Zone 2 Training - The Basics

Whether you are new to exercise, or a seasoned athlete, you may have heard of Zone 2 Training. This is a form of cardiovascular training to help build endurance, which may be to perform better at your sport, or it may be for health reasons. The ‘zones’ in cardiovascular training are roughly based on your maximum heart rate, and require some simple calculations. If you have an Apple or Garmin watch however, or a similar watch with a heart monitoring capability, this calculation may be done for you.

To determine what your maximum heart rate is, a rough guide is to minus your age from 220bpm (beats per minute). For example, if you are 30 years of age, then your maximum heart rate is roughly 190BPM (220 - 30). Zone training involves training within the 60-70% max heart rate range, so for the 30 year old example, this would mean working in the range of 60-70% of 190bpm.

Zone 2 Training isn’t the tough CrossFit workouts like Murph or Fran, and will not have you gasping for breath like doing hill sprints. Zone 2 training is the longer duration cardiovascular exercise that helps build a solid foundation of fitness, and will likely make up a significant proportion of your training.

Zone 2 training is typically the lowest zone used for training purposes. Think of it as going for a jog while you can still hold a conversation – somewhere between 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. The purpose behind Zone 2 training is to be able to sustain a pace just below your aerobic threshold for 30+ minutes.

Modify the above calculation if:

• You have or are recovering from a major illness (heart disease, any operation or hospital stay, etc.), you’ve recently gone through a bout of chronic overtraining, or are on regular medication, subtract an additional 10bpm.

• Your waist measurement is more than half of your height, subtract another 5bpm.

• You are injured, have regressed in training or competition, get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, have allergies or asthma, or if you have been inconsistent or are just getting back into training, subtract an additional 5bpm.

What are the benefits of Zone 2 Training?

Training in Zone 2 contributes to a number of things!!

• Higher cardiac output and lower resting heart rate!

• Increased VO2 max

• Increases the ability to sustain a higher percentage of your aerobic capacity without the build up of nasty lactic acid.

• Helps your body learn to use fat more efficiently as a fuel source, which then helps to preserve glycogen stores for use during bursts of higher intensity. (Also helps with body composition).

• Help to bring your body into a more parasympathetic state which in turn decreases your sympathetic drive and allows you to rest and recover more effectively.

• Increased endurance performance.

CrossFit is famous for high intensity training. And this isn’t saying that you shouldn’t continue to do so! Just saying that the benefits are clear that if you incorporate a little Zone 2 work into your training, all other facets can improve as well!

How to incorporate Zone 2 Training?

Get you a little 30-60 minute aerobic session within that zone 2 threshold once or twice a week and see your cardio workouts improve vastly!

If you have any questions on whether physio is the best option for you, or you have any questions about MVMNT in general, feel free to contact via email.

- Jay Towolawi, Specialist Sports Physiotherapist and MVMNT Founder.