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Videos Referenced:
Huberman Zone 2 Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5J6sgQLvuE&t=22s
San Millan / Attia Discussion – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6PDBVRkCKc&t=4s

We got another walking hubman rant this ain’t a vlog I just watched this video and unfortunately this proliferates my entire YouTube algorithm recommendations now is zone two everywhere and to prove how much this guy hubman has no idea what he is talking about in regards to like endurance exercise or endurance high

Performance and to that I gasped and then I was a little bit deflated and and why everybody is so so confused I feel so bad because everybody’s so confused some’s like listen zone two for a pro athlete it’s harder than you think if you look at the training data of Brandon

Mcnalty one of the UAE athletes doing that sort of philosophy they do a lot of hard writing looks like hard writing but it’s actually at fat Max fat Max means fat maximization or the the maximal rather the the maximum rate on the f B oxidation curve during exercise I.E the UAE Riders train

In the power zone or heart rate zone or whatever that burns the most fat per minute fat oxidation for exercise on the curve if they go a bit faster they start burning more less fat and more glucose or glycogen or whatever if they go a bit slower they burn less fat narrow Zone

Get through lactate testing or gasas exchange test so yeah so normally what I do is like starting with the metabolic test I translate that information into whether it’s Watts uh or or speed or heart rate obviously 99% of people want to do a January New Year’s resolution ain’t doing lactate testing in a

Lab so or have a power meter or have a bike that’s fine s knows that if you can EX exercise whatever the exercise you do and maintain a conversation like you and I are doing you’re way too easy you’re probably Zone one but you said if you

Cross to the point where you cannot maintain that conversation that’s where you you it’s because yeah you’re you’re you’re you need to breathe much faster because you’re producing more CO2 and that’s probably because you’re already transitioning from the slow twitch massive fibers to the fast twitch massive fibers more glycolytic more

Lactate more CO2 more buffering capacity so it seems old school but it works beautifully and he’s like just talking conversational Pace but not like walking you know not like like like really easy just a little bit you know harder than that and I think that’s actually that’s

Broadly correct I think that’s right and he says the 150 minute recommendation for activity per week is insufficient should be 300 minutes but is that 300 minutes of Zone 2 or 300 minutes of activity not sure that’s supposed to 300 minutes of Zone 2 anyway that’s broadly

I think it’s difficult to disagree with all of that Peter Adia then says 80% of maximum heart rate for him 78 to 81% of maximum heart rate zone to I would say the majority of people you put them on a bike and they do that zone because their

Metabolic inefficiency they are going to be burning way way they’re going to be way past their fat max they’re going to be burning way more glycogen um they might be able to still have a hold of conversational Pace as well my zone two is actually at about 78 to 81% of my

Maximum heart rate but I know that for Less trained people it’s lower so I tell people a broad range of 70 to 80% of your realized maximum heart rate is a good place to start and then make adjustments based on relative perceived exertion yeah and then like the old

School cycling guys like Joe F Andy Cogan training P all sort of stuff they’re like 88% of your functional threshold heart rate is the cap on Zone 2 or and then there’s like 55 to 70% of your FTP a power base Zone 2 so now we’re at about four or five definitions

Of what what zone 2 is depending on the time and day you ask someone or or what access to equipment they have enter Andrew hubman got a video title how and why you should do zone two it doesn’t say be less sedentary no no no how and why you should do

More and can you do more zone two because Zone 2 gets clicks on the YouTube algorithm that’s why I’m making this curs video and in that he basically says he schedules you know during the week one bout of zone two where he goes for a hike or whatever now many people

Including myself schedule Zone 2 cardio into their weekly fitness regimen so for me I have one day a week for me it falls on a Sunday where I go out for a jog that lasts anywhere from 60 Minutes to 90 minutes it’s a slow jog or sometimes

It consists of a hike by myself or with other people and sometimes those hikes extend anywhere from an hour to four hours but generally speaking he says he does not get the 300 minutes 200 minutes he’s supposed to do and I acknowledge that that once a week session doesn’t

Always allow me to reach that 150 minute to 200 minute minimum threshold of Zone 2 cardio per week sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t now let’s assume for a second that the hke is doing for the well theoretical hike is doing for however long is actually zone two if

It’s at sufficient intensity jury’s out on that one I’m walking around the hills here and at the top of a hill my heart rate my heart rate doesn’t doesn’t even get into the base of aerobic zone so am I doing a Zone 2 walk no am I just

Walking around on my rest day to burn extra calories to lose fat yeah it’s not a zone two walk anyway let’s assume for a second he is doing that and he’s like well I’m not doing enough Zone 2 what’s the solution I should do more because that’s recommended and it it is you

Should do more right wrong goes and just contact someone that gives him the answer he wants which is actually when you get up and you just like walk around incidentally that’s zone two training human says that’s zone two and that the best way to get Zone 2 cardio is okay if

You want to schedule it schedule it as a session but that to Simply increase the amount of walking and in particular walking at a rapid Pace that one does and to increase the total amount of movement that one’s getting throughout the week so taking groceries in and out

Of the grocery store running around with the kids taking a walk with a cooworker while having a work discussion maybe that is zone two for like an extremely unhealthy person but that is generally speaking not zone two just walking around now is incidental movement fantastic is being Sentry a significant health risk and

