Everyone Plays Some Kind of Game
Consciously or not — every person plays some kind of health game.
Even people who don’t take care of themselves at all are also playing — just the destructive version of this game, where each day accelerates the loss of assets and shortens the time they stay in good shape.
The problem is that most people don’t know what game they’re actually playing.
Their actions are random:
- one week running, then a ketogenic diet, then sauna, cold plunges, fasting, a trendy supplement, “cutting” training, and a moment later a complete break “because of no motivation”,
- something pops up on TikTok — they follow it,
- a friend’s trainer says something — they try it,
- an influencer advertises something — they buy it.
This is not a strategy. It is drifting between foreign systems, without direction, without a vision, without internal logic.
And yet every game has its rules, its goals and its own success metrics.
- The game for a summer six-pack has one set of rules.
- The game for a marathon result — completely different ones.
- The game for a bodybuilding podium — another set entirely.
- The game for longevity and long-term health — the most complex and most comprehensive rules of all.
If you don’t define the game you’re playing, then… you’re playing someone else’s game.
- The influencers’ game.
- The game of athletes preparing for a single specific result.
- The supplement marketing game telling you that “this is the magic pill you need”.
Actions without context create chaos, and chaos doesn’t build health assets.
This is why the first step of the Longevity Investment Strategy is:
Name the game you play.
Determine your real goal, because only then can you choose the right tools, the right assets, and the right protocol — one that leads exactly where you want to go.
Different Health Games and Their Goals
Before you set your strategy, you must first answer one question:
What are you actually playing for?
Every game — even if it looks similar on the surface, like running, gym training or “healthy eating” — has different rules, different demands, and different assets it develops.
What’s more — the game you choose will completely change your protocol, your decisions and your results.
The Game of Appearance (Aesthetics / Physique)
Goal:
External looks, low body fat, the “summer cut”.
Key assets:
- body composition,
- muscle mass,
- low body fat level,
- aesthetic symmetry.
Risks:
- excessive dietary restriction,
- calorie obsession,
- decreased libido and hormones,
- low energy, yo-yo effect.
Problem:
This game almost always ignores long-term health.
Only what is visible counts.
The Game of Performance (Sport Goal)
Goal:
Achieve the best possible result in a specific discipline:
marathon, triathlon, powerlifting meet, crossfit.
Key assets:
- aerobic and anaerobic capacity,
- discipline-specific strength,
- mental endurance,
- resilience to heavy loads.
Risks:
- overuse injuries,
- overtraining,
- burnout,
- neglect of recovery, mobility and metabolic health.
Paradox example:
Ultramarathon runners show similarly high cardiac mortality as sedentary people — extremes on both sides are not good for longevity.
Problem:
This game develops only selected assets — the others often degrade faster.
The Game of Avoiding Disease
Goal:
“Be healthy”, avoid illness, have decent lab results.
Key assets:
- metabolic health,
- stable immune function,
- recovery,
- basic physical fitness.
Risks:
- stagnation — no progress,
- lack of ambition,
- focusing on norms, not potential,
- neglecting strength, endurance, brain and emotional health.
Problem:
This game keeps you alive, but it doesn’t give you a life full of freedom, strength and energy.
The Game of Longevity and Long-Term Peak Health
This is the game described by the Longevity Investment Strategy.
Goal:
Keep the body in the best possible condition for the longest possible time —
so that at age 80–90 you can do what you love without limitations.
Key assets:
All of them — physical, cognitive, emotional.
Strategy:
- long-term planning,
- regular protocol iterations,
- balance and asset diversification,
- developing the entire health portfolio.
Key principle:
You cannot expect that running, gym training or diet will “fix everything”.
You must develop all asset classes — simultaneously, harmoniously and consistently.
Problem:
It is the most demanding game, with many complex rules.
Longevity Is a Comprehensive Game
Unlike other health games, the longevity game has no finish line.
- You are not preparing for a single competition day.
- You are not building form for one season.
- You are not training for one specific result.
You are preparing for life. Your whole life.
This is a completely different way of thinking.
In the longevity game, it’s not about being the best at one thing — the strongest, the fastest or the most “shredded”.
It’s about maintaining a high level across all assets that determine your quality of life for decades:
- muscle mass and strength,
- aerobic capacity,
- metabolic health,
- mobility and balance,
- cognitive function,
- emotional stability,
- relationships and sense of meaning.
This is the foundation of the Longevity Investment Strategy — versatility protects you from the collapse of any single asset.
Meanwhile, many people play games that are inherently one-sided:
- runners develop capacity but neglect strength and muscle mass,
- bodybuilders build muscle but often ignore VO₂max and metabolic flexibility,
- biohackers focus on supplements but don’t move their bodies,
- “healthy lifestyle” people have good lab results but low physical fitness or weak cognitive reserve.
The result?
Their health portfolio is unstable.
One asset is “overinflated”, others — dramatically neglected. A small crisis (injury, stress, work, illness) is enough for the whole structure to collapse.
The longevity game is based on a completely different premise:
You don’t invest in one area. You invest in all of them. Your whole life should be functional, strong, stable and free from limitations — both at 40 and at 80.
This is what makes this game the hardest, but also the most valuable.
Longevity Requires a Different Time Perspective
If you want to be capable at 80, you must already be in great shape decades earlier — not “someday”, not “when I have time”, but here and now.
Longevity is a game where today’s decisions determine your future freedom.
It is a game in which you invest now, and the dividends are paid not once, but:
- in a week (more energy),
- in a month (better sleep and mood),
- in a year (lower body fat, higher strength),
- in a decade (healthy metabolism, strong brain, capable body),
- and over a lifetime (independence, freedom, capability at 80+).
Longevity is not about “crawling” to old age and trying to “start living after 80”.
