289: Zone 2 Cardio for Women in Midlife: Why Slower May Actually Be Smarter

So the one thing that I want for you to know is I don't have anything against cardio, but hopefully, if you've been in my world for a while, you know that I'm all about customization.

I'm all about let's figure out what we need to do for your body.

Your body is not your friend's body, not your mom's body, not your sister's body, not your trainer's body or the person you're following on Instagram.

And before I dive into zone 2 specific education for you and sharing some of the research and benefits, the one thing that I want for you to know is we have to really look at how this would work for you.

So if you are a busy mom, you only have three days a week to be in the gym, I'm gonna tell you to do strength training and prioritize steps as much as possible outside of the gym.

If you're working or have kids, you can get creative and work in daily steps that way.

I'm not going to tell you to allocate one of those three workouts for zone 2 cardio.

Now, if you have more time, then sure, if it makes sense for you, depending on where you are in your journey in the repair, rebuild, or results phase, we can utilize those tools, zone 2 cardio, for example.

But if you are chronically undereating, chronically overtraining, on a GLP-1, and you are really struggling to lift weights consistently, you're struggling to build strength, your muscle mass isn't where you want it to be, you're concerned since you're dieting that you're losing muscle mass, I wouldn't tell you to do zone 2 cardio or any cardio, to be honest, outside of getting in some daily steps and focusing on strength training, progressive overload, and I would have you on a very specific kind of program to ensure that we're optimizing your hormones, cortisol isn't getting too high, which would also knock up your adrenaline, your epinephrine, and really put your body in more of a stressed state.

We don't want that if you are that woman.

So as you can see, there's lots of different scenarios and situations where cardio is appropriate for some, not for others.

Zone 2 works well for some, not for everyone.

Not only is it your hormones, your metabolism, where you are with your goals, it could simply also be a time thing.

As I mentioned, if you are only working out three days a week and your primary goal is to get leaner and build strength, I'm going to have you lifting weights for three of those sessions.

Every personal trainer you talk to is probably gonna give you a different prescription.

I'm telling you what I would do with the women that I work with and currently am doing with the women that I've worked with.

Okay, so I'm so excited.

Let's just chat all about zone 2 cardio because it is an amazing tool.