Bryan Johnson spends roughly two million dollars a year trying to slow his own biological ageing, and the exercise component is the cheapest, most replicable part of the whole operation. It costs about an hour a day and needs almost no equipment.
It is also the part with the clearest results. Johnson's VO2 max reached 64.29 ml/kg/min — a figure that sits in the top 1% of elite twenty-year-olds, up 23% in two years. His dominant-hand grip strength measures 60kg, above the age at which male grip strength normally peaks. He is in his late forties.
This is the full seven-day protocol as Blueprint publishes it, plus the training logic underneath it and an honest read on which parts actually matter.
Related: The complete Blueprint protocol — diet, sleep, supplements and measurement →
The Design Brief: Train for the Biomarkers
Most training programmes optimise for how you look. Johnson's optimises for four measurable outputs he believes predict how long you stay alive and functional: VO2 max, muscle mass, bone density, and balance.
That choice explains everything unusual about the programme. VO2 max is one of the strongest single predictors of all-cause mortality in the literature, which is why a third of his training week is cardio at prescribed heart-rate zones rather than whatever pace feels right. Balance and flexibility get dedicated slots because falls are a leading cause of death in older adults, not because they make anyone look better.
The training is organised around zones rather than exercises. Johnson allocates roughly 1 hour a week in zone 1 (light), 4.5 hours in zones 2 to 4 (moderate), and 1.5 hours in zone 5 (vigorous). Six sessions a week, three strength and three cardio-led, each 45 to 90 minutes.
The Seven-Day Split
| Day | Session | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strength + moderate cardio | 45–60 min |
| 2 | HIIT + steady-state cardio | 45–60 min |
| 3 | Strength + flexibility, balance, mobility | 60 min |
| 4 | HIIT intervals | 25–30 min |
| 5 | Full-body strength | 45–60 min |
| 6 | Norwegian 4x4 protocol | 30–40 min |
| 7 | Active recovery | 35–50 min |
Note there is no complete rest day. Day 7 is gentle yoga, mobility and meditation — movement kept deliberately below any training stimulus. Whether that is optimal is arguable; whether it is sustainable for someone with a normal job is a separate question we come back to at the end.
20 MINUTES A 20 minute session in a suit that shocks you = 3 hours at the gym? The research, the suits, the studios and what it actually costs. Everything we know about EMS, in one place. SEE THE EVIDENCE →Day 1: Strength and Moderate Cardio
Five minutes of general warm-up on a bike or walking, then five minutes of dynamic work — arm circles, leg swings, high knees, lateral lunges.
The strength block runs about 20 minutes:
- Squats. 3 sets x 10–15 reps
- Push-ups. 3 sets x 8–12 reps
- Single-arm dumbbell rows. 3 sets x 10–12 reps
- Kettlebell swings or farmer's walks. 3 sets x 30 seconds
- Planks. 3 sets x 20–30 seconds
Then 5 to 10 minutes of stability work — single-leg balance, bird dog, single-leg Romanian deadlift, plank shoulder taps, dead bug — and 25 minutes of moderate cardio at 60–70% of max heart rate. Brisk walking, slow jogging, cycling, swimming or elliptical all qualify.
Day 2: HIIT and Steady State
The HIIT block is short and genuinely hard: 20 seconds all-out, 20 seconds rest, 8 rounds. Four minutes of work total. Beginners extend the rest to 40 seconds. Modality is open — bike ergometer, treadmill, track, or bodyweight.
The remainder of the session is moderate cardio at 60–70% max heart rate.
Day 3: Strength, Flexibility and Balance
The most distinctive session of the week, and the one most people skip.
- Dynamic stretching, 10 min. Arm circles, wall slides, thread the needle, hip CARs
- Strength, 30 min. Compound movements, deliberately targeting areas not sore from Day 1
- Yoga, 15 min. Cat-cow, cobbler's pose, tree pose, cobra
- Static stretching, 5 min
Fifteen minutes of yoga inside a strength programme looks like a luxury. Given that balance is one of the four biomarkers the whole protocol is built around, it is closer to a core lift.
Day 4: HIIT Intervals
Eight to ten rounds of 60 seconds above 90% max heart rate — jumping jacks, high knees, burpees, mountain climbers or sprinting — alternated with 60 seconds of walking or light jogging.
Twenty-five to thirty minutes including warm-up. This is the session that does most of the work on anaerobic capacity.
Day 5: Full-Body Strength
- Lunges. 3 sets x 10–12 reps
- Overhead press. 3 sets x 10–12 reps
- Dumbbell chest press. 3 sets x 10–12 reps
- Step-ups. 3 sets x 10 reps each leg
- Side plank holds. 20–30 seconds each side
Followed by 5 to 10 minutes of stability work. Progressive overload applies here as it would in any strength programme — the longevity framing does not exempt you from adding weight over time.
