The thought of exercising can be daunting for many of us, but it doesn’t have to be.

Sticking to a moderate intensity or within what’s called ‘zone 2 cardio’ can help make exercise more manageable and just as effective, when done consistently and often.

What is zone 2 cardio?

Some examples of zone 2 cardio include walking, running, biking and swimming.

All of these exercises get your heart pumping, but it’s how fast it’s going that makes all the difference because this is how hard your body is working to get oxygen through your bloodstream.

Jefferson Brewer, an Exercise Physiologist at Intermountain Health said, “Your heart doesn’t care what you’re doing. If you’re walking around the neighborhood, pushing the cart around the grocery store, or running up a mountain."

When you’re doing something at a lower intensity, it will be easiest to do that on an indoor bike or a treadmill with a slight incline, depending on your fitness level. It can be quite hard to run in zone 2 though.

“There’s a common misconception in the world of fitness training in that you have to be going all gas, no breaks, pedal to the metal at all times, as hard as possible all the time,” said Brewer.

Zone 2 workouts are going to be more sustained over a longer period, but at a lower intensity, which is different from something like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) where you’re revving the engine up, going to 8 out of 10 or 9 out of 10, and then cooling off for a matter of seconds.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends healthy adults aged 18-65 do moderate intensity or zone 2 cardio for 30 minutes, five days a week, or a total of 150 minutes per week.

How do I know I’m doing zone 2 cardio right?

Most fitness trackers, like Apple Watches and Fitbits, will track your cardio zones.

They’re set to averages, but you can manually adjust your zones in the workout settings.

For guidance, these are the average cardiac zones used on Apple Watches:

• Zone 1: Less than 136 BPM
• Zone 2: 137-148 BPM
• Zone 3: 149-161 BPM
• Zone 4: 162-174 BPM
• Zone 5: 175+ BPM

To know your true cardiac zones, it requires quite a bit of math and some knowledge of your resting heart rate and your maximum heart rate.

“When you're looking at zone 2 cardio, it's not quite so challenging that you couldn't talk to someone or carry a conversation. You certainly couldn’t sing to that person, but you’re moving and it’s not at your max,” said Brewer.

The easier and more precise option is to book an appointment with one of our Exercise Physiologists or Sports Medicine Providers who can do a VO2 Max test on you to figure out your heart rate zones.