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name: longevity-protocol description: Assembles an evidence-tiered weekly longevity routine across the four pillars with the strongest healthspan data - sleep, zone 2 aerobic work, strength training, and dietary pattern - plus stress and connection, delivered as a filled weekly template with honest evidence labels. Use when someone asks "build me a longevity routine", "what actually extends healthspan", "audit my health habits", or "is this supplement stack worth it". General wellness guidance, not medical advice. Do NOT use to program the individual pieces in depth - use zone-2-cardio-plan for the aerobic block, strength-training-plan for lifting, sleep-optimizer for sleep, nutrition-planner for macros; for HIIT/conditioning use fitness-program; for interpreting labs use bloodwork-explainer. metadata: title: "Longevity Protocol"

Longevity Protocol

The costly mistake in longevity is inversion: obsessing over supplements and biohacks (weak evidence) while sleep, aerobic capacity, strength, and diet (overwhelming evidence) go under-managed. This skill assembles a weekly routine strictly in order of evidence strength and labels every recommendation with its tier, so effort lands where the healthspan return actually is. Healthspan - years in good physical and cognitive function - is the target, not lifespan alone.

Evidence tiers - apply to everything

• Tier 1 (act on these): sleep, exercise (aerobic + strength), dietary pattern, not smoking, social connection. Large, consistent human outcome data.
• Tier 2 (reasonable, weaker data): time-restricted eating, sauna, specific dietary tweaks beyond the core pattern. Plausible mechanisms, mixed or smaller human trials.
• Tier 3 (honest label: mostly unproven for longevity): nearly all supplements marketed for longevity - NAD precursors, resveratrol, and similar. Mechanistic or animal data, little or no human outcome evidence. Never present a Tier 3 item as if it were Tier 1, and never let it displace Tier 1 effort or budget.

Operating procedure

Order matters: pillars are addressed in descending evidence-and-leverage order, and the weekly template is assembled only after every pillar has a concrete dose.

Step 1: Gather inputs

Collect: age and sex; current exercise (type, days, duration); typical sleep hours and consistency; rough dietary pattern; smoking and alcohol; known conditions and medications (conditions mean physician sign-off before the exercise pillars - see Escalation); realistic weekly hours available (default plan needs ~6-7); and what they currently spend on supplements (this often funds the honesty conversation). Label self-reported estimates as estimates.

Step 2: Sleep - the non-negotiable foundation

Target 7-9 hours nightly, with consistency prioritized over duration: a fixed wake time anchors circadian rhythm better than managing bedtime. Core behaviors: no bright screens 30-60 minutes before bed, bedroom at 18-20 °C (65-68 °F), caffeine cut off after 1-2 PM, alcohol limited - even moderate amounts fragment deep sleep. Chronic sleep below 6 hours is associated with accelerated biological aging. For persistent problems, hand off to sleep-optimizer.

Step 3: Zone 2 cardio - the aerobic base

Zone 2 (full sentences possible, conversation effortful) is the most-studied exercise modality for longevity outcomes; VO2 max is among the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality, and Zone 2 builds the base that lets VO2 max improve. Dose: 150-180 minutes per week, default 3-4 sessions of 40-50 minutes - brisk walking, cycling, rowing, swimming, or light jogging. For zone calculation and progression, hand off to zone-2-cardio-plan.

Step 4: Strength - muscle and bone reserve

Muscle mass and grip strength independently predict longevity, and muscle is the body's main reservoir for glucose disposal, cutting metabolic disease risk. Minimum effective dose: 2-3 full-body sessions per week built on compounds - squat, hinge, push, pull. Progressive overload continues to work at every age; do not let it stop with age. For the actual program, hand off to strength-training-plan.

Step 5: Nutrition - the pattern, not a diet

No single named diet extends life; consistent patterns do. Defaults: protein 1.6-2.2 g/kg body weight, 30+ g fiber daily, abundant vegetables, minimal ultra-processed food, limited added sugar. Mediterranean and whole-food plant-rich patterns carry the strongest longevity data. Time-restricted eating (a 10-12 hour window) is a Tier 2 tool with metabolic benefits for some - useful, never a requirement. For targets and structure, hand off to nutrition-planner.

