#1878 Zone 2 Target

I’m typing this while dripping with sweat after a quick little trail walk-workout after lunch.

It’s 101 degrees in Austin today.

My all-time favorite temperature. 🤓

The 42% humidity has my iPhone Weather app telling me it feels like 105 degrees.

😲 🥵

PERFECT.

Seriously. I love it.

I don’t understand why people complain about any temperature but I especially don’t understand why those of us into optimizing our lives would ever complain about a free sauna session.

But…

I digress from the point of Today’s +1. 😉

So…

Let’s get to work.

Today I want to chat about WHY I’m going on more micro-Trail-walk-workouts.

I got the inspiration to do so after reading a couple of books in my recent energy/longevity/nutrition binge.

Those books?

Peter Attia’s Outlive and Casey Means’s Good Energy.

In Outlive, Attia tells us that optimizing our EXERCISE is, from his perspective, THE #1 way to increase our longevity.

Nutrition is, OF COURSE, incredibly important for a range of reasons.

And…

Attia makes a VERY compelling case that exercise is even more important than nutrition.

So…

As part of his protocol, in a chapter called “Training 101,” he encourages us to focus on THREE things:

1. Aerobic Efficiency
2. Maximum Aerobic Output
3. Strength

(Then he has another chapter all about “Mobility.”)

We measure our Maximum Aerobic Output via a VO2 Max test. (I just took one along with Alexandra and Emerson and we’ll talk about that in a moment.)

We dominate our Aerobic Capacity via Zone 2 training.

As you may know, Zone 2 training is, essentially, defined as exercising at 60-70% of your max heart rate. (Your theoretical max is 220 minus your age then you times that by 60-70% to get your Zone 2 range. I have my Suunto set up with this as my Zone 2.)

Note: 60-70% of your max is not very hard to hit at all. It’s basically a brisk walk and/or super light jog/walk or light row/bike ride/etc.

Now…

I’m a reasonably fit guy and I show up and do my basic fundamentals VERY consistently.

I do my 1 sun salutation, 10 pull-ups, 100 burpees (11 at a time), 1,000 meters of rowing and 10,000 steps EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

I also get my heart rate up at least 101 beats from its morning-meditation-measured low (which ranges from 40-49 depending on what/when I ate and how I slept) EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

But…

For the last x years, I’ve basically had fun trying to do as little as possible to FEEL GREAT. 😆

My approach appears to be working pretty well as a) I consistently feel GREAT and b) my VO2 Max was in the highest range for my age.

But…

Attia says that if we REALLY want to live for a REALLY long time WITHOUT succumbing to debilitating chronic disease that shortens both our lifespan (how long we live) AND our healthspan (how long we’re healthy), we REALLY need to step up our Zone 2 game.

Specifically…

He says that we should target getting 3-4 hours of Zone 2 EVERY.SINGLE.WEEK.

Now…

That’s an issue.

Because…

I used to only get a little over an hour in my do-as-little-as-possible-to-feel-as-good-as-possible game.

I do a bunch of SUPER micro workouts with all the burpees spread across my morning, but I wasn’t even meeting the basic, standard recommendation to get 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate exercise a week.

So…

When Attia said we needed at least THREE hours of Zone 2 I was like…

“I’ve got some work to do. LET’S GO, HERO!”

😲 🤯

And…

I’ve gotten to work.

I hit 3 hours in my first week. That’s my new baseline. I’ll hit 4 hours this week.

Attia says he gets his 4 hours per week of Zone 2 via 4, 1-hour-long rides on his indoor bike.

I am getting mine via a longer AM workout and then 15-minute micro-walk-workouts around our Trail.

I’ll tell you more about how I time those micro-workout-walks in our next +1.

For Today…

How much Zone 2 are YOU getting?

If you’re already hitting it… NICE WORK!!! 👏

If you’re NOT already hitting it… LET’S GO!!!

If you have no idea because you don’t measure it… LET’S GET ON THAT!!!

It’s Day 1.

We’re ALL IN on having as many of those Heroically Energized Day 1s as we can create.

So LET’S GO!