Simone Staffa

Three runs, three strength sessions and one day to recover.

The template is the Foundational Fitness Protocol by Andrew Huberman and Dr. Andy Galpin, adapted to my week: a long Zone 2 run, a short easy run, one 4 × 4 interval session, three full-body strength days with different focuses, each followed by 15 minutes of sauna, and a recovery day with a mobility class and contrast therapy. Below is what I do, when, for how long and how, followed by the research behind it.

This is my log, not medical advice.

The week

Each bar starts when I start and is as long as the session: runs at 08:30, strength at 09:00.

06:0012:0018:00
  • Mon
    Long run
  • Tue
    Chest focus + sauna
  • Wed
    Mobility class + contrast
  • Thu
    Back focus + sauna
  • Fri
    Easy run
  • Sat
    4 × 4 intervals
  • Sun
    Shoulders, core + sauna
  • Easy run
  • Intervals
  • Strength
  • Sauna, cold, mobility

Why mornings: it fits my day, and it anchors my body clock. Morning exercise moves the clock earlier while late-evening sessions push it later, and lifting in the morning builds the same strength and muscle as lifting in the evening. Sources

  • Mon08:30Long run, ~10 km45–75 min · Z2
  • Tue09:00Strength: full body, chest focus, then sauna50 + 15 min · —
  • Wed17:30Recovery: mobility class, contrast therapy (sauna + cold plunge)45 min · easy
  • Thu09:00Strength: full body, back focus, then sauna50 + 15 min · —
  • Fri08:30Short easy run, 5–8 km30–40 min · Z2
  • Sat08:30Intervals: 4 × 4, Norwegian style25–30 min · Z4–5
  • Sun09:00Strength: shoulders and core, no legs, then sauna50 + 15 min · —
  • 2–4×anytime10-minute mobility, after lifting or to break up sitting10 min · easy

What it trains

How the week covers the body and the heart, and what each part is for. Dark blocks are the main focus of a day; light blocks are also worked.

MTWTFSS
Cardiovascular
Aerobic base
VO₂ max
Strength
Legs
Chest
Back
Shoulders & arms
Core
Recovery
Mobility & heat/cold
  • Main focus
  • Also worked
  • Rest

Every area gets a main-focus day. Legs are worked on five days but are never the main focus, and Sunday leaves them out.

Every day

On top of the six sessions: walking. About 10,000 steps a day, and a 10-minute walk after each meal. Low effort, every day, including the recovery day.

Steps

10,000a day

Runs included; a ceiling, not a magic number

After meals

10min

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, starting within 15 min

Days

7of 7

Recovery day included

A strength day

08:0014:0020:00
  • Training
  • Meal
  • 10-min walk

Daily steps

Across 15 cohorts and 47,471 adults, more steps were linked with lower mortality; the benefit levelled off at 8,000–10,000 a day under 60, and 6,000–8,000 over 60.

Observational. 10,000 started as a 1960s Japanese pedometer slogan; for my age it happens to sit near the plateau. Under 60, steps had no clear link to heart disease.

Sources: Paluch 2022 · Paluch 2023 · Saint-Maurice 2020

Walking after meals

A 10-minute walk after each meal cut the post-meal glucose rise by 12% (22% after the biggest meal) versus one 30-minute walk; the sooner after eating, the better.

Best data are in type 2 diabetes; small trials in healthy adults point the same way. My effect is likely small; it's cheap and adds steps.

Sources: Reynolds 2016 · Engeroff 2023 · Bellini 2021

Cardio

Two easy runs and one hard session. Zones are my own from Whoop, with a measured max of 191 bpm.

Z2Z4Z5
100120140160180200

Long run · Mon

45–75 minutes, about 10 km, nose-breathing pace. The aerobic base for everything else.

~10 km · 45–75 min · 132–146 bpm

Easy run · Fri

A shorter Zone 2 run, 5–8 km. Easy enough to hold a conversation.

5–8 km · 30–40 min · 132–146 bpm

4 × 4 intervals · Sat

Four minutes hard in Zone 4–5, three minutes easy jogging, repeated four times, with a warm-up and cool-down around it. The one session a week that should hurt.

4 × 4 min, 3 min easy between · 25–30 min · 162–191 bpm

Strength

Three full-body sessions in blocks: 3 exercises back to back, 3 rounds, each round inside 3 minutes. The earlier I finish within 3 minutes, the more I can rest.

This drawLegs 3Chest 3Shoulders 1Triceps 2Core 3

Block 1 · 3 rounds · 3′ each

Block 2 · 3 rounds · 3′ each

Block 3 · 3 rounds · 3′ each

Core finisher · 3 minutes

Tap an exercise to see it move. Shuffle draws a new balanced session from the day's pool. Bar: one 3-minute round, three exercises back to back, then rest until the clock restarts.

Every exercise in Tue's pool · 59

Recovery

Wednesday at 17:30 is the recovery day. It starts with a mobility class, then contrast therapy: sauna and cold plunge. About 45 minutes, no intensity.

10-minute mobility, 2–4× a week after lifting, or to break up long stretches of sitting.

Example 10-minute routine

Contrast

Wednesday's contrast block: two rounds of 15 minutes of sauna at 85–90 °C, then 3 minutes in a 5 °C plunge, ending on cold. Bars are to scale. On top of that, 15 minutes of sauna after every strength session.

