Zone 2 Training: Do Women Really Need It?

Zone 2 training—steady-state cardio at 60–70% of your max heart rate—has been hailed as essential for endurance, fat burning, and longevity. But does the research actually apply to women?

In this episode, Dr. Kelsy Vick, board-certified Doctor of Physical Therapy and pelvic floor PT, breaks down the science of Zone 2 training and its role in women’s health, metabolism, and recovery. We’ll cover:

• What Zone 2 training really is (and how to calculate it)
• The cardiovascular and metabolic benefits for women
• Hidden downsides: time inefficiency, cortisol stress, and limited bone/muscle benefits
• Why women already have a natural advantage in fat oxidation and mitochondrial function
• HIIT, SIT, and polarized training vs Zone 2—what’s more effective?
• How to fit Zone 2 into your routine without guilt

If you’ve ever wondered whether you need 45–90 minutes of Zone 2 cardio five times a week, or if HIIT and strength training might be more efficient, this episode clears the air.

Tune in to learn how Zone 2 fits into your exercise handbag—and why it might be more of an accessory than an essential for women’s fitness.

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00:00- 00:50 Intro

00:50- 02:12 Introduction to Exercise Handbag Series

02:13- 05:09 Understanding Zone Two Training

05:10- 08:49 Zone Two Training: Male vs. Female Physiology

08:50- 10:16 Polarized Training Model for Women

10:17- 10:43 Thorne

10:44- 12:19 Incorporating Zone Two and Polarized Training (part 2)

12:20- 12:46 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This next part of our exercise handbag

is going to deviate from the series

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just a little bit because it might

not be as essential as we previously

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thought, especially for women.

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So let's clear the air a

bit on zone two training.

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Specifically how zone two

training affects the female body.

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Welcome back to Wellness, fix the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsey Vic, a board

certified orthopedic Dr.

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Physical therapy and a pelvic

floor physical therapist.

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And this new series we've been

doing throughout September.

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I'm calling the exercise handbag

series because we are talking about

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some of the essentials to include

in your exercise handbag, where

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we all have different handbags.

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We all have different styles of handbags

that we enjoy, that we gravitate

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towards, just like we have different

forms of exercise that we might

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gravitate towards, but the essentials

in our handbag, the essentials in our

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exercise routine, especially as women.

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Should be pretty similar.

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We have our phones, our keys, our wallets,

just like in our exercise handbag, we also

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have some of the essentials that we want

as foundations in our exercise routine.

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So our first two essentials we

covered were high intensity interval

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training slash sprint interval

training, and then also jump training.

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High intensity interval training.

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Super controversial.

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So we dive into that in that episode.

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And then jump training is

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The secret sister that no

one really talks about.

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So we chat about jump training and how

beneficial it is for us as women in

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the previous episode and this week.

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Again, deviating a little bit talking

about zone two training and why it might

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not be as essential as we previously

thought, especially for women.

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So first of all, what

is zone two training?

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Zone two training is exercising at about

60 to 70% of your max heart rate or a max

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effort for a prolonged period of time.

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As a reminder, in order to

calculate your max heart rate,

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just do two 20 minus your age.

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So for someone who's 20

years old, two 20 minus 20.

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Estimated max heart rate would

be about 200 beats per minute.

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So exercising in that 60 to 70%

range of that heart rate zone

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will be your zone two training.

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Another way to look at it that we were

taught in school is that you can maintain

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a conversation but you can't sing.

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So if you're able to speed walk and

talk but not sing, that is that zone

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two moderate intensity training.

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When it comes to zone two training, most

of the research done on zone two training

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has been done on men, which is why I

wanted to dive into this topic today.

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Historically speaking, it's it's been

recommended to get about 45 to 90

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minutes of zone two training five times

a week, but a lot of that research

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has been done on the male body.

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so we'll dive into how that

contrasts with the female body.

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What are the benefits of zone two

training from an overarching perspective?

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One, of course, cardiovascular

benefits, heart health is huge, and

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zone two really does help with that.

