Written by Morten Mueller, Coya Performance Coach and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
“Sometimes less is more” gets repeated so often it loses meaning. But it applies to fitness in a very specific way: if every session is built to empty the tank, you usually end up with less progress, not more.
A lot of modern fitness content rewards the look of effort — sweat, suffering, collapsing after a gruelling session. That can be as motivating as it is impressive. But it can also teach the wrong lesson: that a workout only “counts” if it hurts. Physiology doesn’t care how dramatic a session looks. It cares about stimulus, recovery, and consistency.
High intensity matters. Strength training matters. But for performance you can sustain — and health that doesn’t fall apart later — most people are missing a quieter ingredient: low-intensity aerobic work, often referred to as Zone 2 (even though it’s young brother Zone 1 - nickname “walking” - works great, too).
This topic gets weird fast. Some people treat Zone 2 as the answer to everything, while others dismiss it as wasted time. The best Zone 2 prescription ultimately depends on the individual person and what their life actually looks like. So instead of arguing for or against Zone 2 as a religion, it’s more useful to treat it as a tool — sometimes optional, sometimes critical, and often misapplied.
The Real Starting Point: Are You Exercising Enough?
Before talking about “zones,” it’s worth starting the basics. A lot of people reach for Zone 2 because it feels like a sophisticated solution, when the lower hanging fruit is actually just moving more and training consistently.
Three questions to ask yourself:
1) Do you actually enjoy your training?
If you like what you’re doing, you’ll do it. If you dread it, you won’t. Maybe you actually will for a few weeks, definitely for a full year, let alone for life. Even elite endurance athletes adjust their workout protocols (at least in part) according to personal preference. Simply put… the “perfect” plan is useless if your workout is the worst part of your day.
If exercise feels miserable, start by changing the container:
A different modality (bike instead of run, rower instead of treadmill, incline walk instead of jogging, pick up a sport instead of worrying about zones altogether)
Different environment (get outside, try a class, invite a friend)
Shorter sessions done more often
Consistency always beats intensity you can’t repeat.
2) Are you lifting at least twice per week? Do you do high-intensity cardio at least once per week?
If not, that’s usually the best first upgrade for long-term health and performance.
Two full-body sessions per week gives you a huge return in the form of muscle, bone health, joint resilience, and the ability to tolerate more training later. The high-intensity cardio session (think: HIIT, sprint training, etc.), gives you the biggest bang for your buck initially when it comes to your cardiovascular fitness.
If you are doing nothing else, aim for these three sessions each week, starting at 30 minutes each, and ramp up from there.
3) Are you walking enough?
A practical target is ~8,000 steps/day on average. Not as a magic number — just a useful anchor. Walking is low intensity aerobic work that offers a lot of underrated biomechanical benefits including improved tissue tolerance, joint motion, and general durability. Humans were built to walk.
If you don’t currently do targeted cardio, here’s the deal: walking a lot (consistently) is your “Zone 2” for now. Master the basics first, and then you can worry about levelling up.
What Zone 2 Actually is
Zone 2 is a steady aerobic intensity you can hold for a long time. It should feel controlled – not quite as easy as a stroll, but definitely not as hard a workout you need to psych yourself up for.
Why it matters: It trains the parts of the system that let you produce energy efficiently and recover well.
At higher intensities (Zones 3–5), your body leans more on carbohydrates because energy demand rises quickly. That’s normal. But you will also take a bit longer to fully recover from workouts that dip into these zones.
Zone 2 is different: it pushes aerobic adaptations with relatively low fatigue. With regular Zone 2 work you tend to improve:
Your ability to generate energy aerobically (more “engine”)
Your ability to use fat as fuel
Your ability to clear and reuse lactate produced during harder work
Your ability to do more total training without constantly feeling wrecked
The lactate point is worth clarifying. Lactate isn’t just “bad stuff” that appears when you suffer. During harder efforts, some muscle fibers produce more lactate; other fibers can take it up and use it. A well-built aerobic system is better at that recycling process. That’s one reason people with a strong base can surge repeatedly and recover faster between efforts and workouts — whether that’s in sport or simply handling life stress without feeling fragile.
