Health·agingExpert biochemist says a daily exercise that takes less than an hour is the ‘gold standard’ for reversing your age by decadesBy Dave SmithBy Dave SmithEditor, U.S.
NewsDave SmithEditor, U.S.
NewsDave Smith is a writer and editor who previously has been published in Insider, Newsweek, ABC News, and USA TODAY.SEE FULL BIO The Norweigan 4x4 tocol ders outsized returns on investment in terms of cardiovascular health and longevity.Extreme Photographer—Getty ImagesA renowned biochemist has identified what she calls the “gold standard” exercise routine that could turn back the clock on your heart by up to two decades, taking less than an hour to complete and needing to be performed just once or twice weekly.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a minent reer with a Ph.D.
in Biomedical Science from the University of Tennessee, recently appeared on The Diary of a CEO, the podcast hosted by British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.
During the interview, Patrick championed what’s known as the “Norwegian 4×4 tocol” as the most effective exercise method for reversing age-related damage to the cardiovascular system.
The science behind Dr.
Patrick’s claims Patrick, who her postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital Oakland Re Institute and currently serves as founder of FoundMyFitness, has built her reputation on translating complex scientific re into actionable health insights.
Her academic credentials include published re in journals such as Nature Cell Biology and FASEB Journal, with extensive work on aging, nutrition, and disease prevention.
The Norwegian 4×4 tocol, developed by reers at the Norwegian University of Science and nology (NTNU), involves four rounds of four-minute high-intensity intervals ed by three-minute recovery periods.
Patrick described the routine as sustainable intensity exercise where “you’re not really having a conversation while you’re doing it,” but it’s “far from all-out” effort.
The exercise can be performed on various equipment including stationary bikes, rowing machines, or assault bikes, with participants maintaining apximately 75-80% of their maximum heart rate during the active intervals.
The total workout, including warm-up and cool-down, takes roughly 30-40 minutes and needs to be performed only once or twice per week.
The tocol’s effectiveness stems from landmark re published in Circulation, one of the world’s leading cardiovascular journals. The study, led by Dr.
Benjamin Levine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, ed 61 healthy but sedentary middle-aged adults (average age 53) for two years.
Participants who ed a structured exercise gram that included the Norwegian 4×4 tocol once weekly showed remarkable imvements: an 18% increase in maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) and a more than 25% imvement in left ventricular compliance, effectively reversing structural heart changes by apximately 20 years.
“As we age, our hearts get smaller and stiffer,” Patrick said during her Diary of a CEO interview.
“After those two years of 5 to 6 hours of physical exercise every single week, their hearts looked 20 years younger in terms of structure.” Central to the tocol’s anti-aging effects is its impact on VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise.
Re consistently shows VO2 max as one of the strongest predictors of longevity and cardiovascular health.
A major study published in JAMA involving over 122,000 participants found individuals with the lowest VO2 max values had a fourfold increased risk of mortality compared to those with the highest values.
Simply moving from the bottom 25th percentile to the 25th-50th percentile was associated with a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality.
Performing the exercise safely Patrick emphasized the Norweigan 4×4 tocol requires gressive implementation. “It’s not easy, you can’t just start doing it right out the gate,” she said.
“You want to kind of work your way up to that… work your way up as you do it one week, two weeks, you know, a month later, two months later.” For fessionals seeking efficient health optimization, the Norwegian 4×4 tocol offers significant advantages.
Its time-efficient nature, requiring less than an hour total including warm-up and cool-down, makes it practical for busy schedules while dering outsized returns on investment in terms of cardiovascular health and longevity.
And the re suggests this minimal time commitment could vide tection against heart failure, particularly the type known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, which becomes increasingly common with age and sedentary lifestyle.
You can watch Dr. Patrick’s full interview below. For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft.
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