My Movement Routine for Health and Longevity
Want the full picture? Everything I describe in this article is explored in depth inside the Søberg® 12-Week Reset
— a guided program to help you find out what works for your body, reduce chronic inflammation, and protect against lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes. More on what’s inside at the bottom.
People assume that because I study cold and heat, that is all I do for my health. The truth is more layered — and I think more useful for you.
What connects everything I do is one concept: metabolic flexibility. This is your body’s ability to switch efficiently between burning carbohydrates and fat. When you lose it, you get chronic inflammation, dysregulated blood sugar, and over time the lifestyle diseases now at epidemic levels — type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome. Building it back is what my work is about.
Here is how I do it in practice.
The forest walk
Every morning I walk my dog through the forest. This is not incidental — it is intentional. Walking in nature measurably lowers cortisol, sharpens mental clarity, and for me it is where I do my best thinking. From a metabolic standpoint, low-intensity movement in a fasted morning state trains the body to burn fat efficiently. That is metabolic flexibility in action, before the day has even started.
I also take the stairs, stand at my desk, and never sit for more than an hour at a stretch. Small choices. Enormous compound effect over years.
Strength training
I lift two to three times a week, and I wish I had started sooner. Muscle mass is one of the strongest predictors of healthy aging we have. It improves insulin sensitivity, protects joints, supports bone density, and preserves the functional independence that determines quality of life as we get older. My sessions focus on compound movements — the kind that reflect how the body actually works. The goal is never aesthetics. It is capacity and longevity.
Zone 2 cardio
Once or twice a week I do sustained moderate-intensity cardio — the pace where you could hold a conversation, but it takes a little effort. This is the most direct way to train metabolic flexibility through structured exercise. At this intensity the body preferentially burns fat, mitochondria multiply, and over time the metabolism learns to switch fuel sources efficiently. This is how you build the engine that resists inflammation and insulin resistance.
Cold and heat
This is where my research meets my daily life. Cold exposure activates brown fat, floods the brain with dopamine and norepinephrine, and trains the nervous system to stay calm under stress. Heat exposure drives cardiovascular adaptations comparable to moderate exercise, activates cellular repair mechanisms, and has been linked in large studies to significantly reduced rates of heart disease and early death.
Together they are among the most powerful tools I know for reducing inflammation and building metabolic resilience. But the benefits are entirely dose-dependent — how long, how often, in what order. Get those variables right and the results are remarkable. Get them wrong and you leave most of the benefit on the table. The exact protocols are what I teach inside the course.
The bottom line
Everything I do comes back to the same principle: deliberate, controlled stress makes the body more resilient. Cold, heat, weights, cardio, a morning walk in the forest — these all tell your body to adapt. A body that adapts well is a metabolically flexible body. And that is a body that resists the diseases that are stealing decades from so many people’s lives.
Start with one thing. Walk outside. Add cold to your shower. Pick something heavy up a few times a week.
And when you are ready to go deeper — that is what the Søberg® 12-Week Reset is for.
What you get in the 12-Week Reset
Most people spend years trying other people’s protocols and wondering why they don’t stick. The answer is simple: they were never built for you.
The Søberg® 12-Week Reset guides you — week by week — to find out what actually works for your body. Each week introduces a new physiological focus and a practical theme, so you can observe how your body responds and learn to listen to it rather than override it.
Over 12 weeks you work through every pillar of metabolic health:
Cold exposure — the science, the Søberg Principle, and how to apply it to your life
Heat therapy — sauna protocols, sequencing, and what the research actually shows
Movement — structuring your week for metabolic flexibility, not just fitness
Sleep — the recovery layer most people underestimate
Breathwork — regulating your nervous system from the inside out
Nutrition — fuelling metabolic flexibility without obsessing over food
Stress and nervous system regulation — understanding the inflammation link and how to break it
By the end you will not need to search for the next trend or quick fix — because you will understand your own body well enough to make the right choices for life.
→ Find out what works for your body here
Dr. Susanna Søberg is a PhD researcher, founder of the Søberg Institute, and creator of the Thermalist® Method. She is the author of Winter Swimming and one of the world’s leading voices on temperature therapy and metabolic health.
