Julia Hubbel Round 2: Big Goals, Surgery Recovery, and Why Dementia Isn’t Inevitable
Julia Hubbel is back. She’s been injured, had surgery, and completed more adventures since her first episode. She and Tom discuss body ownership, setting impossible goals, and refusing the narrative that cognitive decline is just “what happens.”
What This Episode Covers
- Why you should set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal — even if you don’t achieve it
- Why dignity of effort matters more than the outcome
- How Julia deals with moments of discouragement
- What Tom and Julia think about body ownership — are we our bodies?
- Why the “inevitability” of dementia and Alzheimer’s is a lie
- Returning to adventure after surgery — what recovery really looks like
On Dementia and the Inevitability Myth
One of the most important moments in this episode is Julia and Tom’s challenge to the prevailing narrative about cognitive decline. The idea that Alzheimer’s and dementia are simply what happens as you age — that there’s nothing you can do — is not supported by science.
Cognitive decline is primarily vascular. As blood vessels stiffen and oxygen delivery to the brain decreases, neurons that aren’t being fueled begin to shut down. This is a gradual process that begins in your 40s and accelerates in sedentary, metabolically compromised individuals.
The intervention? Maintain oxygen delivery to the brain. Exercise. Specifically, aerobic exercise that challenges the cardiovascular system and forces the body to maintain capillary density and red blood cell function.
A 2017 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that aerobic exercise significantly reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia — the effect size comparable to pharmacological interventions, without side effects.
Oxygen training accelerates this effect by targeting the hypoxic tissue that standard exercise can’t reach — the dormant areas that have been cut off from blood flow for years.
Common Questions
Julia Hubbel is an adventure athlete, author, and speaker who challenges conventional ideas about aging and performance. She is known for pursuing extreme physical challenges well into her 60s and beyond — climbing, racing, and traveling through demanding conditions. She is a LiveO2 user and has appeared on the podcast twice.
Julia uses this phrase to describe the value of showing up and doing the work regardless of the outcome. The dignity isn’t in finishing — it’s in making the serious attempt. This framing is particularly relevant for people recovering from surgery or injury, who may not be able to reach their previous performance levels but can still pursue demanding goals with full effort.
Current research suggests that a significant portion of dementia cases are preventable through lifestyle intervention — primarily aerobic exercise, metabolic health, and sleep quality. The Lancet Commission (2020) identified 12 modifiable risk factors that account for roughly 40% of dementia cases globally. Oxygen delivery to the brain is a critical variable in all of them.
Surgical recovery involves tissue repair, which requires oxygen. Higher oxygen availability accelerates cellular regeneration, reduces inflammation, and supports immune function during the recovery window. Julia discusses her experience returning to training after surgery and how oxygen training factored into her recovery timeline.