Vishen Lakhiani describes setting monthly health benchmarks like push-ups or belt fit, then intervening whenever you slip. The trick: always surpass the old number, not just return to it. Two hours of high-intensity training per year can reverse muscle loss and keep you strong as you age.
Questions this video answers
December 7, 2022
Two hours per year (using high-intensity interval training).
Do 30 minutes a week in January and then not work out for the next 11 months; the speaker claims you do not lose muscle over the year with that pattern.
The 10x fitness model.
Chapters
So I want to share with you a really interesting idea that can help you stay healthy and live longer. And it's a really cool idea. I first wrote about it in my book the Code of the Extraordinary Mind, or Codigo das Mentas Extraordinarias, if you speak Spanish. The idea has to do with a concept called non negotiable set points. So a set point is a non negotiable standard you set for yourself in areas related to your health. For example, how many push ups can you do? Right now? Let's say the answer is 30. Okay? Or maybe 50. Measure that and set that as a set point every month. See if you can continue doing 30 push ups. Now, if there's a month where you drop below 30, let's say you can only do 29. It means you activate an intervention strategy. It means that you've seen somehow lowered your benchmark for health. And an intervention strategy might be okay. Maybe you want to eat healthy, lose some extra weight. Maybe you want to go to the gym a little bit more. But here's the rule. The intervention strategy shouldn't get you to 30. It needs to get you beyond 30 to 31 or 32. You now have to beat 30. Now, the reason we have you beat 30 rather than get back to 30 is really simple. It's psychology. If your set point is 30, and in February, say after the December January season, you've eaten a lot, you go down to 28. If you set a mental idea in your mind to go back to 30, what you're really telling your body is that I've slipped, I gotta go back. But if you set a goal to get to 31 or 32, now you're telling your body, I'm gonna become better than I ever was before. And what happens is you're more excited about committing to the goal. So when you do a non negotiable set point, what often happens is that the standard aging that happens to people, it bypasses you because you don't slip. If you go from 30 to 29, you don't accept that as, oh, I'm getting old. You accept that as a challenge to become better than you ever were before. When you set a non negotiable set point, you are telling yourself, I am never gonna slip. I'm gonna get better and better and better with age. All it takes is that commitment to not negotiate on your set point. Now, some of you may be asking, well, doesn't this require a lot of working out? Actually, no. Studies have shown that to reverse cyclopenia. You only have to work out. Now, bear with me here. It's gonna be surprising for many of you when I ask people, how much workout do you have to do to reverse sarcopenia and keep your body and your muscles firm? Per year, people say, okay, maybe one hour a week. Okay, per year. So that's 52 hours. The answer is actually two hours. If you work out using high intensity interval training. In mindvalley, our model for that is the 10x fitness model. If you work out just using high intensity interval training in the right way for 30 minutes a week in January, and then you do not work out the next 11 months, you don't lose any muscle. The next gen you are at the same level. That is actually how easy it is. But you got to be non negotiable about it. Now, non negotiable set points are not just push ups. You can do it with pull ups, you can do it with the loop on your belt buckle. You can do it with strength. How much can you lift? But the most important thing is be non negotiable about aging.
