Want to know how to have more energy ? Burn more fat ? Improve your performance ? Live healthier and longer and avoid as much as possible all degenerative disease ?
Zone 2 training is your secret to living longer and healthier , having more energy both when exercising and going about your daily business. Zone 2 refers to a level of exercise intensity where you can have a conversation but you would prefer not to .
For most people zone 2 can be achieved on a bike at a steady pace , as a slow jog ( depending on your fitness level ) or brisk walk or swim . Your breathing should be somewhat laboured that if you were on the telephone the other caller would know you were up to something ! But you should not be completely out of breath - pushing yourself too hard will push you out of this zone.
Building up time in this zone helps boost your energy and your overall health .
It makes your body more efficient at producing energy when you are working out- making workouts at the same intensity easier - you have trained your body to work out more efficiently .
On a biological level Zone 2 training actually increases the cellular powerhouses or factories that make energy- in your body . Otherwise known as Mitochondria ( the more you have the better. ) Training this zone also obviously improves your overall cardiovascular health .
What is good for the heart is good for the brain making this type of training complimentary to your fat burning , increasing overall calorie expenditure, improving cognitive function, elevating your mood, increasing your positivity and productivity and ensuring you have more energy more of the time.
The general advice is to get at least 45 minutes of training at this intensity 3-4 times per week .
Zone 2 training refers to the level at which a person stresses their mitochondria so they improve their ability to burn fat and clear lactate (a fuel produced during exercise ) … in short want to burn more fat and increase your ability to do so - work out more in Zone 2.
Zone 2 mobilises the highest amount of fat for fuel
Zone 2 training also increases something called Vo2 max - you don’t really need to know what this is except that people with the highest VO2 max live the longest and healthiest .
Cross country skiers, Tour de France road bikers and long distance runners all have the highest Vo2 max .
Vo2 max is your maximum level at which your body can uptake oxygen from the blood and use it as energy . This is something you can improve as without training it - you lose it.
Your VO2 max level is an indication of your overall fitness level and is an excellent tracker or metric for fitness progress , life expectancy and health.
A low VO2 max on the other hand means the body cannot utilise oxygen efficiently - that you have poor cardiorespiratory fitness , going up stairs is a struggle . A low Vo2 max means you high risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes and early mortality .
Practicing spending more time exercising in this zone and being consistent at maintaining it will simply continue to increase your your over all health and fitness. There is no upper limit - however if you stop then your level will also stop and subsequently start to decrease.
The more training you do at Zone 2 , the more you may increase your Vo2 max and the fitter you will get .
The less fit you are the more quickly you will see improvements but you will notice a difference after about 4 weeks of training .
The Tour de France folk - possibly the fittest cardiovascular people on the planet - spend as much as 90% of their training time in zone 2.
Vo2 max categories are divided into male and female then subdivided into age groups .
Simply by bringing your VO2 max from ‘low’ (bottom 25th percentile) to ‘below average’ (25th to 50th percentile) is associated with a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality.
When you go from ‘low’ to ‘above average’ (50th to 75th percentile) the risk reduction is closer to 70%!
The highest VO2 max recorded is 97.5 ( measured in mml per kilogram of body eight per minute .) male is Norwegian cyclist Oskar Svendsen
Working on your VO2 max at any age is important . I like to equate health to a bank account - the quicker you start paying into your account the more money you will have to play around with in old age . However paying in money even when you are older is going to pay off in some degree more than having nothing in the bank at all !il
Start banking that Zone 2 training now - its never too late to start exercising . The sooner you start the better. The more time you can spend in zone 2 the better for your health. A higher VO2 max might mean better health and a longer life plus more years being able to do the things you really enjoy. Keeping active and continuing to enjoy life.
Spending more time in Zone 2 not only increases your performance but it upgrades your body so that on a daily basis you have more energy .
Important note - if you are NOT training then your Vo2 max after about the age of 30 is decreasing.
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