How & Why to Get Weekly "Zone 2" Cardio Workouts | Dr. Andrew Huberman

The scientific data tell us that we should all be getting anywhere from 150 minutes to 200 minutes per week minimum of zone two cardio; for sake of cardiovascular health, cerebrovascular health, and a number of other aspects of health that are important essentially to everybody for health span and lifespan. Now, many people, including myself, schedule zone two cardio into their weekly fitness regimen. So for me, I have one day a week.

For me, it falls on a Sunday where I go out for a jog that lasts anywhere from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. It's a slow jog, I can maintain nasal breathing the entire time or have a conversation with somebody else or myself the entire time, if I like. Or sometimes it consists of a hike by myself or with other people.

And sometimes those hikes extend anywhere from an hour to four hours, depending on the circumstances, et cetera. I will mention that whenever possible, I try and do that once a week, zone two cardio session out of doors because I like being in nature and I like getting sunlight, and I like getting fresh air. Now, during the discussion with Dr Andy Galpin, I explained how I get my zone two cardio, and I acknowledged that that once a week session doesn't always allow me to reach that 150 minute to 200 minute minimum threshold of zone two cardio per week.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And his response to that was very reassuring. What he said was, "Look, if you want to schedule zone two cardio "and head out for a long Sunday jog or hike, terrific.

"If you want to schedule zone two cardio as two "or more sessions on the treadmill or on the bike, great. " But that he doesn't actually think of zone two cardio as exercise at all. And to that, I gasped, and then I was a little bit deflated.

I thought, "Oh great, like I'm doing all this zone two cardio "and you don't even consider that exercise. " And then when he said it was very reassuring, and I think it's going to be very reassuring to all of you, he said, "First of all, "zone two cardio is absolutely critical to our health "for a number of reasons that I already mentioned. "But in addition to that, zone two cardio does not impede "and in fact, can enhance our other aspects of fitness.

" So for example, our strength training, our hypertrophy training or any type of speed work or other types of cardiovascular training one might do. And that the best way to get zone two cardio is okay, if you want to schedule it, schedule it as a session but that to simply increase the amount of walking and in particular, walking at a rapid pace that one does, and to increase the total amount of movement that one's getting throughout the week. So taking groceries in and out of the grocery store, running around with the kids, taking a walk with a coworker while having a work discussion, taking your calls for work while pacing in the office or going outside.

What he impressed on me is that zone two cardio can be meshed throughout the daily activities that I and everybody else generally have to do. And this was of great relief to me because I, as many of you are, I'm extremely busy. I don't have time to schedule in more cardio per week or at least I don't see the way I could do that without reducing the amount of sleep that I'm getting or without reducing the amount of social connection that I'm getting with family and friends, both of which are extremely important to our mental health and physical health.

So the basic tool here is yes, get 200 minutes per week minimum of zone two cardio. And notice I said 200 minutes, not 150 minutes to 200 minutes. I'm going to set the higher threshold of 200 minutes per week minimum of zone two cardio.

But that you don't need to schedule that as time on the treadmill. If you want to, great, but what was communicated to me from Dr Andy Galpin is that zone two cardio is immensely beneficial. It's not going to impede, and in fact, it's going to improve other aspects of fitness and that it does not have to impede and it in fact can improve other aspects of our daily life, like our ability to engage socially, our ability to have a great output at work in whatever type of work you do.

So the message is very simple, get 200 minutes or more of zone two cardio per week. And the message is also a very reassuring one, which is that, that zone two cardio can be spread throughout your daily activities. And that if you're doing enough of it, you probably don't even have to count the total amount of zone two cardio that you're getting.

If you simply make the effort to move around a lot more during your daily activities and to mesh that zone two cardio with your daily activities, you're going to hit that threshold of 200 minutes per week minimum. Now that's a great message for me because I'm already doing the three resistance training workouts per week. I'm doing what now I can just call the two other cardiovascular training workouts per week because now I don't even count that long Sunday jog or Sunday hike as exercise.

I just consider that movement out of doors on the weekend. And in doing so, it's also allowed me to really enjoy that a lot more. There's something about considering something a fitness training program that shifts it from just recreation and enjoying life to training.

And I of course, love training. I love training in the gym and I love training out of doors. I love running, I love lifting weights.

I love all sorts of physical training. I know many people do, I know many people don't. But if one looks at zone two cardio as just part of their daily life, you're far more likely to get that zone two cardio in and all the benefits that come with it.

And you're also opening up time for work, for social engagements and pay attention to other aspects of fitness.