Problem yes are the Blue Zone people the agrarians in Okinawa doing Zone 2 training all day no do they live to a million years old yes it’s not necessarily cuz they doing zone two they’re doing lots of incidental movement and not sitting for 8 hours straight which is really good for you

Doing lots of incidental movement I got fat as when I started working as a lawyer when I left uni cuz I sat all day I still doing a decent amount of exercise in the morning but I was just no incidental movement so that that’s actually not wrong the recommendation

From puber which is to do more incidental movement but it’s not zone two why are you calling it zone two you’re not doing zone two but if you can exercise whatever the exercise you do and maintain a conversation like you and I are doing you’re way too easy you

Probably Zone one and here’s the big problem with the whole thing why has human done this either a he knows he doesn’t really know what zone 2 is is but doesn’t care gives some sort of general advice as to do move a little bit more what’s the danger right very

Plausible him or his research team don’t know what zone 2 really is as I said it is very confusing because there’s about 20 different definitions so there we go option b he knows what zone 2 is but he realizes that it’s actually very hard 99% of people are not going to do 3

00 minutes of not not even fat MAX train like forgot for one of a bit of word um which is you know maybe Zone 3 training in terms of where is s on your FTP 99% of people AR going to do 300 minutes of like conventional Zone 2 training which

Is like more actual like chilling you know 60% 65 70% of your maximum heart rate the the traditional like Cogan f one or Cogan and the reason as that’s really hard 99% of people are not going to do that and to that I gasped and then

I was a little bit deflated and so to like I don’t know appease his audience I guess who may be S I do all this zone two training what’s this human you told me to get on the assault bike for one minute every day go as hard as

Possible and have like the worst metabolic efficiency in the world and I’d be like I’d live forever and bys and then what he said was very reassuring and I think it’s going to be very reassuring to all of you he’s like no no don’t worry about zone two just

Walk around a little bit if you simply make the effort to move around a lot more during your daily activities and to mesh that zone 2 cardio with your daily activities you’re going to hit that threshold of 200 minutes per week minimum actually no not even that it’s

Already what you’re doing don’t worry you don’t need to change anything it’s already what you’re doing you got to take a piss in the middle of the night has Zone too you go walk your kids to the coffee shop if you’re not in America or Australia zone two and so it’s like

Oh I don’t need to change anything I’m already doing all this Zone to because I already exist thanks thanks Andrew I I could be part of it as well if you can exercise whatever the exercise you do and maintain a conversation like you and I are doing you’re way too easy you’re

Probably in zone one I would rather he actually took like a stand and said you know what you don’t need to do you don’t need to do 200 minutes of zone two you don’t that it’s not that you need to do 200 minutes in zone 2 I’m

Going to change the definition of what zone 2 is to match that why don’t you actually think about it for 5 seconds and say for longevity you don’t need to do 200 minutes of Zone 2 why don’t you just incidentally move a noty sedent in

Line with all the Blue Zone people or I don’t know pick a group of people pre Technic industrialization but that would actually require like disagreeing more openly with the recommendations of other people like Adia and and Sam Milan so really it’s a definitional issue that hubman has no idea

Definitionally what zone 2 is or just doesn’t care enough that when I do a biker I listening to a podcast cuz I’m bored I’m doing Zone one that’s what all the esteemed exercise scientists say with you know slight tinkering percentage points tinkering of what zone

2 is but he’s like eh I’ll just find the answer that suits me and then that can be the answer

20 Comments

  1. Cyclists, triathletes or other endurance athletes know what zone 2 is, but nobody else does. People following and playing other sports have probably never heard of zone 2. It's not a general fitness concept amongst lay people who is Huberman's audience even though it's been well known in endurance circles for years. That's why he's talking about it, bringing "cutting-edge" sports science to the noobs. At least Z2 is well researched and understood, which cannot be said for half the stuff he bangs on about (hot/cold therapy, butthole sunbathing etc). Having said that, I like seeing criticism of Huberman. As a scientist, he's not the worst of the fitness/nutrition et al. gurus but he is not honest in his approach. He loves a new biohack trend and uncritically promotes the shit out of it and all the things it "might" do. No scientist worthy of the name would discuss so many new, trendy, poorly- and under-researched biohacking trends as this guy. That's why he spends all of his time doing podcasts and not in the lab.

  2. Yea, it’s the same kind of deal as when they tell you to ‘try to get more NEAT for good health’ when anyone who knows what NEAT means knows it’s impossible by definition. But they say it because general population doesn’t know what NEAT means (or EAT, or BMR vs RMR), they just heard the term and think it’s like walking or ‘boosts your metabolism’, so use it as a more sciencey convincing authoritative way to tell people to just get off their ass.

  3. Thanks for telling and showing me some of the huberman guy as everyone is talking about him like he is the second coming and i wondered what they were talking about but i got zero interest in watching him.
    So thanks for saving me the bother

  4. Been using a coros watch for a couple of years, only 5 zones on their old hr scale top of aerobic threshold was z2, now they have changed to 6 zones, aerobic threshold now top of z3, that was confusing too!!

  5. Zone 2 Training has become the algorithm term of late 2023, early 2024. I can only presume that the reason is a lot of people want to be told they can have their cake and eat it to.

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