for fuel and producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the universal energy currency of the body.
Benefits of Zone 2 Training:
- Increases mitochondrial density and efficiency
- Improves insulin sensitivity and fat metabolism
- Enhances cardiac output without overstressing the body
- Lowers resting heart rate
- Reduces blood pressure
- Improves brain oxygenation and clarity
- Supports kidney and liver perfusion
Dr Peter Attia recommends 3.5–4.5 hours of Zone 2 training per week for longevity. This could be:
- Brisk walking (up hill for added effort)
- Easy cycling
- Slow to medium jogging
- Swimming
- Hiking with gentle inclines
The key is consistency over intensity.
Zone 5 Training: Building Peak Output and Resilience
Zone 5 is high-intensity, maximal-effort training, short bursts of near-maximum work followed by recovery periods.
This kind of training boosts VO₂ max, your body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently at high output, which is a powerful biomarker for cardiovascular health, longevity, and brain function.
Benefits of Zone 5 Training:
- Increases VO₂ max, a top predictor of lifespan
- Builds cardiac output and stroke volume
- Stimulates red blood cell production
- Improves oxygen delivery to muscles and brain
- Increases heart rate variability (HRV) and resilience to stress
- Strengthens mental toughness and sharpens focus
- What does it look like?
- Sprint intervals: 30 seconds all-out, 90 seconds rest, repeated 6–8 times
4-minute intervals: 4 minutes at 90–95% max effort, 4 minutes active rest, repeated 4 times - HIIT cycling or rowing sessions
- Running up hills or stairs
You only need 30–60 minutes per week of Zone 5 training to see benefits. More is not better, your nervous system needs recovery too.
What’s Actually Changing Inside Your Body?
Every time you train your cardiovascular system, you’re not just burning calories, you’re rebuilding your internal transport network.
Cardio training leads to:
- More blood volume (which helps your heart pump more efficiently)
- Stronger heart muscle, which lowers heart rate
- Increased capillary density (better blood delivery to tissues)
- Higher red blood cell count (improved oxygen transport)
- Greater ATP production (more energy in muscles and brain)
- Increased neurovascular coupling, supporting brain performance
- Over time, your body becomes more oxygen-efficient, your recovery improves, and your resilience against inflammation and disease increases.
Cardiovascular Training for Brain Health
The brain is the most oxygen-demanding organ in the body. Reduced blood flow to the brain has been linked to:
- Brain fog
- Memory loss
- Mood disorders
- Early cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s
Cardiovascular training improves neurovascular coupling, ensuring that the brain receives adequate blood flow and nutrients, especially during times of mental demand or stress. It also boosts BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), supporting learning, memory, and emotional stability.
How Much Cardio Do You Need?
A weekly target:
| Type | Frequency | Duration |
| Zone 2 | 3-5 x week | 30-60 min/session |
| Zone 5 | 1-2 x week | 30-60min/weekly |
You can split sessions into smaller segments if needed. A morning walk, a bike ride to the shop, or a stair sprint session all count. What matters is that your heart and lungs are challenged, and your mitochondria are stimulated.
Breath
Regulate Your Chemistry, Recover Faster, and Train Smarter. Most people think of breathing as automatic, and it is. But that’s exactly why it’s so powerful. It’s the only autonomic function (like heart rate or digestion) that we can consciously control. This makes breath a unique gateway to influence our nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune system, and even brain function.
In the Five to Thrive framework, breath training is the reset switch. It influences how we move, recover, sleep, think, and feel.
Breath Is Not About Oxygen, It’s About CO₂
It’s a common misconception that we breathe to get oxygen in. In truth, we breathe to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂).
But here’s the paradox: we actually need a certain amount of CO₂ in the blood for oxygen to be delivered to the tissues. This is known as the Bohr effect. When CO₂ levels are too low (from over-breathing), oxygen binds too tightly to haemoglobin and isn’t released into the cells efficiently.
In simple terms:
Too little CO₂ = poor oxygen delivery = fatigue, anxiety, dizziness, poor focus.
When we train our CO₂ tolerance, we teach the body to function better with slower breathing, steadier blood gases, and greater calm under pressure.
What Is CO₂ Tolerance?
CO₂ tolerance is your body's ability to comfortably tolerate rising levels of carbon dioxide without triggering stress or panic signals. It’s one of the fastest ways to assess:
- Nervous system resilience
- Oxygen efficiency
- Mental clarity and endurance
- Low CO₂ tolerance is linked to:
- Anxiety
- Shallow breathing
- Poor sleep
- Low endurance
- Poor circulation
- Cognitive fog
You can test it with simple protocols (like the whispered exhale test or breath-hold test)* and then improve it through structured breath training.