Sauna 15 min, 85–90 °C Cold 3 min, 5 °C

Weekly total: 75 min heat (30 on Wednesday, 3 × 15 after lifting), 6 min cold.

Evidence

What each part of the week triggers inside the body, what that does for energy and the mind, and what it helps prevent. The bars are my read of how strong the evidence is; hover a blue chip for what it means.

Zone 2 runs

  • AMPK → PGC-1α
  • Mitochondrial growth
  • Anandamide + 2-AG (endocannabinoids)
  • Fat oxidation
Energy
Training volume is the main driver of more mitochondria in muscle, so the long easy runs build the base that makes everything else feel less tiring.
Mind
45 min of moderate running raised endocannabinoids, euphoria and calm, and blocking opioids did not stop it, so the 'runner's high' is not mainly endorphins.
Prevents
Running of any amount is linked with 27% lower all-cause, 30% lower cardiovascular and 23% lower cancer mortality, with no clear extra benefit from running more.

Sources: Pedisic 2020 · Siebers 2021 · Hill 2008

4×4 intervals

  • Stroke volume ↑
  • BDNF
  • μ-opioid release
  • Cortisol + ACTH
Energy
4×4 intervals raised VO2max by 7.2% in 8 weeks, more than the same work done at an easy or threshold pace.
Mind
Hard intervals raise BDNF more than steady hard effort and release brain opioids, but the opioid release tracked feeling worse during the session, not better.
Prevents
VO2max is one of the strongest predictors of lifespan: the least fit had 5× the death rate of the fittest, a bigger gap than smoking (1.4×) or diabetes (1.4×).

Sources: Helgerud 2007 · Mandsager 2018 · Saucedo Marquez 2015

Strength training

  • GLUT4
  • IL-6 + myokines
  • Insulin sensitivity ↑
Energy
Ten weeks of lifting added about 1.4 kg of lean mass and raised resting metabolic rate by about 7% (narrative review, older data).
Mind
Across 33 randomised trials, lifting reduced depressive symptoms by a moderate amount; for every 4 people who train, 1 more improves than without training (NNT 4).
Prevents
Muscle-strengthening is linked with 10–17% lower all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes; 150 min a week of weights alone is linked with 34% less type 2 diabetes.

Sources: Momma 2022 · Grøntved 2012 · Gordon 2018

Sauna

  • Endothelium-dependent dilation
  • Arterial stiffness ↓
  • Heart rate ↑ (like light exercise)
Mind
One session of whole-body heating (a medical device, not a sauna) cut depression scores by about 6 points vs sham for weeks in a small trial; sauna itself is untested.
Prevents
Men using a sauna 4–7 times a week, compared with once, had 63% lower sudden cardiac death, 66% lower dementia and 46% lower high blood pressure risk.

Sources: Laukkanen 2015 · Laukkanen 2017 · Zaccardi 2017

Cold plunge

  • Noradrenaline ×5
  • Dopamine ×2.5
  • Cold-shock habituation
  • Brown-fat thermogenesis
Energy
The jump in noradrenaline explains the alert feeling afterwards, but trials have not shown a lasting energy effect.
Mind
Huberman frames the plunge as deliberate stress: choosing to stay calm through the shock trains top-down control over the stress response, a skill he says carries into the rest of the day. The body side is measurable: after six 3-minute dips the initial gasp and heart-rate spike fell sharply, and staying anxious stops that from happening. Reviews find no reliable effect on mood itself.
Prevents
No disease outcome is established; one cold-shower trial found 29% less sickness absence, and cold briefly raises inflammation markers.

Sources: Šrámek 2000 · Tipton 1998 · Barwood 2017 · Cain 2025 · Huberman Lab

Mobility

  • Range of motion ↑
  • Muscle stiffness ↓
  • Arterial stiffness ↓
Energy
In a 3-month trial of 134 workers, 10 min of stretching after work raised vitality and lowered exhaustion a little compared with no stretching.
Mind
The same 10-min stretching programme lowered anxiety by a moderate amount compared with no stretching.
Prevents
Regular stretching eased neck, shoulder and low-back pain in office workers, but it does not prevent sports injuries (RR 0.96); strength training does, cutting them by about two-thirds (RR 0.32).

Sources: Lauersen 2014 · Shariat 2018 · Montero-Marín 2013 · Kato 2020

Morning training

  • Melatonin rhythm shifts earlier
  • Body-clock cue
  • Cortisol awakening response
  • Fasted fat burning ↑
Energy
Sessions land during the body's natural morning cortisol peak, the rise that clears grogginess, and move the body clock earlier, so you get sleepy earlier at night and wake up more easily. Done before breakfast, training also raised the fat burned over the whole day from 456 to 717 kcal.
Mind
A 30-minute morning walk raised BDNF, a protein that helps brain cells grow and connect, and improved memory and planning across an 8-hour sitting day.

Sources: Youngstedt 2019 · Iwayama 2015 · Wheeler 2020

I built this program from three books: Protocols by Andrew Huberman, Outlive by Peter Attia and Good Energy by Casey Means. Not medical advice.

Use with AI

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Connect to Simone Staffa's training, nutrition and sleep protocols. Add the MCP server https://simonestaffa.com/mcp (read-only, no sign-in needed). If you can't add servers, read https://simonestaffa.com/training.md, https://simonestaffa.com/nutrition.md, https://simonestaffa.com/sleep.md instead. Then help me use them: start by planning today's training and meals.

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My week: training and meals Tuesday's session What to eat after lifting