Why This Matters Beyond Sport
Athletes use Zone 2 to support faster race paces. For everyone else, the value is that aerobic capacity (often measured as VO₂ max) is tied to basic function as you age, and relies on a solid foundation (Zone 2) to improve significantly.
A useful way to think about it:
VO₂ max is your ceiling (how much aerobic power you have)
Low-intensity aerobic work helps build the base that supports that ceiling
When the ceiling drops enough, normal life gets harder. Stairs feel like a hill, carrying groceries feels like a task, you avoid activity because it’s uncomfortable. That decline doesn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t inevitable – but it is common. A consistent aerobic base helps slow that slide and tends to improve recovery between physical and mental stressors. More Zone 2 > Better high-intensity workouts > Improved physical capacity.
Zone 2 also tends to be easier to integrate without backfiring. Because it’s not as much of a carb-relying session, many people notice fewer post-workout cravings compared to hard interval work (assuming they aren’t under-eating in general).
Don’t Live in the “Grey” Zone
The main downside of Zone 2 is psychological, because it can feel too easy to qualify as “real training.” As a result, people often drift upward into a steady grind that’s not truly easy and not truly hard — we refer to this as the “grey zone” (Zone 3).
There’s nothing wrong with Zone 3, especially in a coherent training program. The problem is doing a lot of it by accident instead of Zone 2.
Why it matters:
True low intensity is repeatable with low recovery cost
True high intensity is potent but needs recovery
The middle (Zone 3) can make you tired enough to not recover well within 24 hours without giving you as much stimulus as higher zones.
That’s how people can end up training often below their capacity, feeling flat, and not improving.
Getting in The Zone (Not Lost in the Metrics)
For most people, the simplest tool is the talk test:
You can speak in full sentences.
You’re breathing faster than normal.
You can breathe through your nose without looking like you are in pain.
If you can sing comfortably, you’re probably too easy (more like Zone 1). If you can’t finish a sentence, you’ve drifted too hard.
When you’re new to this, err on the slightly easier side. Especially if you have a hard session coming up. Remember, one of the biggest benefits of Zone 2 is that you can do a lot of it and recover quickly.
How to Program Zone 2 Without Overcomplicating it
A simple model consists of three “buckets”:
Low Intensity Cardio (Zone 1–2): Repeatable, sustainable, builds base and supports the ceiling
Hard Cardio (Zone 3–5): Intervals, hard efforts, drives the ceiling
Strength Training: Lifting weights, fundamental for bones, muscles, and brain
Where Zone 2 fits depends on your weekly time budget.
If you have under ~3 hours/week
Don’t build your whole plan around Zone 2. Use your limited time on the highest return work:
Strength Training: 2x/week
Hard Cardio: 1-2x/week (intervals, hills, HIIT classes)
Low Intensity Cardio: 8k steps per day (additional Zone 2 optional)
If you have over ~3 hours/week
Once you consistently lift and you have at least one hard cardio day:
Add 1–3 Zone 2 sessions/week
Aim for 30 minutes or more per session
Keep them truly controlled so they stay repeatable. If you feel beat up the morning after, you might have overdone it.
Remember: Zone 2 is the volume you can accumulate without constantly paying for it.
An Example Weekly Game Plan:
Walk daily and aim to get ~8,000 steps/day on average. Don’t drop below 5,000 steps on any day if you can avoid it.
Strength train twice (full body)
Do one or two hard cardio sessions.
If you have the time and energy, add a couple 30-60 minute Zone 2 sessions
That’s it. If you can keep up that schedule 40-45 weeks per year you are winning!
Zone 2 isn’t a magic hack. It’s the part of training that builds a durable engine without beating you up, especially once the bigger rocks are already in place. And in a culture that equates progress with suffering, it’s often the missing piece.
If the advice in this article seems like it’s not enough, you might be at a place in your training journey where adding a third strength session and doing longer (or additional) Zone 2 sessions makes sense. But always pay close attention to how you recover and how you feel right after and the next day. Doing too much is a good recipe to burn out, get hurt, or stop making progress.