Cardio without Killing Yourself
As we continue our series highlighting elements of HELP: The Health, Energy & Longevity Plan with our August focus on Exercising Effectively, I want to share some mistakes I've made with my cardiovascular training and some concise and wise advice from Dr. Peter Attia, one of my Health Sherpas.
First, my mistakes: when I was in junior high and high school I used to go for one-mile runs many evenings, and I tried to go faster each time. I almost never ran more than a mile, because I had read in the Aerobics book by Dr. Kenneth Cooper that a mile is the minimum for it to be considered aerobic exercise.
I made some progress in my fitness and performance through this high-intensity activity, but I now realize I was only working on one end of the cardio continuum: V02 Max. I was failing to lay the right foundation with extended periods of Zone 2 cardio.
As Dr. Attia says in the video below, Zone 2 (see this article for definitions of all of the zones) is where you should spend most of your training time. It's training at a pace you could keep up for a couple of hours without becoming exhausted. Dr. Attia suggests shooting for at least 30-45 minutes of Zone 2, at least 4 times per week.
Unfortunately, I didn't know this when I was in my 20s and 30s. I decided I wanted to get more fit, and I worked up to 3 miles a day, but I was doing it all at the Zone 3 or Zone 4 level. This was putting more stress on my heart than probably was wise. Another mistake.
Dr. Attia suggests spending 80% of your cardio time in Zone 2. The good news is as you spend more time in Zone 2 you actually build your aerobic capacity, so that you can go faster at the same level of effort.
When I was in high school I was always perplexed as I watched the cross country runners trotting around town. I didn't see how that could help them run faster in long distance races.
They knew something I didn't.
If you watch this video from Dr. Attia, you will too.
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