Dr. Levine’s “Prescription for Life”

I wanted to share some information from Dr. Levine because I thought he succinctly defined how you can exercise “for life” meaning, living longer.

Interestingly, because we live in an unnatural way, in my opinion, we have to actively seek out how to strengthen our bodies, including our heart, and make appointments to do so. No longer does it come with our acts of daily living and so, here is a prescription for life:

This is the exercise regimen that Dr. Levine believes is sustainable and is the best strategy for preserving cardiovascular health.

• One long aerobic exercise session weekly, lasting an hour or more: Keep it fun and keep it easy — it could be dancing, a long walk or bike ride, or a fitness class.
• One high-intensity exercise session weekly: He loves the Norwegian 4×4 workout but notes that other variations of high-intensity intervals can also work. (Norwegian 4x 4 is 4min of max work followed by 3 minutes of recover, repeat 3 more times. Dr. Levine says you can do this in any combination of work times and rest times as long as the intensity is high and you hit the total duration.)
• Two to three sessions of moderate-intensity base pace training weekly: Use the talk test to monitor your intensity — you should be able to hold a conversation but not sing.
• Two to three days of resistance training: Exercise to improve muscular size, strength, or both.

Training for health is not the same as training for performance. If your goal is to have a competitive performance objective, you might need to train differently.

​This information comes from Found My Fitness podcast.

BIO: Benjamin D. Levine, M.D., FACC, FACSM, FAPS, FAHA, is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Division of Cardiology. He holds the Distinguished Professorship in Exercise Sciences. He is the founding Director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where he also holds the S. Finley Ewing Jr. Chair for Wellness and the Harry S. Moss Heart Chair for Cardiovascular Research.