Day 6: The Norwegian 4x4
The single highest-value session in the programme, and the one with the best evidence behind it.
Four rounds on a treadmill or indoor bike:
- 4 minutes at 85–95% of max heart rate
- 3 minutes at 60–70% of max heart rate
The 4x4 protocol is the most studied intervention for raising VO2 max in adults, with published increases in the region of 17–22% depending on population. Johnson's 23% VO2 max gain over two years is consistent with what the protocol produces when it is actually adhered to.
If you take one session from this article, take this one. It is 30 minutes a week and it moves the biomarker most associated with mortality risk.
Day 7: Active Recovery
Twenty to thirty minutes of gentle yoga, stretching and mobility, plus 15 to 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation. No training load.
Movement Between Sessions
Outside the six workouts, Johnson moves for 5 to 10 minutes after every meal and after every 30 minutes of sitting. This is not framed as exercise and it does not appear in the weekly zone accounting.
It is also, for most desk-bound readers, probably the highest-yield habit in the entire protocol relative to the effort it takes. Postprandial walking has a measurable effect on glucose response, and the cost is close to zero.
His Measured Results
| Metric | Result | Context |
|---|---|---|
| VO2 max | 64.29 ml/kg/min | Top 1% of elite 20-year-olds; +23% in two years |
| Grip strength (dominant) | 60 kg | Above the typical male peak age of ~32 |
| Bench press 1RM | 240 lb | Top 10% of 18-year-olds |
| Leg press 1RM | 800 lb | Top 10% of 18-year-olds |
| Push-ups | 60 continuous | Top 10% of 18-year-olds |
| Sit and reach | 26.5 in | Flexibility, YMCA protocol |
The honest caveat: these numbers are not the product of exercise alone. Johnson runs a tightly controlled diet protocol, an unusually disciplined sleep routine, and dozens of daily supplements. Attributing the VO2 max figure to the 4x4 sessions alone would overstate the case, though the 4x4 is very likely doing most of that particular job.
Running This Without $2M a Year
Strip the programme back and there are four components that carry nearly all the value:
- The Norwegian 4x4, once a week. 30 minutes. Best evidence-to-time ratio in the entire protocol.
- Two full-body strength sessions. Enough to defend muscle mass and bone density, which is the actual longevity objective.
- Zone 2 cardio, 2–3 hours a week. Accumulated however is convenient, including walking.
- Ten minutes of balance and mobility. Attached to the end of a strength session so it never needs its own slot.
That is roughly four hours a week rather than seven-plus, and it retains the parts with real evidence behind them. The daily-session structure is a scheduling preference, not a physiological requirement.
One genuine constraint worth naming: this protocol is entirely heart-rate-zone driven. Every cardio prescription in it is written as a percentage of maximum heart rate. Running it by feel means not running it — the difference between 70% and 85% is the difference between two completely different adaptations, and almost nobody estimates it accurately without a monitor.
If the six-session frequency is the barrier rather than the intent, EMS training is worth a look as a way to add a low-joint-stress strength stimulus in 20 minutes — the evidence on what it does and does not do is genuinely mixed, but the time argument is real.
What This Programme Gets Right
Whatever you make of the wider Blueprint project, the exercise protocol is unusually well constructed. It trains all four qualities that decline with age rather than just the one that shows in a mirror. It prescribes intensity in measurable terms instead of vague effort. It puts the 4x4 — the highest-evidence cardio intervention available — at the centre rather than treating cardio as an afterthought to lifting.
And it is genuinely accessible. The equipment list is dumbbells, a kettlebell, and something to run or cycle on. The barrier is adherence, not access.
Explore Similar Routines
- Bryan Johnson's Blueprint Protocol — the full system this training sits inside.
- Bryan Johnson's Daily Routine — how the six sessions fit around a 4:30am start.
- The Longevity Workout Routine — the general-case version of training for healthspan.
- Dr Peter Attia's Daily Routine — the closest comparison, with more emphasis on stability and rucking.
- Andrew Huberman's Daily Routine — a different weekly structure built on the same zone logic.
- Andy Galpin's Workout Plan — the exercise-physiology view of training the same adaptations.
The protocol targets four measurable outputs: VO2 max, muscle mass, bone density and balance. Everything here maps to one of those. Heart-rate measurement comes first because every cardio prescription in the programme is written as a percentage of max HR — without it you are not running this protocol, you are running something adjacent to it.