how to do zone 2 training. A beginner's guide
- Clem Duranseaud
- Mar 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 27
What if I told you there’s a simple, almost effortless way to boost your endurance, improve your heart health, and burn more fat, all without feeling completely drained?
Enter Zone 2 cardio. Often overlooked, this low-intensity training method is one of the easiest and most effective ways to enhance your fitness. Best of all, it’s easy to stick with, doesn’t leave you gasping for air, and delivers serious long-term benefits.
In this article, we’ll break down why Zone 2 cardio is the ultimate fitness secret and how you can start incorporating it into your workout routine today.
Table of contents
What is zone 2 cardio and why should you care?
Zone 2 is one of 5 intensity zones used to gauge the difficulty of cardiovascular workouts. The zones use a percentage of your maximum heart rate.
The intensity of zone 2 is light. You should be able to hold a conversation throughout your session. If you are panting too hard and can't form coherent sentences, you are going too hard.
You can do zone 2 in virtually any activity: running, cycling, hiking, paddling, swimming, rucking, roller blading...
You don't need a fitness watch or any sort of heart rate monitor to know if you are in zone 2. The rule about holding a conversation is good enough for most people.
For a lot of us, this type of training might feel boring. It will feel like it's too easy. A lot of the time we think exercising should be tough. We should sweat a lot and feel tired.
This is where we need to trust the process. Just by doing very easy cardio, your body will reap huge benefits. Let's take a look at what they are.
Benefits of zone 2 cardio
The main benefit of zone 2 training is an increase in mitochondrial density.
The mitochondria is the part of your cells that convert food into energy. The more you have, the more energy you'll be able to produce.
Think about it as your body's engine.
This alone is already huge, it makes your body more efficient at producing energy, meaning you can do more intense workouts down the road.
Other benefits of Zone 2 training include
Increased VO2max, your body's ability to use oxygen during exercise. The more oxygen you can use, the more work you can do. This is also going to make those HIIT classes a LOT more tolerable.
Improve stroke volume, meaning the amount of blood your heart pumps each beat. Higher stroke volume means more blood running through your body when you exercise, meaning more oxygen to your muscles which means they can do more work and burn more calories
Increased capillary density. Capillaries are the tiny blood vessels at the extremities of arteries. This means better blood delivery to your muscles.
Faster energy production by utilizing glucose (carbohydrates). This will also contribute to making HIIT workouts easier.
Improved lactate clearance. Another huge, huge benefit. Without going into long physiological elaboration, zone two training will help you train harder during your intense workouts by increasing your lactate threshold. This is when your muscles start burning during high intensity exercises.
And the best one for last: zone two directly burns fat as its fuel source. If you want to lose weight by lowering your body fat percentage, zone 2 will do that. Now be careful, doing cardio will make you hungry. So if you go for a run that burns 200 calories and then eat a meal that's 300 calories, you won't lose any weight and will have spent all that effort for nothing. If you can do your run that burns 200 calories and then only consume 150 calories, now we're talking.
Now let's take a look at how exactly to do zone 2 workouts.
How to do zone 2 training for maximum benefits
As we saw earlier, zone 2 training should feel easy and can be done with any form of cardio.
Remember to gauge the intensity by doing the talking test: if you can hold a conversation, you're good. If you are alone, just see if you can form a coherent sentence from time to time. Don't worry, no one around you will notice.
The key is to go for a long time, at a slow pace.
When starting out, aim to do 30 minutes at a time. And if it gets too intense, just take a break. During a zone two run for example, you could run for 10 minutes, walk for 1 minute and repeat that three times. You'll still be burning fat during the walking portion and reap all the other benefits.
With time and practice, you'll be able to go for longer, without taking a break.
Beginners should aim for 30 minutes at a time, intermediates between 45-60 min and advanced fitness enthusiasts for 1 hour or more.
Like your gym workouts, the more you do throughout the week, the quicker you'll see results. Doing one zone two workout will yield slower results than do three zone 2 workouts.
How much should you do? That is up to you to decide. How can you balance out your training so you can reach your overall fitness goals? I always recommend doing at least one zone 2 session during the week. This can often be on a recovery day because of how easy they should feel.
For those of you just starting out, you may feel some light soreness after your first couple of zone 2 workouts. But as you get used to them, you shouldn't feel sore after them. If your muscles are sore after one of these sessions, you were probably going too fast.
Zone two training is ideal for listening to podcasts, being alone with your thoughts, chatting with a friend, or just spending some good time outside.
If you want to do this type of cardio on the same day as your gym workout, try your best. to lift weights first, and then do your cardio. Even though zone two training is easy, it's still an effort. You don't want to be fatigued from your cardio workout when doing your strength workout.
On the other hand, a gym workout will fatigue your body in a way that's detrimental to cardio. A lovely, lovely training day for me involves lifting weights for 45 -90 min and then going for an easy 30-45 min run.
Here is a typical weekly workout plan for someone who would like to balance our zone two training and strength training.
Monday; gym workout
Tuesday: easy run
Wednesday: gym workout
Thursday: rest
Friday: gym workout
Saturday: easy run, longer than the Tuesday one
Sunday: rest
This week has 5 total workouts, 3 designed to make the person stronger, and 2 to increase their endurance.
For the general population who wants to be as healthy as possible, I highly recommend doing a mix of both. Strength training and HIIT is a very solid foundation. You will become very fit by doing just those two.
You will come to a point where you think you can't lift heavier or push harder during HIIT classes. This may take 3-5 years. And once you hit that plateau, where you think your body can't do more, start incorporating zone two cardio. Trust me, you'll be amazed at what your body can do.
Happy training,
Clem
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