I Did Zone 2 Training for 30 Days: Here's What Happened

If you want to live a long life, health experts recommend you get 150 minutes of zone 2 training per week. And for the past 38 years of my life, I've done approximately 0 minutes. Oh god, just give me a minute. Some call it hype. The new 10,000 steps, jogging rebranded, a complete waste of time. Others call it one of the foundational principles for longevity and health. There's no question that discussions around the importance of zone 2

training have exploded over the past few years. >> Zone 2. Zone 2. Zone 2. Zone 2 training. >> If you missed it, zone 2 is a low to moderate intensity cardio effort where you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate, but not so much that you can't hold a conversation. It's roughly 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. So, if your max heart rate is 190 beats per minute, zone 2 is between 114 and

133 beats per minute. So, I'm in zone 2 right now. My heart rate is 140 beats per minute. You can have a conversation, but it is winded. Does zone 2 training unlock the secrets to a long life and optimal performance, or is it just another self-development trend? Let's find out. In your humor, man was wrong. It was wrong. This video is sponsored by Squarespace. I'll share more about how they help me build all my websites later.

One of the biggest surprises after just one day of zone 2 training has been how slow the pace really is when jogging. I almost have to hold myself back, remind myself not to go too fast. I think that is the appeal of zone 2. It's that it's not this really intense cardio workout. It's not soul cycle or a hit program or any one of these things that leave you feeling destroyed at the end of the day.

And so, if you're able to get the health benefits of cardio without killing yourself every single day, I see the appeal. So, I'm starting out just doing 10 minutes of zone 2 per training session, but my goal is that by the end of the month, I would have averaged about 150 minutes of zone 2 training per week. And so, that means eventually I'm going to have to start picking it up. Zone 2 has become a staple

in health circles because it supposedly helps improve your aerobic base, boost your metabolic health, and strengthen your heart. But, it's not so intense that it gets you injured or kills your recovery. Oh god, I feel like my lungs on fire. According to one of the world's leading experts in zone 2 training, Dr. Peter Aia, one of the biggest f Sorry, what's that? >> There are over 1,700 mentions of Peter Aia in the Epstein files. >> I

mean, I'm sure that's just some kind of misunderstanding. >> He refers to women's genitals as low carb. >> Oh, yeah. That that doesn't sound very good. >> Here's another email he sent to Epstein. I would really love to add 5 years or more to your life, even if the only reason to do so is to have more sex. He also wrote to Epstein's assistant, "I go into J withdrawal when I don't see him. >> He had

been meeting with Epstein while his son, who had just been born, was in the ICU. >> This is not going to be good for the zone 2 movement." As I looked more into the health benefits of zone 2 and tried to avoid any mention of Peter Aia, which was honestly quite difficult, I realized the story is a little more complicated than I thought. A pretty damning analysis on zone 2 training was just published and it concluded

that the current evidence does not support zone 2 training as optimal intensity for improving mitochondrial or fatty acid oxidative capacity. A 2025 review brilliantly titled Much to do About Zone 2 argued that a lot of the hype around zone 2 comes from studying elite athletes, but that might not be the best group to study when applying the lessons to the general population. >> The authors raised two worries about this type of thinking. first elite athletes, they

also incorporate some high-intensity exercise. So, it isn't clear that their low or high-intensity training is more important for the benefits that we're interested in here when it comes to our own health. And the second worry is that most of us aren't elite athletes. So, those elite athletes, they might be training for over 20 hours a week, while many of us, we struggle to fit in 2 hours a week. That difference has a huge impact in terms

of the type of exercise strategies that make the most sense to maximize our gains. That's not to say zone 2 is a waste of time or isn't effective. It's just that if you don't have a lot of time, high-intensity training is probably a more efficient way to get the health benefits. But there are perfectly good reasons to keep training in zone 2. If it helps you stay consistent, if it helps you avoid injury, or if you