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We also have the benefits of fat

oxidation and improved metabolism, and

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then we also can use zone two as active

recovery and mental health benefits of.

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So those are the overarching

benefits of zone two training

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for both men and for women.

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So what are some reasons we might

not wanna do zone two training and

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might wanna choose another form of

cardiovascular exercise to sort one of

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the cons is time inefficiency and guilt.

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It takes a good amount of time to

exercise for as long as we need to.

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At 60 to 70% of our max heart rate,

it's pretty easy to get to that 60, 70%.

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So in order to get those benefits.

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That we talked about, the

cardiovascular benefits, the

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metabolic benefits, all of that.

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We need to exercise for a very long

period of time, and someone might feel

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a little bit guilty not reaching that 90

minutes, five times a week recommendation

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that we've historically adopted.

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there's also limited stimulus for

adaptation, especially as we age.

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It is not hard enough exercise to help

with muscle mass or bone Mineral density,

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which we've already discussed, are

both things that we want to focus on,

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especially as we age, and it's not easy

enough to be active recovery, so it falls

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in this sort of like gray middle zone.

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With prolonged exercise, we can

have sustained cortisol increases.

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So if you're someone who has a high

baseline level of cortisol anyways,

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whether through work, stress, family

stress, life stress, just you're a

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chronic zone two exerciser where you're

doing that 90 minutes five times a week

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at 60 to 70% of your max heart rate,

you can have elevated cortisol levels

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for a more prolonged period of time.

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So extended moderate intensity exercise,

especially when combined with other

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stressors in life, can lead to elevated

cortisol levels, especially in women.

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Now let's zoom in a little bit more

specifically on why the female physiology

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differs from the male physiology when

it comes to zone two training women

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in general, as we mentioned in the

first essential series, have natural.

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superior mitochondrial

function than men do,

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we have more oxidative, meaning they

use oxygen type one skeletal muscle

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fibers that have a high mitochondrial

density and we actually have about

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a third greater mitochondrial

respiration as women compared to men.

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Women are also much more

metabolically flexible than men.

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We switch between.

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Utilizing carbs and fats

as fuel quicker than men.

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So a lot of the time men will do zone

two training to switch from that glucose,

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that carbohydrate fuel utilization to fat.

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For fat loss.

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As women, we are actually really

good at switching, and so we don't

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necessarily need as long of that

time at that moderate intensity

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to switch to that fat utilization.

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We do it relatively

quickly compared to a male.

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We're able to oxidize more fat and

less carbs than men during prolonged

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exercise at a similar intensity.

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We maintain a better cellular

energy homeostasis during exercise

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stress, and we have better built-in

fat burning efficiency, which

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is basically that fat oxidation.

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We have a greater abundance of fatty

acid transporters, meaning we're

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better able to use those fatty acids.

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Because we have more of that transporter

to utilize those fatty acids as energy.

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We also have more stored fat within

our muscles, which is easier to access

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compared to fat stored in other places.

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And so we're better able to tap

in to the fat, stored in muscle

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to utilize that for energy.

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And we have better mechanisms

for utilizing fat as fuel too.

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So because of our.

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Mitochondrial density

being higher than men.

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We also have more metabolic

flexibility able to switch

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between carbohydrates and fats.

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Zone two might not be as necessary for us.

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Since a few of the primary pros and

reasons to do zone two training is

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to train the mitochondria and utilize

fat for body composition changes.

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The fact that our bodies are already

structured to do that makes zone two may

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be less of a priority for us as women.

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It's not that it's bad for us, not at all.

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It's just that when building our

exercise handbags of essentials.

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The essentials we need in our routine,

why would we include something that

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takes so much time and that our body is

already naturally adapted for, rather than

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incorporating some of the other essentials

that we actually need, like high intensity

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interval training and sprint interval

training that our bodies aren't as

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set up for as our male counterparts.

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High intensity interval training and

sprint interval training have also

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been shown to be more beneficial in the

cardiovascular and metabolic realms.

