Zone 2 training: what it is and how much you actually need

What Zone 2 actually is

Zone 2 is an effort level where your body still runs largely on fat and barely accumulates lactate. In heart rate terms it sits around sixty to seventy percent of maximum for most people. But the most reliable measure needs no watch: you can speak full sentences without gasping, and you could keep this up for hours.

If you are wondering whether you are in Zone 2, you are probably above it. It feels almost too easy, and that feeling is the point.

Why it is worth doing

• •It builds your aerobic base: your heart moves more blood per beat and your muscles get better at using oxygen.
• •It costs very little recovery, so it barely conflicts with your strength training.
• •It lowers your heart rate at the same pace, which makes your hard sessions easier later on.
• •It is the only intensity you can do a lot of without digging yourself into a hole.

How much per week

For someone getting fitter alongside strength work: two sessions of forty to sixty minutes a week already does most of the job. Training for a distance or a hybrid race, that can move toward three sessions and longer durations. The rule of thumb that almost always holds is that roughly eighty percent of your endurance work should be easy and twenty percent hard. Most recreational athletes sit closer to fifty-fifty, and that is exactly why they stall.

Cycling, rowing and brisk walking count just as much as running. If your legs are tired from lifting, cycling or rowing is often the smarter pick.

Heart rate zones are estimates and differ per person. This is general training information, not medical advice.