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Four Horsemen Functional Tests

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Peter Attia’s framing. Four simple physical tests used as diagnostic benchmarks rather than as exercises. They’re not training moves — they’re a yearly check on whether the trajectory is heading in the right direction.

The value is that they’re hard to fake. You can’t shortcut your way through a 2-minute dead hang. Performance degrades silently over time if you don’t keep training; the tests reveal that degradation early enough to fix it.

Why these four specifically

Each test isolates a major functional system:

Together they cover most of what fails first as the body ages.

The targets

The original Attia framing uses age 40 / 60 / 80 targets. For a 40-year-old hitting these now, the goal is to maintain roughly these numbers over the next 40 years.

1. Dead hang from a pull-up bar

Pure passive hang — arms straight, no kipping or pulling.

Age Male target Female target
40 2 minutes 90 seconds
60 90 seconds 60 seconds
80 60 seconds 30 seconds

How to train it: dead hangs daily, starting at whatever current ability is (often 30–60 seconds for a non-trained adult). Hang for time, rest 2 minutes, repeat 3 sets. Within 3–4 months most healthy adults reach 90+ seconds.

2. Farmer’s carry

Walk holding heavy dumbbells or kettlebells at the sides.

Age Male target Duration
40 1× bodyweight total (e.g., 32 kg per hand for a 64 kg person) 1 minute
60 0.75× bodyweight total 1 minute
80 0.5× bodyweight total 1 minute

For a 64 kg frame, the 40-year target is two 32 kg dumbbells carried for 1 minute. Grip will fail first for most people; that’s the point. Train by doing 3×30 seconds at progressively heavier weights, building up.

3. Wall sit

Back against a wall, knees at 90°, thighs parallel to the floor.

Age Male target Female target
40 2 minutes 90 seconds
60 90 seconds 60 seconds
80 60 seconds 30 seconds

How to train: hold to failure, rest 60 seconds, repeat 3 times. Do 2× per week. Most healthy 40-year-olds reach 2 minutes within a few weeks.

4. Turkish get-up (TGU)

Start lying flat on the floor with a kettlebell in one hand pressed straight up. Stand up while keeping the arm vertical with the weight overhead. Reverse the movement back to lying.

Age Target weight (male, 64 kg)
40 16–24 kg, at least 1 rep per side
60 12–16 kg, 1 rep per side
80 8 kg, 1 rep per side

TGU is the most technical of the four. It involves 7 distinct positions. Start with a shoe balanced on the fist (no weight) to learn the sequence, then progress to 8 kg, then 12 kg, then 16 kg over months.

How to use the tests

Annual retest

Pick a date (birthday, New Year, end of summer). Do all four tests in a single session. Record times and weights. Repeat exactly one year later.

Trends matter more than absolute numbers. A 2-minute dead hang at 40 dropping to 80 seconds at 41 means something stopped working — usually a missing training input or recent inactivity. The signal arrives a year before it would show up in real life as “I can’t hold a banister.”

As predictors

Failing these at 45 predicts what 65 will look like. Passing them at 60 predicts independence at 80. They’re more honest than a fitness watch because they require sustained effort against a known standard.

Don’t make them training

Avoid grinding the test exercises as your main training. The point is that they’re diagnostic — the underlying strength comes from heavy lifting, unilateral work, and tendon protocols (Strength Targets for Lean Athletes, Unilateral Lifts for Fall Prevention, Heavy Slow Resistance for Tendons). The tests just confirm those are doing their job.

That said, dead hangs and wall sits can be daily quick practices because they have low recovery cost.

What the tests don’t measure

These four are useful but they have blind spots. Worth tracking separately:

See also