Intermittent Hypoxia: A Natural Performance Enhancer
Hypoxia means “low oxygen.” When we deliberately create short periods of low oxygen through breath-hold training, we trigger powerful adaptive responses.
This is called intermittent hypoxia training, a practice supported by studies in athletic performance, brain health, and recovery.
- During breath-holds (especially after exhale), the following occurs:
- EPO (Erythropoietin) is stimulated, this is the hormone that increases red blood cell production, improving oxygen delivery
- CO₂ rises, improving tolerance and triggering vasodilation (wider blood vessels)
- The body becomes more efficient at using available oxygen
- Mitochondria adapt to function better under metabolic stress
These mechanisms are similar to what happens at high altitudes, but without leaving your mat or chair.
EPO: The Red Blood Cell Booster
EPO is best known as the hormone athletes were illegally using for performance enhancement. But our bodies can naturally stimulate EPO through intermittent hypoxia, no injections or altitude tents needed.
Why EPO matters:
- Increases red blood cell count
- Improves oxygen transport and endurance
- Supports recovery and energy
- Enhances brain oxygenation
- Helps reverse symptoms of anaemia or poor circulation
Breath-hold protocols can safely stimulate small EPO responses, especially when done consistently over time.
Breath and the Vascular System
Slow, controlled breathing increases nitric oxide (NO), particularly through the nose and during humming or Bhramari breath. Nitric oxide:
- Causes vasodilation (widening of blood vessels)
- Improves blood flow to the heart, brain, kidneys, and muscles
- Supports immune function and cognitive performance
- It also reduces vascular resistance, helping to lower blood pressure and calm the nervous system.
Rhythmic Breath: The Missing Link in Circulation and Organ Health
The diaphragm is more than just a breathing muscle, it’s a pressure pump for the entire body. With every deep breath:
- It moves the digestive organs, improving motility
- It mobilises lymphatic fluid
- It creates a thoracic pump that enhances venous return to the heart
- It influences kidney perfusion and helps regulate filtration
In other words, breath is movement inside the body.
Nervous System Reset: Breath as a Regulator
Fast breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). Slow, nasal, controlled breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).
Structured breathing improves:
- Heart rate variability (HRV)
- Vagal tone
- Emotional control
- Resilience to stress
- Sleep quality
This is why breath is a pillar in elite performance, trauma recovery, and anxiety treatment.
How to Start Training Your Breath
You don’t need hours. Just 5 minutes, 3 times a day can completely shift your physiology over time.
Try:
- Water-style breath (Even inhale and exhale through nose)
→ For baseline nervous system regulation
- Box breathing (Inhale, Hold, Exhale, Hold, 4–6 seconds each)
→ For mental clarity and CO₂ regulation
- Breath-hold after exhale
→ To gently stimulate EPO and improve CO₂ tolerance
- Bhramari (humming) breath
→ To increase nitric oxide and calm the vagus nerve
Always train safely, seated or lying down, and stop if you feel dizzy or unwell.
Stretch
Reclaim Movement, Calm the Nervous System, and Expand Your Range. Stretching is not just about flexibility. It’s about unlocking tension that holds us back, restoring ease of movement, and enhancing both muscle and joint health, especially as we age.
In the Five to Thrive framework, stretching is your recalibration tool. When practised consistently and correctly, it improves how your body moves, how your muscles function, and how your nervous system responds to stress.
Why Stretching Becomes More Important With Age
As we age, our tissues stiffen. Joint capsules tighten, muscle fibres shorten, and our ability to move freely begins to narrow, unless we deliberately intervene.
Without regular stretching, we begin to lose:
- Full range of motion (ROM)
- Joint hydration and fluidity
- Coordination and postural efficiency
- Physical comfort and mobility
- Confidence in our own body
These changes are not inevitable. They are reversible. And they are best addressed with daily, deliberate stretching.
Stretching is especially important after decades of repetitive habits, like sitting, shallow breathing, or poor sleep, that lead to chronic muscular tension and limited movement patterns. Over time, this builds up into a body that feels “stuck.”
The Two Phases of Stretching
A well-designed stretch practice works in two phases:
Phase 1: Releasing Resting Muscle Tension
Many people already have more range of motion than they can access. The issue is often neurological tone, the nervous system holding muscles in a chronically activated state.
In Phase 1, stretching helps:
- Reduce baseline muscular contraction
- Improve tolerance to elongation
- Reclaim range of motion that already exists but is blocked by tension
- Repattern the brain-body connection
This is where you start to feel your body “let go.” Your breath deepens, your pulse slows, and your awareness returns to areas that may have felt numb or locked up.
