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Longevity is trending, and the consumer health industry has started broadening its scope, beyond the confines of “how to get a six pack in six weeks” or “how to become alarmingly musclebound before lunch” to include a more sustainable model for health. But still, there are healthy and unhealthy approaches to longevity. Getting obsessive and letting it dictate your every move? Bad. But altering your routine slightly in ways that, cumulatively, have a positive influence? That’s more like it. The morning is a pretty good place to start. For most of us, it’s the quietest, most consistent and therefore adaptable part of the day. Here’s how to design a morning routine for longevity, according to the experts. The Best Time to Wake Up “The good news is that the morning habits that will increase your chances of a long and healthy life are also the habits that can make a good start to any day—enough sleep, some exercise, a healthy breakfast,” says Elizabeth Goyder, Professor of Public Health and member of the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield. “But otherwise there is no one prescription that is right for everyone and a morning routine has to be sustainable, and fit in with also the other changing demands in your life,” she says. For most people, the time you wake up is a product of when you go to bed and what time they have to start their day. And actually, provided you’re getting enough sleep (6-9 hours for most people), that’s kind of OK. No wake-up time is inherently best, but what is healthier, according to the science, is getting up at roughly the same time every day. As with so much of health, it’s a matter of consistency. “The most important aspect of sleep is regularity,” says Dr. Daniella Marchetti, a clinical health psychologist specializing in behavioral sleep medicine at Rise Science. “Going to bed every day at the same time and rising every day at the same time (regardless of how you slept that night) is the best thing someone can do to feel refreshed in the morning.” So pick the window that works best for you: and stick to it, no matter what. The Best Morning Gym Routine For longevity, muscle mass is key. You don’t need to be stacked, but having a decent amount of muscle mass is both useful and very hard to achieve in older age, so starting sooner rather than later is your friend here. Morning can be a good time to get it done: the gym’s a little quieter, the crowd’s a little more focused, and you’ll go through the rest of your day with the smug satisfaction of having already done a hard thing. “Muscle mass is much harder to build in your 60s,” says Richard Faragher, a Professor of Biogerontology (the biology of aging) at the University of Brighton. When you’re in your 20s and 30s, it’s as simple as 'lift heavy, lift consistently, and supplement that with a [0.8 grams] of protein per [pound] of bodyweight,” Faragher says. “For a 60 year-old, they need to eat 1.5 to twice that amount of protein to build muscle. That’s really hard.” Cardio is important too, and you’ll want to achieve a balance between lifting and running. The exact nature of that balance might depend on your goals. While gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time might be possible for some people, Faragher says that it’s generally not a sensible plan to pursue both goals at the same time. So if you want to achieve both, focus on one for a while (more lifting, more eating), and then the other (more cardio, less eating). Provided you keep using your muscles during the latter phase, you don’t need to worry too much about losing muscle. Maintaining muscle mass is much easier than gaining it. Like with sleep, the best plan is the one you’ll actually follow. The Best Time to Eat Breakfast Consensus seems to be solidifying around the idea that delaying your first meal might be a good idea. The thinking goes that doing so gives your gut a little more time to get itself in order, and avoiding a carbo-load helps avoid spikes in insulin (and therefore energy), which can be worse in the morning. As for what to eat, Faragher says getting some protein is a good goal too. Some yogurt and a handful of fruit should do it. Other Health Tips to Live By “My advice is always get the basics right,” Faragher says. “There are five behaviors that you should be adopting, and they are: don’t smoke, moderate alcohol, watch your weight, exercise, and try and get your five [servings of fruit and vegetables] a day.” In summary, if you want to devise the perfect morning routine for longevity, be consistent with your sleep pattern, exercise with the aim of building muscle, and keep breakfast light and vitamin-filled. What you do with the rest of the day is really up to you. This story originally appeared in British GQ.
