What does it really mean to be Hard to Kill? I end up touching on this with a lot of members in The Lifetime Athlete App during our Personal Coaching Consultations. Most people really jive with the HTK concept, but a few bristle at it and say it sounds too much like a macho action film theme. I’m certainly not against any particular framing of HTK, because any way you can identify with a motivation to be healthy and thriving is great. For some, that’s a warrior society.
At TLA, HTK is actually an inclusive warrior society because we are all fighting the same evil…and that’s an early demise or one that has an unattractive final couple of chapters. This is what Peter Attia refers to as the marginal decade, and it can certainly represent a longer time period than 10 years. His position is similar to mine in that it is incredibly undesirable to exist in a relatively deconditioned state and be unable to participate in an enjoyable sunset era. No one either wants or deserves to be plagued with significant functional limitation, illness, medications and procedures, institutionalization, loss of independence, and a low quality of life. I refer to this evil we are all fighting together as the Grim Reaper. In the end, he gets us all, but we don’t have to submit early or make it easy for him.
Consequently, being Hard to Kill is being full of LIFE…a vital being who is robust, resilient, versatile, and durable. A Hard to Kill human has the ability to engage in all areas of life with zeal and vigor. He or she is a beast who trains for, expresses, and retains the properties of strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance. HTK is the opposite of being stiff, slow, weak, and fragile. Think not just of physical prowess in sports, fitness, work, and recreation. Envision the energy to foster rich and meaningful relationships, think clearly with dementia-free neurons, have plaque-resistant arteries, and to live each day to the fullest. To contribute as much as you accomplish.
That status of being a hard to kill Lifetime Athlete is achieved by everything we do in life. Sleep, nutrition, mindset, and many daily habits and practices factor into the equation. But when you examine the data on efficacy of intervention, it’s exercise training which has by far the greatest, statistically significant impact on health and longevity. By a large margin. Thus, training for LIFE means not just doing regular exercise, but thoughtfully turning that into training which keeps all your athletic capacities alive in your being. This truly makes your golden years golden. That’s being Hard to Kill. It’s the reason I’ve been working in this field since 1984, and why I’ve developed The Lifetime Athlete App to be a resource for people who are serious about being Hard to Kill and want actionable information they can easily access.