Exercise for aging people: where to begin, and how to minimize risk while maximizing potential | Peter Attia, M.D.

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
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Welcome to a special episode of The Drive. This is an episode that is like an AMA, where I'm the one answering the questions. However, it is an episode that will be available to all. One of the most common questions that we receive through the site is from people who are quote unquote older, we'll define that as my cohort and up 50 and up, who realize the importance of exercise, but are wondering if it's too late for them to start. This could be because they've never trained or they're worried about injury, they have no idea how or where to start, or they used to exercise when they were young, but they've kind of got away from it, and they're just trying to figure out what to do. As such, we wanted to create an episode for these people, people above 50 who haven't been exercising, at least recently, want to start, but don't know where to begin. In this episode, we speak about exercising in that age range as it relates to all four pillars of exercise, and dive into not only why it is not too late, but what one can do to start exercising, minimize injury risk, and maximize potential. This conversation will be a little less technical than some of our AMAs. I wanted to try to keep it a bit more conversational. And what we've done to accommodate that is included many of the studies that support the observations and points that are being made in the show notes.
Even if you're not in this, quote, older slash 50 and up age category, most of you likely know someone who is like a parent, and you may find this, hopefully, something that you can share with them and help them to start exercising. So without further delay, I hope you enjoy this special episode of The Drive.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:47)
Peter, welcome to a special episode. How are you doing?

**Peter Attia** (2:49)
Very well, thank you.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:51)
So today's episode is special in that it's kind of shot like an AMA, but it's going to be available to everyone. And what we're going to cover is one of the most common questions that we see come through day in, day out to the website is whether people who are quote unquote older, let's say, just for general purposes for this conversation, 50 plus, who realize the importance of exercise, but are wondering if it's too late for them to start. And this could be whether they've never trained or worry about injury, they don't know what to do or how to do it, or they just think, you know what, it's too late for them to really make a difference. And so we wanted to create an episode for that group, 50 plus, who have not been exercising, but want to start.
And although much of what we'll talk about applies to anyone in that age category, it also can apply to anyone of any age who is deconditioned and looking to start slow. With that said too, anyone who's younger most likely has parents who might be in this position, and this could be a good episode to send to them to encourage them to start. And so how we're going to structure it is a little less technical than some of our AMAs and much more conversational as to how you would speak to these people if they were your patients and came to you and were asking you these questions. In the show notes, we'll have the studies that you talk about. We'll link to them. We'll link to other content that goes much deeper, but this will be a little bit more on that conversational side.
So, with all that said, anything you want to add, as someone who is now in the quote unquote older category as well.