Are you cardiovascular training confused? I don't blame you; there is a lot of information out there that can work counterintuitively, especially if you are just starting to incorporate cardiovascular training into your routine. While it is easy to just focus on the numbers, finding the balance between high-intensity and low-intensity is more nuanced than that. Luckily, I have my friend Jamie Scott, an accomplished sports nutritionist and endurance coach, with me today.

Key Takeaways

If You Want to Incorporate More Low-Intensity Cardio Into Your Life, You Should:

1. Slowly build up your Zone 2 endurance over time
2. Don't get too hung up on the numbers and data
3. Take a holistic approach and find a balance that works for you

Finding Balance with Jamie Scott

Jamie Scott is a New Zealand Registered Nutritionist. He holds postgraduate qualifications in Nutrition Medicine and Sport and Exercise Medicine, undergraduate degrees in Nutrition Science and Physical Education, and is a Level-1 Mountain Bike Skills coach (PMBIA). Over the past 25 years, Jamie’s career has spanned several roles in the health and fitness industry. He is passionate about helping others learn how to fuel their bodies in a way that supports performance and total body health.

Give Precedence to the Feeling

I’m willing to bet there is a pretty good chance you have heard some rumors about cardiovascular health over 40 and the difference between lower-intensity and higher-intensity cardio. Many people struggle with lower-intensity cardio, or Zone 2 because they feel it is too boring, hard, or lazy. But when you can remain grounded in your ‘why’,’ you can stay focused on the practical things you can take away. You don't have to feel stressed or anxious about what your fitness technology is telling you. Remember to focus on the feeling an exercise gives you, not just the numbers on the screen.

Back to Basics

Often, we as a society are in a rush to look for what is new and shiny, so we need to remember the reliable basics. But they are there for a reason! Working both higher- and lower-intensity cardio into your weekly routine benefits your training and your lifestyle.

The practical application of lower-intensity cardio, combined with the higher intensity and strength training you are already doing, is a crucial part of the puzzle regarding your overall health and longevity.

Are you ready to implement lower-intensity cardio into your training regime? Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Breaking down the rumors around high-intensity training for women in peri and post-menopause (7:06)
• How to change the way you think about Zone 2 if you feel bored with it or are focused on only your heartrate (14:23)
• Why having a problem with slowing down may be related to your fitness ego (30:35)
• Tips for improving or getting started on your cardiovascular stamina in the pursuit of life (38:19)
• Understanding why, although this topic may not be click-bait worthy, it is crucial (53:38)

Quotes

“Overall, for those who are just after kind of the health and longevity and want to do it in a sustainable way that is not massively hard on the joints or is not a high skill requirement… that low-intensity mix seems to be better for those individuals.” (12:21)

“The endorphins, the huffy-puffy-ness, the sweatiness, the burn, all of those things we have been conditioned over years and years and years in the fitness industry as markers of some sort of ‘success.’ And we need to unlearn a lot of those things when it comes to doing this low-intensity, high-intensity split.” (31:57)

“It's getting people into that mindset of: you don't just go from 0, drop into almost a 50/50 split of low intensity and high intensity, and just slowly kind of stack things up over a long period of time. But you are not doing it in a 7-day cycle where you are just trying to shoe-horn everything in.” (47:21)

“There can be different forms of movement that people are involved with, which does add up over time.” (47:00)

“It requires people to do a little bit of reflection and thinking about where they are at, what they are doing, and what the context is.” (53:52)

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