A few months ago I got a Xiaomi Mi band fitness tracker (they’re only like $30 USD), but I mainly used it for the notifications. Then I noticed this weird thing called PAI(personal activity intelligence) on it (you get a weekly score), and looked it up.

So some health researchers did massive historical studies, in Norway, China, and the US ( > 500k people followed for years), and came up with a health indicator based mainly on your heart rate (resting and max), and age.

They found that people who acheived a certain threshold of heart rate activity per week, live on average 8 years longer, have less chance of cardio-vascular-disease and even less dementia. Then they created a formula to track it, and made it into a point system, where you try to keep above 100 PAI in the last rolling week. They found in PAI trials that people tend to stick with it longer, because its an acheivable goal, and for some reason its motivating to earn points like XP in a video game.

So 2 weeks ago I kicked my ass to get my PAI above 100, and now I’m maintaining it by doing intense cardio 2-3 days a week. I def feel healthier, and as I used to only do strength training, and no cardio, this has been painful.

Basically, there’s no proof or study whatsoever that shows that doing a ton of steps every week improves your health, but there is now scientific backing for high cardio activity = longer life. So I’m kinda excited now that a $30 health tracker might make me live 8 years longer.

So now I’m still doing strength training, but swapping out some of my core and leg exercises for HIIT ones that hit the same muscles, but keep my heart rate up.

Here’s some good articles about it:

• https://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/personal-activity-intelligence
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/personalized-activity-intelligence-better-way-track-exercise-2017012711031
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30797801/
• https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(18)30321-5/fulltext

To spice things up I played some futsal this week with my coworkers. I used to play on a pretty high amateur (regular soccer) level and despite being in pretty good shape, it was tough lol. Futsal is a very intensive thing to do and I was sore in places I didn’t know was possible.

My cold shower thing is going alright. It’s not as if I became an immortal, depression proof deity overnight but I quite like it to be honest. I’m not at the point where I can turn the actual cold shower on immediately so I start with the tap in the middle, get in and turn it colder. I do think my skin is less dry and I feel sort of activated when I do it, so it seems to have effects.

Overall I have been too busy to get actual workouts in so I just kept moderately active and ate well.