Phase 2: Sarcomere Genesis
With consistent, longer-duration stretching, we move into structural changes within the muscle fibres themselves. This is called sarcomere genesis, the creation of new contractile units within the muscle.
This allows for:
- True lengthening of the muscle tissue
- Increased resting length of muscle fibres
- Greater joint mobility and freedom
- Long-term flexibility gains
- More efficient movement patterns
This process doesn’t happen in 30 seconds. It requires time under passive tension. That’s why we hold each stretch for 2–5 minutes, giving the body the space to adapt, release, and remodel.
Stretching and the Nervous System
Stretching has a profound influence on the nervous system. Slow, intentional stretching triggers parasympathetic activation, your body’s rest-and-repair state. It also stimulates the release of key neurochemicals:
- GABA: a calming neurotransmitter that reduces anxiety and relaxes the brain
- Endorphins: natural pain relievers and mood enhancers
- Oxytocin: supports emotional safety and reduces inflammation
- Serotonin: improves mood and emotional regulation, especially when paired with breath
This is why many people feel clearer, calmer, and more emotionally stable after stretching. It isn’t just a physical release: it’s a whole-body reset.
When to Stretch
The best time to stretch is in the evening, when your body is naturally winding down and more responsive to parasympathetic activity. Stretching before bed:
- Reduces physical and emotional tension
- Improves sleep quality
- Enhances overnight recovery
- Leaves you more mobile and energised the next morning
It’s also a powerful way to break the cycle of stress-induced stiffness, especially if your day involved high mental load, prolonged sitting, or intense physical activity.
The Benefits of Daily Stretching
- Reduces chronic tension and pain
- Increases range of motion (ROM)
- Improves joint health and mobility
- Enhances posture and movement efficiency
- Supports hormonal balance and emotional stability
- Improves sleep and recovery
- Regulates the nervous system
- Reconnects you to your body
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Growth
The Need Behind All Others. In the Five to Thrive model, Growth is the quiet yet essential pillar. It’s the part of your routine that nourishes the mind and spirit, the part that gives everything else meaning.
Inspired by the work of Tony Robbins, growth is one of the six fundamental human needs, alongside certainty, variety, significance, connection, and contribution. It’s not just a want. it’s a core human drive.
While strength, cardio, breath, and stretch focus on what you do, growth asks why.
What Is Growth?
Growth is the desire and ability to evolve as a person: to expand your understanding, improve your skills, deepen your emotional intelligence, and align more closely with what truly matters to you.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress.
And progress is what gives us meaning, motivation, and momentum in life.
Without growth, even a strong and healthy body can feel directionless. We may go through the motions of living, but without purpose, we don’t thrive.
The Physiology of Purpose
Having a sense of purpose is not just a psychological luxury, it’s a biological necessity. Studies show that people who report a strong sense of purpose have:
- Lower levels of cortisol (stress hormone)
- Improved immune function
- Better cardiovascular health
- Lower risk of cognitive decline
- Greater emotional resilience
- Longer lifespan
A brain with direction is a brain that functions better. When you’re actively growing, learning, reflecting, contributing, your brain releases dopamine, the neurochemical of motivation, and strengthens neural pathways associated with creativity, planning, and reward.
How to Grow: Practical Pathways
Growth looks different for each person. It might be:
- Learning something new
- Reading books or listening to podcasts
- Deepening a spiritual or meditation practice
- Taking a course
- Exploring a creative outlet like writing, art, or music
- Building a meaningful relationship
- Giving back to others
- Reflecting on life and clarifying your values
- Setting and working towards personal or professional goals
- Being with family, loved ones and friends
What matters is that it challenges you and expands your perspective. Growth happens outside your comfort zone, but inside your values.
Why Growth Supports Healthspan
A strong body without a reason to use it eventually stops moving.
Growth fuels your desire to keep showing up, to keep training, eating well, sleeping deeply, and living fully.
It creates emotional stability, long-term motivation, and a sense of identity that goes beyond external appearances. It’s what keeps us engaged with life, regardless of age, injury, or change.
The body may carry you through life, but it’s purpose that carries you forward.
DO IT
The Five to Thrive are more than health habits, they’re life practices.
- Strength gives you resilience.
- Cardio gives you endurance.
- Breath gives you regulation.
- Stretch gives you freedom.
- Growth gives you purpose.
They are the foundation for healthspan, the number of years you live feeling well, moving well, and living meaningfully.
Not every day will be perfect. But when you engage with these five pillars consistently, you’ll feel the shift: more strength, more energy, more breath, more space, more direction.
And that is what thriving truly means.