simply enjoy it more than highintensity training. The exercise that you keep doing is more important than finding the technically optimal one. And since I've avoided cardio my entire life, zone 2 has been a great way to introduce it into my daily routine. So, I have found that jogging specifically outside has been quite challenging in terms of staying in zone 2 consistently. It's easy to get distracted and there are stops, turns, and hills that make it difficult

to keep a steady pace. So, to try to be more consistent, I decided to bring my cardio onto the treadmill. Instead of jogging, I increased the incline and aimed for more of a brisk walk so I could keep my heart rate in zone two the entire time. It ended up basically being that awkward place between walking and jogging where it looks like you're rushing home so you don't your pants. So, you guys might have noticed something

about self-development content lately. It's getting more and more extreme. And I'm trying to push back against that trend. That's why this year with all the 30-day experiments I'm doing, I'm trying to make small meaningful progress forward. I'm trying to do things that are actually sustainable for my life as a busy dad. While that might not get the most views, to me it feels the best. And so, if you want to help support the work that I'm

doing, one of the best ways that you can do that is to hit subscribe and turn on notifications on this video. Thanks so much for considering. >> Hey, how's it going? >> Hi, I'm Matt. Yeah, >> nice to meet you. >> Nice to meet you. >> Have you guys seen the place yet? >> No. >> No. So, this is our main little gym area. So, couple different treatment rooms, main little rehab gym space. That's the treadmill

you're actually going to be completing your V2 max on. It's staring at you and it's in your face. >> Yeah. >> I decided to go to a performance center to get a physical assessment. I'm working with Everlab and their partner facility, Power Potential. Everlab is a performance testing and longevity company based in Australia. Full disclosure, I told them about the video that I was making and they set me up on their platform for free. Just one

of the many perks of being a YouTuber. Today, they're running me through a battery of tests including a DEXA scan. Main purpose of today from this machine, full body composition scan, identifying fat mass, muscle mass, and your full bone density. >> They measured my grip strength. >> Push, push, push, push, push, push, push, and relax. Well done. Best one yet. >> Vertical jump. >> 40.2 cm jump height. >> Apparently, I have really good balance. >> Best

single leg balance I've seen with eyes closed. >> Really? Holy >> Very, very good. >> Wow. Thank you. I think that's all the karate that I did when I was in high school. >> That's it. But the big things that I'm looking to walk away with for the purposes of this 30-day experiment is my max heart rate to better determine my zone 2 range and my V2 max to better understand my cardiovascular health. >> Your actual

cardiovascular fitness, so it's how efficiently your body is um consuming and supplying those muscles, the working muscles with oxygen. >> Higher V2 max levels have been strongly linked to better long-term health outcomes. >> The V2 max is like is like it's like intense. >> Oh, no. It starts off quite easy and then it sort of ramps up to that point where you either can't keep up with the treadmill or you physically can't keep up yourself. Yeah.

>> Fall off and then you're like, "Okay, >> exactly. Feeling good?" >> Yep. >> All right. And a 5.5 >> and up and incline. Going up. Good. Well done. Catch your breath. Catch your breath. >> Well done. Nice. Deep breaths. That's it. V2 max 43.2. So, honestly, not a bad score. You said you were training about 1229 for a heart rate for a zone 2. You should be between 138 and 145. >> Okay. A little bit

more. >> Yeah. Yeah, definitely. to actually see some sort of fat burning change in terms of that zone 2. >> Equipped with a more accurate zone 2 range, I was ready to get back to training. Okay, maybe after a day's rest. >> Holy that was crazy. Oh my god. So, I haven't been as consistent as I would like, especially in the the first two weeks of doing zone 2. I've really just been struggling to find the

time to train. And so I've been trying to think of ways to make it more effortless. That's our Pelatin that has completely taken over our sun room. >> The Pelatin made a lot of sense for us because Nat really loves the studio cycling classes. Uh and that's something that they do exceptionally well. For me personally, it's a little bit overkill. Life with two kids is a little bit busy these days. I've got less time than ever