The goal is to live in peak condition for as long as possible — decade after decade.
For that to happen, you must treat your health like an asset that you grow today, not like a problem you will “deal with someday”.
Define Your Game Before You Design the Strategy
Before you build a protocol, before you start planning training, supplements or interventions — you need to answer one fundamental question:
What game am I actually playing?
As I mentioned earlier — every game has different rules, different tools and different assets that lead to victory.
- If your goal is longevity, but you train like a professional marathon runner — you’re playing the wrong game.
- If you want to live long and be full of energy, but your actions are focused only on aesthetics — you’re playing a game that gives fast results, but terrible long-term consequences.
- If you want to hike in the mountains at 80, but your lifestyle supports only metabolism and not strength and VO₂max — you’re building a protocol for a completely different game.
That’s why you should pause for a moment and answer these questions:
-
What is my real goal?
Looks? Sports performance? Avoiding disease? Or longevity and peak condition throughout life? -
Do my daily actions really move me toward that goal?
If not — you’re playing the wrong game. -
Which assets am I supporting and which am I neglecting?
Are you taking care only of VO₂max? Only of strength? Only of diet?
Longevity requires balance. -
Which decisions today will pay off in 20–30 years?
Which of them build your assets, and which drain them?
Only when you know what game you are playing can you build the right strategy for it.
The game of longevity and long-term health requires the broadest spectrum of actions — but it also gives the biggest reward.
Switch to the Right Game
The longevity game is a game of balance, consistency and accumulation — not extremes, not spikes, not short-lived bursts of motivation.
Unlike other health games:
- it’s not about maximizing a single parameter,
- it’s not about winning a single season,
- it’s not about temporary form.
Longevity is about maintaining a high, stable level of all key assets that together determine your quality of life:
- muscle mass and strength,
- bone density,
- metabolic health,
- aerobic capacity,
- mobility and balance,
- memory and cognitive function,
- emotional resilience.
It’s a team game — your body works as a system of interconnected elements.
If one asset starts to drop:
- body composition loses stability,
- metabolism worsens,
- injury risk increases,
- endurance drops,
- mood and stress resilience get worse,
- the brain ages faster.
In the longevity game, a drop in one asset drags down the entire portfolio.
That’s why switching to the right game means that:
- you stop acting randomly,
- you start acting systematically,
- you take care of all health fundamentals,
- you build a strategy that works today — and will still work 30 years from now.
You are not playing for “summer shape”.
You are playing for a lifetime of capacity.
Phases of the Longevity Game: How Our Ability to Build Assets Changes Across the Decades
One of the biggest differences between the “longevity game” and other games (aesthetics, sport, short-term form) is that the longevity strategy changes with age, because the biology of the body itself changes.
We don’t rigidly stick to a single plan for life.
We modify it so that in each decade we create the best conditions to accumulate, maintain or protect
health assets.
We can divide the Longevity Investment Strategy into 3 phases.
Phase 1: Accumulation (up to around age 50)
What does science say?
-
Up to around age 30 we spontaneously (without extra interventions) reach our biological peak:
- maximal muscle mass,
- highest bone density,
- highest metabolic flexibility,
- peak processing speed and working memory.
-
From around 30 to 50 we can still:
- actively build muscle mass and strength,
- significantly raise VO₂max,
- increase or maintain bone density,
- improve metabolic stability (HOMA-IR, glucose, ApoB),
- maintain or improve cognitive function through intensive learning and mental training.
Conclusion
This is the golden era of building health assets.
Your return on investment is highest, because the body responds very strongly to stimuli.
This phase determines how much biological capital you will later have to “spend”.
Phase 2: Maximum Maintenance (around 50–70)
What does science say?
-
After 50, the rate of sarcopenia, VO₂max decline and bone loss accelerates, but:
regular strength and interval training can almost completely halt the decline. -
Studies on people in their 60s and 70s show that they can still:
- regain some muscle mass,
- improve strength,
- improve VO₂max,
- improve mobility and balance,
- dramatically improve metabolic status,
- stimulate neuroplasticity by learning new skills.
Conclusion
In this phase, the goal is to keep assets as close to peak as possible.
It’s still a high quality of life — but it requires consistency.
Neglect during this period can “erase” decades of previous investments.
Phase 3: Slowing the Decline (after around 70–80 and beyond)
What does science say?
-
After 75, natural degenerative processes intensify, BUT:
at any age you can improve strength, VO₂max and function — even at 90.
Examples from research:
- 90-year-olds increase strength by 20–30% after a few weeks of resistance training,
- people 75+ improve VO₂max with light intervals,
- balance training reduces fall risk by 20–40%.
Conclusion
The goals here are:
- to slow the decline,
- maintain mobility,
- maintain independence,
- protect the brain,
- prevent fractures and falls.
Every percentage of preserved asset matters enormously here.
The Longevity Game = a Three-Phase Investment Game
We can summarise it in three sentences:
Up to around age 50 → you build assets
The highest rate of return. You can build faster than you lose.
Ages 50–70 → you keep assets close to peak
Your goal is to pause biological time.
After 70–80 → you protect assets and slow the decline
Every preserved percent of strength, VO₂max or bone density translates into years of independence.
Why Is This Model the Foundation of the Longevity Investment Strategy?
Because it makes you realise that if you want to be in great shape at 80–90:
- you cannot be “average” at 40,
- you cannot aim just to “not have diseases”,
- you cannot assume “it will somehow maintain itself”,
- you cannot do only one thing (e.g. only run, only lift).
You need to have above-average health assets today, to be able to pay out “biological dividends” later.
That’s why the goal of a longevity strategy is NOT just healthy old age.
The goal is:
- great shape now,
- even better shape in 10 years,
- stable condition in 30 years,
- and a satisfying life even at 80+.