A case for zone 2 training

We’ve spent most of the month touting the benefits of high intensity training and yes, there are several. But spending time in zone 2 is important too.

What is zone 2 training?

The zone system is based off of the five zone system of heart rate training with the break down as follows

Zone 1 - very light (50-60% of your max heart rate)

Zone 2 - light (60-70% of your max heart rate)

Zone 3 - moderate (70-80% of your max heart rate)

Zone 4 - hard (80-90 % of your max heart rate)

Zone 5 - maximum effort (90-100% of your max heart rate)

What are the benefits of zone 2 training?

The key point of zone 2 is that it feels like work, but it also feels like you could do that work for a very long time. Because of this, these bouts of exercise are meant to be done for much longer 30-60 minutes vs shorter bouts of high intensity exercise.

The main benefit to zone 2 exercise is to build your aerobic base at a pace that can be sustain and will not be punishing to the body. It is safer for individuals who have higher cardiovascular risk or other medical conditions.

As your aerobic base improves your body will be able to be more efficient taking in oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. Which means that you will become much more efficient at using fat for fuel.

At the same time, your body will become more efficient at clearing the muscles of the byproducts of aerobic work and you will no longer feel like you are exercising with concrete blocks on your legs as the lactate clears more effectively.

Your mitochondria will increase over time and actually allow you to produce more energy, meaning will notice that everyday tasks that used to leave you fatigued, are much easier.

How do you know if you are in Zone 2?

If you have a smart watch, it will do the math for you and tell you what zone you are in

If you do not have a smart watch you can think of a scale of 0-10 with 0 the cardiovascular equivalent of lying on the couch and 10 the cardiovascular equivalent of getting chased up a mountain by a bear. Zone 2 would be approximately a “3” on that scale

The other option is a “talk test” you should be able to talk as you do this work but you should be working hard enough that you can’t sing.

How much zone 2 training is enough?

A good goal is to start by aiming for 150 minutes (5 days at 30 minutes) of Zone 2 work each week