You may know little about quantum physics or women’s tennis. Even so, you have to know Albert Einstein is the GOAT of the former and Serena Williams is the GOAT of the latter.

And that the word in this context and all capitals does not refer to the ruminant mammal with hollow horns and coarse hair that feeds on grass and shrubs.

Yet both these GOATs experienced bouts of self-doubt throughout their careers, enough for psychologists to say they suffered from something common folks like us experience at times: imposter syndrome. While not an official medical diagnosis, imposter syndrome is the term often used for the tormenting feeling that you’re not as capable as others think and that you’ll be exposed as a fraud.

You should find comfort in the fact that Einstein and Williams share this in common with me and you. I know I do.

But it would comfort me even more to find a GOAT that got another problem of mine. Since I write frequently on the benefits of regular, moderate-to-intense exercise - and the belief that more is better - I fear you see me not as a fraud but as the shepherd-boy in Aesop’s famous fable.

The one whom nobody listened to when he legitimately cried wolf the third time.

Unlike the shepherd-boy’s first two cries, though, none of mine are for amusement or to deceive. Even so, I know you’re more likely to listen to a GOAT than an old guy whose grub can resemble the grass and shrubs the lower-case version eats.

With that in mind, I’ll quote Dr. Peter Attia, a man who one day could be considered the GOAT in the field many call lifespan and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity (Harmony, 2023).

“Exercise is by far the most potent longevity ‘drug.’ No other intervention does nearly as much to prolong our lifespan and preserve our cognition and physical function. But most people don’t do nearly enough.”

So how much is enough? Ay, there’s the rub. It’s clearly not a one-size-fits-all matter.

Backhanded proof of that: Only 24% of U.S. adults were determined to be doing enough exercise when the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans were applied to data accrued in the 2018 National Health Interview Survey. That recommendation, by the way, is to do 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity, which is generally presented as 30 minutes a day for five days a week.

But Attia’s personal idea of enough, even at the age of 50, far surpasses that. Which makes sense because he’s not only ultra-intelligent but also a former ultra-endurance athlete.

He was, in fact, the first to successfully swim back and forth between the Hawaiian Islands of Maui and Lanai without a break. A total of 18.2 miles.

Currently he rides a bicycle four days a week, though every now and then he might miss a day. He pedals on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays for 60 minutes at a pace you would call moderate and PTs would call Zone 2, with a Saturday ride that starts the same way but finishes with 30 more minutes of what anybody would call intense riding.

But Attia values the time he spends weightlifting more. “No matter what,” he lifts for about an hour for his upper body on Wednesdays and Sundays; his lower, Mondays and Fridays.

I know that sounds like a lot of exercise because it is. Especially when you tack on the 10 minutes of stability work he does with each day.

But the point is that for certain individuals, particularly those with a high genetic risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a high volume of exercise may be - just like Attia’s ambitious routine - just enough.

Just enough to negate genetic risk and be healthy.

In a study performed at the University of Sydney in Australia and published last month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers reviewed health data housed in the UK Biobank on about 60,000 people whose average age was 61.1 at the start of their involvement. The physical activity of the participants was measured not through self-reporting, as often is the case, but by wearing accelerometers to insure accuracy.

Those who exercised at least 68 minutes a day - an amount you may see as over the top and certainly more than enough - were found to be 74% less likely to have T2D than those who exercised less 5 minutes per day after follow-up studies were done on the average 6.8 years later. While that’s surely significant, the researchers were not really surprised.

They were surprised, however, when they focused only on the 68-minute-per-day exercisers who were at a high genetic risk for developing T2D - and found the decreased likelihood remained the same. That’s just further proof of what you’ve read here for years: bad genetics can be overcome to a great extent by good health habits.

And what the mainstream deems “enough” exercise may not be enough for many in search of optimal health.