Longevity|OS Newsletter

Zone 2 Cardio

What’s in it for you today:

1) What is it?

2) Benefits.

3) The Essential Equipment List.

4) How to start!

1) What is Zone 2 Cardio?

Do you know how our body gets the energy to do things like walking, running, or even reading?

It's because of something called ATP, which fires our cells. And we can get ATP in three different ways:

1. one way is by breathing in oxygen and burning fat,

2. another way is by burning sugar when we do something really intense,

3. and the last way is by recycling previously-stored ATP.

When we exercise, we can divide our intensity level into different zones.

Zone 1 is the easiest, like sitting or walking around, and Zone 6 is the hardest, like sprinting or lifting heavy weights.

Here's the thing - when we exercise in Zone 2, it's not as intense as Zone 3 or higher, so it might feel easy.

But it's perfect for our body, because it helps our cells work better and use oxygen and fat to make ATP.

It’s something that a lot of people miss out on because they think exercise has to be really hard and painful.

Think about all your CrossFit or HIIT workouts on YouTube. You’re not burning fat.

Your body uses carbs to fuel the activity. This means all workouts called “Fat Burning HIIT” are absolute BS!

So, it's important to not skip Zone 2 when we exercise because we can get a lot of benefits from it, like better health and performance.

2) The Benefits of Zone 2 Cardio

Zone 2 is a level of exercise that helps stimulate and create more mitochondria in your body.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses in your cells that create energy.

So, the more you exercise in Zone 2, the more mitochondria you produce and the better your body gets at utilizing fat for energy.

Doing Zone 2 cardio is great for your heart and blood system.

When you exercise in Zone 2, your heart gets stronger and requires fewer pumps to pump blood. This makes it more efficient and helps you perform better during exercise.

It can also lower your resting heart rate, which is a good thing.

Lastly, Zone 2 cardio is great for preventing injury and helping your body recover from exercise by getting blood pumping to deliver nutrients to your muscles to help them bounce back from weightlifting sessions or other forms of exercise.

3) The Essential Equipment List

The great thing about running is, that you don’t need much at all.

In fact, only running shoes.

To measure your heart rate, you will have to invest in a chest belt and a watch. I use a Garmin (watch / chest belt).

4) This is How You Start

Go out for a run and simply listen to your watch telling you what heart rate zone you’re in.

The first few runs will be boring and slow as hell. Put your ego aside and trust in the process.

For your second run, follow this protocol to determine your actual heart rate zones:

• run 5 min to warm up

• then 30 min as consistently hard as possible while tracking heart rate with a chest strap

• then take the average hr for the last 20 min and multiply that by .8 and .88 to get your zone 2

There you have it. Get about 150–180 minutes of zone 2 cardio in per week.

Have an epic Saturday,

- Sven

P.S. Whenever you’re ready! Here is one way I can help you.

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