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With less of a time commitment.

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So overall it's about bang for your buck.

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If you really enjoy

zone two cardio, do it.

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By all means, it's wonderful as long as

you have the appropriate cool down and

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the appropriate recovery in between.

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Zone two is great, and I'm not

discouraging at all, but if we're really

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trying to build that exercise handbags of

purely essentials that we can do across

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the board, it might be better bang for

your buck to incorporate another form

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of cardiovascular and metabolic based

activities like high intensity interval

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training and sprint interval training.

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So there are exceptions, of course.

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If you're training for something

long duration, lower intensity, or

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moderate intensity, like a marathon,

of course you need to do zone training.

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Specificity of training does matter, so

if you're training for something that

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is moderate intensity, long duration,

you are going to want to include zone

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two training in your current routine

for that training block, for that race

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or event that you're training for.

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As I was researching for this

episode, I came across another sort

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of training mindset when it comes to

cardiovascular training that I thought

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would be interesting to you guys too.

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It basically talks about polarized

training for cardiovascular training where

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if you can think of polarized opinions or.

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Polar opposites.

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They're on either side of the spectrum.

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So this research argues that especially

for women, it's really good if we spend

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the majority of our time in that black and

white zone on either end of the spectrum,

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not as much in that gray area, not as

much in that moderate intensity area.

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They advocate for spending time on either

side of the extreme, so 75 to 80% lower

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intensity training, less than 10% of

moderate intensity training like zone

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two, so not as much of that gray area,

and then 15 to 20% high intensity training

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mixed, of course, with strength training.

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And so thinking of that polarized training

model being super beneficial for women,

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knowing that we're spending time on

either sides of the extremes and not as

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much in that gray area, that middle zone.

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So there are a lot of studies showing

benefit in the twenties and thirties,

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forties and fifties, and 50 plus

age ranges for women utilizing this

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polarized training, especially with

improving your metabolism, improving

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fat utilization, body fat reduction,

and improved power and endurance.

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So thinking of that as an alternative to

this prolonged, moderate intensity work,

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working on either side of that spectrum

with that polarized training model.

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So how do we incorporate it

into our exercise handbag?

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Knowing what we know now and knowing

that zone two is maybe a little bit

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more optional than what we previously

thought, especially for women.

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If you wanna include zone training

because you enjoy it, not necessarily

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training for anything specific, limit it

to about one to two sessions per week.

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You can also use it for active

recovery in between your main sessions.

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It shouldn't be the primary focus of your

cardiovascular training, but of course

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you can use it for mental health reasons.

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If you wanna try more of a polarized

training model, exercising in

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those black and white zones and

not as much in that gray zone.

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Shoot for 30 minutes of walking each day.

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Again, that's that lower intensity range.

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And then 15 to 25 minute high

intensity interval training

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sessions about two to three times

per week on non-consecutive days.

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As we talked about in our essentials

course in our first episode of the

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Exercise Handbag Essentials series.

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And if you do want to exercise in that

zone two range because you enjoy it,

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because it's easy to do with a friend.

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Always think, am I in zone two?

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am I able to carry on a

conversation without singing?

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That's a really good gauge as

to know whether or not you truly

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are in that zone two range.

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So jogging with friends, cycling around

your neighborhood at a leisurely place.

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Dance, cardio, sculpt flow

classes, Pilates flow classes.

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Always you can incorporate zone two

training if you enjoy it, if it's

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something that you really love to do.

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Knowing that it's not necessarily

essential and definitely not a

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foundational element for our exercise

handbags, especially as women.

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I know that probably

surprised some of you.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode.

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I hope you learned more why our bodies as

women might not respond as well to zone

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two training as men or might not need

it as much as our male counterparts do.

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But I hope you learned something.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode.

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I hope you're enjoying this series so far.

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I'd love to hear from you guys to see

what you've learned and how you're

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incorporating it into your own routines.

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But thank you guys so much for listening,

and I'll see you guys again on the next

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episode of Wellness Fixes of the Pod.