The Measure is Not the Target
Weekly Wisdom 57
August 21, 2026
Dr. Peter Attia is probably the most well-known voice espousing the importance of Health Span, a shift in medical mindset prioritizing quality of years over quantity. A couple of decades earlier, CrossFit founder Greg Glassman was already warning about the fallacy of extending your lifespan before resolving the problem of advancing decrepitude prevalent in our society’s aging population. After all, what is the point of living longer if you suffer from dementia or are being kept alive by a cocktail of drugs and surgical interventions?
Both these thought leaders emphasize the importance of prioritizing health so that you can enjoy the years available to you. Fortunately for us, health and longevity are not mutually exclusive. Fitter, healthier people also tend to live longer. So, this is one of those rare instances where you might get to have it both ways.
When Metrics Become the Goal
By now, I am sure that you have heard of some of the predictors of healthy aging. Dr. Peter Attia holds VO2 max as the gold standard for decreasing all-cause mortality. Others herald muscle mass. And still others talk about grip strength as the most accurate predictor of your health and longevity. There are studies to back up all of these claims. VO2 max, total muscle mass, and grip strength all correlate with healthier aging and reductions in all-cause mortality.
But before you go chasing one of these metrics, you need to understand that not a single one of these measures on its own is protective against the ravages of aging so much as that the habits required to develop them do.
I’m sure you can picture it: the rail-thin, emaciated runner who has shed all his muscle mass to optimize for VO2 max. He is frail, weak and likely to be blown into the nearest ER by the first stiff breeze to cross his path. The hulking powerlifter with the steroid bloat belly who can’t climb a flight of stairs without getting winded is no better off. Strong as he is, he is a heart attack waiting to happen. And the guy reclining in his Lazy Boy, watching eight hours of Netflix per day while working his grip strength on his Captains of Crush, is not getting any of the protective benefits associated with his superior grip strength. These are silly examples, of course, but people really do look at the headlines and then chase a single health metric without understanding why it was important in the first place.
The Habits Behind the Numbers
You see, what VO2 max, muscle mass, and grip strength all have in common is that they are attributes developed only after a significant investment of time and effort. We’re talking years of consistent training. And that is what really produces the health-protective benefits rather than the individual measure itself. Someone who exercises regularly is statistically more likely to have a higher VO2 max, more muscle mass, and better grip strength than someone who doesn’t. And that’s why the correlation between these measures and healthy aging exists. If you are already exercising daily, doing a bunch of grip-specific exercises isn’t going to move the needle. Neither will a couple more points on your VO2 max nor a couple more pounds of muscle.
The Moon, Not the Finger
This is the pointing at the moon effect. VO2 max, muscle mass, and grip strength are the clues pointing toward the practices required to maintain health as you age. The general public, distracted by the measure, fixates on following the finger instead of understanding what it is pointing at. And as a result, they start chasing the measure instead of the practices that led to the development of the measure.
Better Tests of Healthy Aging
That’s why I think that the get up and go test and the power production test provide more meaningful results. Your ability to get up and down off the floor not only tests strength, balance, coordination, and mobility, it has practical application in your actual day-to-day life. No matter what your health markers say, if you struggle to get up and down off the floor, life is going to get hard for you, fast. No amount of VO2 max, muscle mass, or grip strength is going to keep you out of long-term care if you can’t get yourself off the floor when you fall.
And power is the application of force as a function of time. A weak person cannot generate power. But neither can a strong person who has not trained athletically. Real speed and power are not developed in most strength and conditioning programs. The loads they use are either too light or the lifts they perform are too slow. Throwers, Olympic lifters, jumpers, and sprinters are the best examples of athletes who specialize in power production. Again, it is not the power itself that is protective; it is the athletic training required to develop that power.
Jumping, sprinting, and lifting are all required to maintain optimal bone and muscle health. And we are learning now that bones play a much larger role in our health than just creating a scaffold on which to hang our soft tissue. They are also responsible for hormonal signalling. Muscle is not only hormonally active, but it is also the largest metabolic organ, playing a key role in regulating your blood sugar.
Don't Confuse the Measure with the Target
VO2 max, muscle mass, and grip strength are all great attributes and useful indicators of systemic health, but don’t confuse the measure with the target. Improving these in isolation will not make a meaningful change in your health outcomes. Participating in the activities that develop these attributes will. If there are targets worth pursuing in order to optimize health span, I would focus on mastery of getting up and down off the ground and athletic power production. And in fact, that is exactly how I bias my training. Olympic lifting, sprinting, jumping, throwing, and get-ups all appear in my weekly training regimen. If I can still perform all these at 80, I will be killing it. And so will you!
Greg Glassman: Solution to the World’s Greatest Problem
https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/solution-to-the-worlds-greatest-problem
Dr. Peter Attia: VO2 Max as a Predictor of Healthspan
Objectively Assessed Cardiorespiratory Fitness and All-Cause Mortality Risk: An Updated Meta-analysis of 37 Cohort Studies Involving 2,258,029 Participants
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35562197/
Low skeletal muscle mass index and all-cause mortality risk in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37285331/
Association of Grip Strength With Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in Community-Dwelling Populations: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28549705/
Muscle Power Versus Strength as a Predictor of Mortality in Middle-Aged and Older Men and Women
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40304660/
Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23242910/
