Updated on January 2025
A personal experiment on increasing healthspan and longevity by pushing the boundaries of our human genetic capabilities
I recently finished a “Paleolithic Pentathlon” experiment focusing on pushing the envelope on five physiological challenges relevant to keeping our pre-Holocene ancestors alive around 10.000 BC >> no cities or farms around yet:
- Starving (Extreme Fasting)
- Freezing (Cold Exposure)
- Aching (Pain Tolerance)
- Panting (Cardiac Capacity)
- Pumping (Weightlifting)
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The initial thought experiment was to figure out how much hardship our bodies are genetically capable of coping with, having the following guideline scenario as a benchmark:
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"You belong to a hunter gatherer band in Northern Europe during the Younger Dryas (last Ice Age)... food is becoming scarce because the winter is coming, so if you don't find a mammoth to hunt soon you're all going to die."
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This means you're constantly hungry, cold and in pain (of course you are - due to parasites, infections, etc). It also means that after months without moving around much because food was so plentiful, you'd better get your cardiac capacity up fast to cover vast distances scavenging for scraps and also become very strong quickly because as a nomad you must carry everything you own on your back (remember... no domesticated animals exist yet).
Sounds like lots of fun, doesn't it? But you don't even have to be a masochist to do it - it helps if you keep on reminding yourself that:
- Mental mastery over your hunger hormones (ghrelin pangs abate after 20mins or so) allow you to focus on critical survival matters;
- Accreting thermogenic brown adipose tissue due to cold exposure help prevent frostnip/frostbites when sheltering from the elements is not feasible;
- Building a sturdy musculoskeletal structure gives you fare more optionality in terms of how much you can do within your caloric budget;
- Developing a mountaineer's cardiovascular capacity can be rather handy when the friendly neighbourhood cave lion pops by unexpectedly and invites you for dinner;
- Having the ability to mentally cope with pain without taking any meds significantly extends your endurance.
I'd say that anyone alive today could benefit from personally improving the biomarkers above as the are all very useful features to develop - assuming that both longevity and healthspan are objectives you care about. As Nir Barzilai from the Institute for Aging Research would say... "dying young in old age" is a good way to summarise it.
The core precepts for the experiments were:
- Activities selected had to be as repeatable and measurable as possible (thus "fear" didn't cut the mustard).
- They had all to trigger a healthy hormetic response within the "therapeutic window" homeostatic range (i.e. it really sucks now, but is good for you long term).
- Activities with a high likelihood of making you sick the day after or taking unnecessary risks were to be avoided - things like drinking from a contaminated fountain and getting hammered with giardiasis for a few days (this one actually happened).
- The costs of all activities and equipment needed should be preferably zero or at least very affordable so that benefits can scale well to anyone around the world who would be interested in personally improving the relevant biomarkers being tracked.
I have posted already about "Starving", "Freezing" and "Pumping"; "Neolithic Olympics" is a more generic post covering a range of relevant topics (links in reference section below) - posts about "Panting" and "Aching" are forthcoming.
A few reference highlights from each category:
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"Starving"
Zero calories fasting for 100 days within exactly a year, with the longest stretch being 50 days with no food (legend says that Buddha fasted for 49 days to reach Nirvana, I did a day longer and all that I've got was a smaller t-shirt). Lost almost 40% of body mass, but found most of those kilos again (it was easy, they were hiding in my fridge). Mental sharpness increase was remarkable, got 100/100 rounds on target from 300m/yards on the sniper training range after 3wks without food.
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"Freezing"
Spent the whole winter 2023-24 wearing only a t-shirt outside even in -18°C/0°F weather while based half of that time in Davos, the highest city in Europe. Walked/hiked more than 500 kms/300 miles in total in subfreezing weather with just a thin layer of cotton fabric during all kinds of weather including while snowing and with windy conditions. It really sucks but you get used to it when the body acclimatises - by the end of winter I wasn't even shivering anymore.
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"Aching"
Three days after getting hip replacement surgery hiked 5kms. A month later hiked a marathon distance within three days and three months later an ultramarathon distance in the same day. Also in 2020 summited the 4'810m/15'800ft Mont Blanc solo starting from the lowest point (1'000m/3'300ft Chamonix Valley) with two severely arthritic hips, one of which had to get replaced soon after as it was provoking a visible limp due to the continuous pain which could lead into permanent atrophy.
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"Pumping"
Increased weights lifted by up to 400% in just 2.5 months starting from a baseline recommended by trainer for someone with my age and conditioning. Reached the maximum weight possible in almost half of the machines of a large gym (e.g. 230kgs/490lbs Leg Press and 130kgs/290lbs Back Extension 3x 20reps). Started very light with measured progressive overload to give tendons/ligaments time to adjust to the extra effort, zero injuries during the whole experiment. Protocol of 5x a week spending 2hrs+ at the gym and eating more proteins that you thought it was feasible to gulp down.
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"Panting"
After being mostly immobilised for almost two months due to a severe hip flexor tear caused by overtraining, the recovery of cardiovascular fitness was remarkably rapid - going from that of a 75yo to that of a 35yo within 3.5 weeks... a VO2Max improvement equivalent of four decades achieved in less than a month. Protocol was remarkably simple: 3x a week hiking uphill 200 vertical metres with a 16kgs/35lbs load using nordic poles, plus cycling with the same weight 2hrs a week to enhance proprioception.
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To make sure the information being shared is as comprehensive and accurate as possible I would really appreciate if you could use the chat icon below to point me in the direction of anyone you know who's an expert in the five areas covered by this personal experiment (Extreme Fasting, Cold Exposure, Weightlifting, Pain Tolerance and Cardiac Capacity) - many thanks in advance.
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Fred Flintstone style
New achievement unlocked: "My Week as a Caveman" 100kms trek
On Jan 1st 2025 I finished what I had previously referred to the "Neolithic Olympics" (http://tiny.cc/NeolithicOlympics) or the physiological characteristics our ancestors were most likely to have to stay alive before 10.000 BC.
This LinkedIn article describes the first time I managed to do all five of them together: