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Other/Mixed Zone 2 cardio question

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)

Cochran

Level 2 Valued Member
This may be silly to ask, but is 30 minutes of Zone 2 Cardio enough for the health and fat loss benefits?

From what I understand, the target is 70-80% MHR for a minimum of 150-180 minutes per week. I take a “walking break” from work Monday through Friday.

Thanks!
 
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This may be silly to ask, but is 30 minutes of Zone 2 Cardio enough for the health and fat loss benefits?

From what I understand, the target is 70-80% MHR for a minimum of 150-180 minutes per week. I take a “walking break” from work Monday through Friday.

Thanks!
from what I'm seeing - technically - the answer to this question has a lot to do with where you're starting.

if you're already accustomed to 5k 10k or half marathons, this will probably result in some detraining. if you're generally sedentary, this will definitely give you a boost / shock-absorber for work capacity that you wouldn't otherwise have.
 
This may be silly to ask, but is 30 minutes of Zone 2 Cardio enough for the health and fat loss benefits?

From what I understand, the target is 70-80% MHR for a minimum of 150-180 minutes per week. I take a “walking break” from work Monday through Friday.

Thanks!
Not silly at all! Keep in mind a big idea: a little is better than nothing. If we're talking 30 minutes a week, it might not be "ideal," but again - a little is better than nothing.

For fat loss I would expect 30 minutes of cardio to have minimal impact, but I would consider that fairly true until we get into a pretty large volume of cardio.

For health 30 minutes is better for your health than 0 minutes!

Start with what you KNOW you can do consistently.
When that is super easy ... add a little more.
Repeat.
 
Peter Attia has a wealth of info on his podcast about Zone 2, esp the episodes with Inigo San Millan. He trains pro cyclists. They seem to feel you need a min of 45 mins at a time, 3-4 hours a week. But my sense that is for elite level performance.

Also regarding heart rate, I see conflicting info of if it’s 60-70% of max HR or 70-80%. From my personal experience I just try to get my heart rate near Maffatone (180-HR) and it seems to all work out. I’ve had a few WTH moments cardio wise on mountain hikes recently.
 
This may be silly to ask, but is 30 minutes of Zone 2 Cardio enough for the health and fat loss benefits?

From what I understand, the target is 70-80% MHR for a minimum of 150-180 minutes per week. I take a “walking break” from work Monday through Friday.

Thanks!

Are you actually hitting 70-80% MHR while walking?

I can't.

I love walking for all sorts of reasons, but I don't count it as Zone 2 cardio because my HR doesn't get into the target threshold for long enough (or barely at all).

So while I walk every day for about 20-30 minutes, I supplement that with 3 x 20-30 min of "vigorous" work each week (2 x Zone 2 sessions, 1 x Zone 5 interval session).
 
Are you actually hitting 70-80% MHR while walking?

I can't.

I love walking for all sorts of reasons, but I don't count it as Zone 2 cardio because my HR doesn't get into the target threshold for long enough (or barely at all).

So while I walk every day for about 20-30 minutes, I supplement that with 3 x 20-30 min of "vigorous" work each week (2 x Zone 2 sessions, 1 x Zone 5 interval session).
I have no idea yet. Until now, I’ve just been taking a 30-minute break from work every day to go for a walk. I want to implement Zone 2 HR training so I’m going to start monitoring and adjust from there. There is a treadmill in the office gym so I may use that and ramp up speed/incline.
 
I have no idea yet. Until now, I’ve just been taking a 30-minute break from work every day to go for a walk. I want to implement Zone 2 HR training so I’m going to start monitoring and adjust from there. There is a treadmill in the office gym so I may use that and ramp up speed/incline.

30 minute breaks from work via walking is great.

I do them regularly just to be more active.

Which has value independent of whether it counts as "cardio" training or not.
 
I have no idea yet. Until now, I’ve just been taking a 30-minute break from work every day to go for a walk. I want to implement Zone 2 HR training so I’m going to start monitoring and adjust from there. There is a treadmill in the office gym so I may use that and ramp up speed/incline.
It’s unlikely you would be at 70-80% HRmax by just ‘walking’. (Unless a person was highly de-trained) Now so called power walking or walking up steep inclines could possibly elicit such a response. I assume you have some means of measuring your HR? I would also encourage you to search the many good threads on this site that go on at length about heart rate zone training. Along with that consider using a zone system that is not based on HRmax, and one that is based upon metabolic markers such as AT (aerobic threshold)
 
I have no idea yet. Until now, I’ve just been taking a 30-minute break from work every day to go for a walk. I want to implement Zone 2 HR training so I’m going to start monitoring and adjust from there. There is a treadmill in the office gym so I may use that and ramp up speed/incline.
Add a 20-45lb weighted vest and you’ll easily get to Zone 2.
 
I have no idea yet. Until now, I’ve just been taking a 30-minute break from work every day to go for a walk. I want to implement Zone 2 HR training so I’m going to start monitoring and adjust from there. There is a treadmill in the office gym so I may use that and ramp up speed/incline.
That's why God made rucksacks. Most any sturdy backpack will work and it should not require a lot of weight to achieve a Zone 2 HR. I make 5~15 lb sandbags filling smaller burlap sacks or ziplock bags with sand and wrapping with duct tape. The rectangular shape prevents shifting. If you've never rucked before, start light and increase weight as you adapt. There's a bit of trial and error, but you'll soon dial it in.
 
Of course things has change. But for the most of us its not imporrant if you run MAF, in conversional pace. If we find the z2 from a MaxHR or something else.

Agree. Most people can get good zone 2 by following MAF guidance, conversational pace, etc...

And I'm not sure I know what Inigo San Millan suggests rather than AeT, AnT. His knowledge is so vast, it's difficult to summarize!

For general health-related fitness guidance, Dr. Andy Galpin has recently been on both Peter Attia's podcast and a 6-part on Huberman Lab. I'm in the process of consuming all that...
 
Inigo San Millan had an interesting tweet about that the other day....

View attachment 20345
Well yeah… I’m certainly not going to argue the toss with him on this. His guy won the TDF twice…
But that being said I don’t think that AeT and AnT are necessarily ’wrong’ per se, but they are pretty accessible and workable to most people. If you are riding le Tour you might benefit from the latest thinking however.
I also agree about not making Z2 a cult (maybe a bit guilty here) and that it’s not a cure all, or silver bullet. But it does remind me of something from Anti-fragile (I think) where the gist of the matter is that in some things we don’t fully understand we keep changing our description of what the underlying cause is; but if you don’t look inside the black box it still works; the end result is the same. i.e going easy in locomotive endurance activities is generally a good thing for both performance and health.
 

Hi Anna;

The definition of moderate intensity and vigorous intensities are below from health.gov.

Can we say that moderate intensity training is Zone 2 according to definition of health.gov ?

Moderate-intensity activity requires 3.0 to less than 6.0 METs; examples include walking briskly (2.5 to 4 mph), playing doubles tennis, or raking the yard.

• Vigorous-intensity activity requires 6.0 or more METs; examples include jogging, running, carrying heavy groceries or other loads upstairs, shoveling snow, or participating in a strenuous fitness
 
Can we say that moderate intensity training is Zone 2 according to definition of health.gov ?
That's a great question and I don't know for sure. But I would think yes, zone 2 is moderate intensity, 3-6 METs.
 
Is this the same .gov that provides us with such good and affordable healthcare in this country? :cool:
Just saying’….

If part 1 is Science, and part 2 is Policy, and part 3 is Action... I think we are good at part 1 (data collection, analysis), decent at part 2 (such as physical activity guidelines), but not so good at part 3 (providing a means to good and affordable healthcare...).

(And, we do have "good" healthcare... Just not "good and affordable" and available to all. )

The good news is that we can take our own action based on part 1 and part 2. And that will hopefully lead us to need less of part 3. ;)
 
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