Step 6: Stress and connection - not a soft add-on

Chronic psychological stress accelerates biological aging through inflammatory and hormonal pathways and undermines every other pillar. Evidence-supported doses: consistent social connection (Tier 1 - comparable in effect size to major physical risk factors), purposeful activity, nature exposure, and any deliberate recovery practice - breath work, meditation, phone-free walking. For an acute problem, hand off to stress-management.

Step 7: Audit the supplement stack honestly

For each item the user takes: name its tier, what human outcome evidence exists, and whether a deficiency test (via their physician) would justify it better than default use. The honest default: redirect most supplement spend and attention to Tier 1 execution. Exceptions are physician-guided corrections of tested deficiencies.

Step 8: Assemble the weekly template

Fill the template below with the user's real constraints. The design rule: consistency over years beats maximal output in any single week - when time is short, shrink sessions before deleting pillars.

Worked artifact

LONGEVITY WEEK - [name] - ~6.5 h exercise + daily habits

Mon   Zone 2 (bike)        45 min   Tier 1
Tue   Strength full-body   50 min   Tier 1  (squat/hinge/push/pull)
Wed   Zone 2 (brisk walk)  45 min   Tier 1
Thu   Strength full-body   50 min   Tier 1
Fri   Zone 2 (row)         45 min   Tier 1
Sat   Zone 2 long + strength 45+45  Tier 1
Sun   Rest / nature walk + social meal        Tier 1 (connection)

DAILY: wake 6:45 fixed / caffeine cutoff 1 PM / screens off 10 PM /
protein 1.8 g/kg, fiber 30 g / eating window 8 AM-7 PM (Tier 2, optional)
SUPPLEMENTS: vitamin D per physician-tested level (deficiency-corrected);
dropped: resveratrol, NAD precursor - Tier 3, spend redirected to nothing.
QUARTERLY: grip strength, resting HR, waist, one Zone 2 benchmark re-test.

Deliverable

Produce a one-page weekly protocol containing: each pillar with its concrete dose and tier label, the filled day-by-day template within the user's stated hours, daily habit lines (sleep anchor, caffeine cutoff, protein and fiber numbers), the audited supplement list with tiers and what was cut, and a quarterly re-check list.

Do NOT

• Do not present Tier 3 supplements alongside Tier 1 pillars as if equally supported - evidence-tier inflation is the core failure this skill exists to prevent.
• Do not build a plan exceeding the user's stated weekly hours; an abandoned optimal plan loses to a kept adequate one.
• Do not swap Zone 2 volume for HIIT because it is time-efficient - high-intensity work complements, not replaces, the aerobic base (and belongs to fitness-program).
• Do not let any pillar go to zero to maximize another; the pillars compound and chronic stress or short sleep erodes the exercise returns.
• Do not prescribe for or around diagnosed conditions - that is a physician's job.

Quality bar

The protocol ships when: every recommendation carries a tier label; all Tier 1 pillars have numeric doses (hours, minutes, g/kg, sessions); the weekly template fits the user's real availability; the supplement audit names what stays, what goes, and why; deep-dive work is routed to the specialist skills rather than half-programmed here; and the physician-clearance note is present where conditions or age warrant it.

Escalation

This is general wellness education, not medical advice - a licensed physician owns anything clinical. Require physician clearance before the exercise pillars for: known cardiovascular disease or symptoms (chest pain, exertional breathlessness, fainting), uncontrolled blood pressure or diabetes, or a long fully-sedentary history in someone over ~50. Refer promptly regardless of protocol for: unexplained weight loss, new persistent pain, or symptoms of depression that connection and activity do not touch. Supplements and hormone interventions are physician conversations, ideally anchored to tested levels - bloodwork-explainer can prepare the questions. Route depth work: sleep-optimizer, zone-2-cardio-plan, strength-training-plan, nutrition-planner, stress-management, fitness-program.