before. So, being able to fit in workouts after my kids go to bed or even during the weekend when the timing works out has just been so helpful. So, Nat's watching both the kids right now. I'm squeezing in hopefully an hour session. Then I'll give her an hour break. Let's go. Since getting the bike, my training sessions started to get longer and more consistent. And I was getting closer and closer to my goal of hitting 150

minutes per week on average. So, my total training volume per day has increased a bit over time to now I'm at the point where I'm doing 45minute training sessions each time I work out. Now, I'm getting to the point where while it's not entirely enjoyable, I am finding it less painful to hit that 45minut goal. This video is sponsored by Squarespace. I've been using Squarespace for over 15 years, much longer than they've been a sponsor on

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a code. Go to squarespace.com to start your free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/mattella to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Thanks so much for considering. Got to say, I don't love riding on the bike. I find that for the first 10 to 15 minutes of my workout, my legs are just on fire and my butt is uncomfortable for the entire ride. That might just be because I

haven't built up my leg muscles or my my butt muscles enough and I just need to put more time on the bike. Definitely for me, it's definitely a lot more difficult riding on the bike than it has been going for a walk on the treadmill. You might be wondering right now, you're like, Matt, you must be getting into zone 4, zone 5. I'm like 142 beats per minute right now, which is like kind of at the

top end of zone 2. So, man. Andrew Huberman was wrong. He was wrong. >> Okay, for context here, I came across a podcast where Andrew Huberman said that you can get into zone 2 by watching your kids. Zone 2 cardio can be meshed throughout the daily activities that I and everybody else generally have to do. Running around with the kids, taking a walk with a co-orker while having a work discussion, taking your calls for work while

pacing in the office, or going outside. I just don't see how this could possibly be true. Going for a casual walk or watching Bluey with my kids hasn't gotten me anywhere close to the kind of effort I put in when I'm actually training. Sorry, Andrew. I started hitting more sessions each week. A few during the day, but most after the kids were asleep. I turn the baby monitor on, lace up, put on my headphones, play an

audio book, and start pedaling. One thing that sucks about training in this sun room is that there's no air conditioning, and so this just turns into a sweat lodge. Since I got off to a slow start, I extended this one a little bit past the 30-day mark. I ended up training for 22 days over 42 days in total for a grand total of 793 minutes of zone 2 or an average of 132 minutes per week. Just

a bit short of my goal, but still way more cardio than I've done over the past 20 years combined. So, I was pretty happy about that. My longest streak was 6 days straight. By the end of that run, I could feel my energy was dipping. I wasn't recovering enough. And that was a good reminder for me that more isn't always better. Two big lessons that I've learned that might help you if you're looking to get started

on a practice like this yourself. First, having an at-home solution was just like such a gamecher for me. It made consistency more realistic. And I'm even considering getting a small weight set at home as well to help me lift because again with parenting it's like I just I just never have time. Second, while I'm sure that this is good for me, outside of my actual training sessions, I haven't felt any kind of like knock-on effect. During

my sessions themselves, as I kind of like get into a flow state, I feel a lot better. Like just my heart rate getting up, uh, moving around a lot more. Like I definitely like that feeling, but again, it hasn't really translated outside of those workouts. I think the lesson you can take away from that, and this is something that I've learned through a lot of the 30-day experiments that I've done, is that 30 days is a

great starting point. It helps to build the the routine and the habit. It helps you to understand whether it's something that you might enjoy going forward, how to squeeze it in and find that extra time in your day to make it work. But if you really want to see the health benefits of something like zone 2 every day, it's probably going to take a little bit more time. Zone 2 was the perfect way to introduce cardio

into my life. But since I don't have a whole lot of time, I'm planning to dial up my intensity going forward with some new 30-day experiments. Next up, I'm going to run one mile a day for 30 days.