By: Zoey Pittman
When you think of heart-health, Honey Nut Cheerios and running so fast your heart feels like it’ll burst out of your chest probably comes to mind. However, there are other ways to achieve cardiovascular health without your heart feeling like it is going to explode every time you run.
Influencers like Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist, and Nick Bare, CEO of Nick Bare Nutrition, often talk about the benefits of Zone Two cardio with how it can not only improve one’s health, but also improve endurance.
Cardio is any exercise that strengthens the heart, Dr. Gary Elkon, cardiologist, explained. There are five different zones that the heart works at during an exercise and each zone is targeted for a specific purpose during an elite runner’s training.
Zone one is light exercise, like a brisk walk. Zone two is an easy, conversational pace. zone three, is still conversational but becomes harder to talk.
Zone four is running at a pace that you can not hold for long, think about almost red lining a car, and zone five is an all-out sprint, the car has reached the red line.
There are formulas to use to give an estimate of an individual’s max aerobic, meaning muscles are still using oxygen to run (subtract age from 220) based on their age. Smart watch devices such as Garmin and Coro also give a projection of a person’s heart rate zones based on the formulas the watches use.
“I believe that the lower heart rate zones are a way to allow people who are not particularly active to maintain a good lifestyle,” Dr. Elkon said.
With zone two cardio, it is easy enough for someone to maintain for long periods of time while also preventing injury, but also challenging for people who are beginning to exercise and not over exert themselves.
The levels of heart rate zones that are individualized for people. For instance, someone who is an experienced runner may be able to run with a heart rate of 150 bpm, which is zone two for them.
Although someone is just starting out running, may not be able to comfortably hold a heart rate the same as the elite runners. Therefore they have two different levels of zone two cardio.
“You do not have to go from zero to 100 in your car to get from A to B. You can do that by going from zero to 40, and the same applies for heart rate training,” Dr. Elkon said.
While the idea of zone two training is great, there are other things to consider that can impact your heart rate daily.
“For the general population, I recommend a little bit of both. I think there is a purpose of doing a little bit of elevated zone two training,” Danielle Johnson said, who is a personal trainer.
Stress, medications, environment, how much sleep a person got can all play a part in elevating the heart rate. This is when solely running off the numbers can become a little tricky.
“Going by the numbers can be challenging because of the different variables, but going by conversation pace is easier to follow,” Brittany Taylor said, who is a run coach.
Relying on a watch to determine if one’s heart rate is staying in zone two is like putting all the eggs in one basket. Watches are not always accurate, although still a good tool to use for training, but going by feel is also a good assurance.
A person does not necessarily need a watch that tracks their heart rate to know if they are running in zone two, they can figure out if they are going at a zone two pace because it feels easy.
The idea of zone two cardio is to alway the body to build muscular endurance without overworking itself. Using the concept of running at a conversion pace, can help ensure that the runner is staying in that easy, lower heart rate zone.
A runner, running too fast will not be able to hold a conversation while their heart rate is in zone four and beating at 175 bpm.
Zone two, which has been established as easy cardio, is a zone that helps strengthen the heart to pump blood more efficiently, which will also help lower blood pressure, according to Johnson.
Doing lower heart rate training will not in itself make the runner faster, but it will build an aerobic foundation, allow the body to recover from anaerobic speed training (muscles are working without oxygen), which will improve a runner’s speed in the long run.
“Watches are great for when it is hot because you can keep more of an eye on your heart rate not getting too high, but it is always a good idea to go by your conversion pace which helps keep the easy runs easy,” said Taylor.