Brady Holmer

They're not increasing.

some will actually give like a lactate number being about two millimolar.

I mean, I think there may be kind of some debate about that because I think as I've heard you talk about multiple times, you know, people will have different lactate levels.

And so two millimolar might not represent a zone two intensity for everyone.

It might differ based on whether you're unfit or you're a fit athlete or something like that.

So,

I think it's important, though, that you're at a steady... Your lactate levels aren't continually rising during Zone 2 training.

But the key, I think, and one of the main benefits purported for Zone 2 is that you're improving your fat-burning capacity, not only during exercise, but also your mitochondria's ability to oxidize fat as an energy source, because that's the intensity at which the fat oxidation in the mitochondria is maximal.

Zone 2 training, you know, elite athletes are doing a lot of it, in particular just because their exercise volumes are so high.

And so...

I think one of the, you know, areas of not disagreement, but kind of conflict is that people will say you need to do a lot of zone two training.

You know, it needs to make up a majority of your exercise training.

And a lot of what that those people are referring to, whether they're coaches, is that, you know, the elite athletes doing 20 to 30 hours a week.

Well, obviously they do a lot of zone two training because they're exercising for 20 to 30 hours per week.

You know, there are certainly benefits to that for building the aerobic base that allows you to do a high level of volume without burnout.

There's a very low injury risk with Zone 2 training because it's a lighter intensity.

You're not overly stressing your autonomic nervous system or your cardiovascular system.

And so it has these benefits of just allowing you to do a lot of low intensity volume to build, you know, what's called the aerobic base and improve your fat burning capacity.

And those seem to be the main benefits.

And I think defining it, though, is important because zone two gets talked about a lot.