The protocols, and the evidence for each
SURVIVE only tracks things with published human evidence. This is the whole list, with the dose each study actually used — not a rounded-off version of it. Where the evidence is observational, it is described as an association rather than as proof of cause, because that is what it is.
Heat — sauna
The Laukkanen Finnish cohort followed 2,315 middle-aged men for a median of about 20 years. Sauna use of 4–7 sessions per week was associated with lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality than one session per week. This is observational: sauna-users may differ from non-users in ways the study could not fully adjust for.
- Laukkanen et al., JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015. View study
Cold exposure
Habitual cold exposure is associated with enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis via brown adipose tissue, and produces a sharp acute noradrenaline rise. The metabolic case is the better-established one.
- Søberg et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2021. View study
VO₂ max
Cardiorespiratory fitness has one of the largest effect sizes in the mortality literature. Moving from the "low" band to "above average" was associated with roughly 70% lower all-cause mortality in a cohort of 122,007 patients.
- Mandsager et al., JAMA Network Open, 2018. View study
Zone 2
Training at the intensity where lactate production still matches clearance is associated with higher fat oxidation and mitochondrial efficiency. Elite endurance athletes spend roughly 80% of training volume there.
- San-Millán & Brooks, Sports Medicine, 2018. View study
Sprint intervals
Three weekly sessions of 3×20-second all-out sprints — about 10 minutes of actual work per session — produced cardiometabolic adaptations comparable to 150 minutes per week of moderate continuous exercise.
- Gillen et al., PLOS ONE, 2016. View study
Strength
Resistance training was associated with 10–17% lower all-cause mortality independent of aerobic activity. Muscle power — force times velocity — appears to track survival even more closely than maximal strength.
- Momma et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022. View study
- Araújo et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2025. View study
Grip strength
Grip is a mortality biomarker you can measure without a blood draw, and it is also associated with cognitive outcomes — which is why it is tracked separately rather than folded into general strength.
- Leong et al., The Lancet, 2015. View study
- GeroScience (2022). View study
Sleep
The glymphatic system — the brain’s own waste-clearance network — primarily activates during sleep, flushing metabolic waste including amyloid-beta and tau.
- Nedergaard lab, Science Translational Medicine, 2012. View study
- Xie et al., Science, 2013. View study
Protein
Anabolic resistance means older muscle responds less to the same protein dose, so the requirement rises with age rather than falling. Muscle is increasingly understood as a metabolic organ, not just contractile tissue.
- Bauer et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015. View study
- Age and Ageing (2019). View study
Meditation and NSDR
These are two different tools. Eight weeks of MBSR is associated with measurable cortical thickening; NSDR/Yoga Nidra shifts autonomic balance toward parasympathetic tone in a single session.
- Lazar et al., NeuroReport, 2005. View study
- PubMed 22866996 (2012). View study