If you only had limited time like 5 hours a week and you wanted to improve your vo2 max (and overall health) you best bang for your… time would be something like this:
2.5 hours of gym doing circuit strength training that in addition to incorporating traditional weight exercise also add explosive moves like box jumps, balance moves like single leg Romanian dead lifts and dynamic stretching. You can throw some sauna in there too, anything to keep you HR over 55-60% would still count as Zone 1.
2 hours of Zone 1 cardio - that’s walking for some, jogging/cycling for others, pickleball etc.
30 min of HIIT - indoor trainer bikes or stair climbers are the safest for that. 4 x 4 are the classic type.
That should give your roughly overall Zone 1 70-80% Zone 2 10-20% Zone 3 5-10%
That distribution according to the studies more effectively moves the needle on Vo2 max than just doing 100% Zone 1.
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Neo
#223
A lot of people see more bang for the time from doing zone 2 vs zone 1 (in addition to doing a bit of zone 5 (4 x 4) stuff).
What is your perspective on zone 2 vs 1 for building the “base” of the “pyramid”? (In someone generally fit).
read the links, any exercise is better than none but POL seems most efficacious at least in already fit people, that’s pretty much my opinion
Sorry, which of those counts as Zone 3 – the circuit training? And the end there with the percentages, did you leave a zone number out?
L_H
#226
Very interesting. But I’d argue that choosing your exercise to maximize vo2 max is the wrong start point.
Choosing activity that maximizes enjoyment means you’ll be doing it long after others have quit. And the study shows all the groups with a post intervention vo2 max > 60.
So I’d argue that if you only had 5 hrs a week to exercise. Then you’re sufficiently time poor that it’s even more important to do activity you enjoy!
I left out Zone 2 on purpose, according to the POL training model, athlete shouldn’t strive to be in Zone 2 but inadvertently end up there via temporary HR spikes while trying to stay in Zone 1 and when doing HIIT for Zone 3. I chose the percentages that are more attainable for a beginner. Ideally Zone 2 should be under 10% and Zone 3 10-20%, but that is really tough for a beginner.
Here are how the Zones are defined…
Around the turn of the 21st century, taking advantage of improved methods of monitoring training, several observational reports emerged that elite endurance athletes, in a number of sporting disciplines, were apparently self-selecting for a TID dominated by a high (70%–90%) percentage of training below the lactate/ventilatory threshold (zone 1), a very low percentage (<10%) of training between the first and second lactate/ventilatory thresholds (zone 2), and a limited amount (10%–20%) of training at intensities in excess of the second lactate/ventilatory thresholds (zone 3)
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Sure, whatever floats your boat.
Personally I am very data driven, so I enjoy the process and the results. I use the Strava app which gamifies my training, that’s a big motivator for me.
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AnUser
#229
New feature with Oura ring:
In the Oura App, the initial reading will show a number based on anthropometric data (age, sex, height, and weight) as entered in My profile. This number is an estimate only, based on population averages.
For a more precise estimate of your Cardio Capacity, Oura will prompt you to complete a six-minute walking test. Alternatively, you can manually add a VO2 max value if you have a lab test result or a VO2 max reading from a trusted source.
Is this going to work at all?
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Ok, but I asked about Zone 3, not Zone 2. So you are counting HIIT as Zone 3?
You did it again – a typo? Did you mean to say “Zone 3 10-20%”? If so, you left out the “3” in this post as well as your previous post, which is confusing if you see what I mean.
Uh ok, I left out the numbers. Should be fixed now.
So you are counting HIIT as Zone 3?
Yes, but just cumulative time spent over the AnT. You going to be hitting all zones during HIIT sessions.
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Sure. Those calculated vo2 max numbers are usually inaccurate but honestly it doesn’t matter as long as they are consistent, since you are looking to create a delta.
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AnUser
#233
It doesn’t look too bad for the paper they’re citing. 0.91 correlation. (R = 0.91, standard error of estimate
[SEE] = 2.52 mL · kg−1 · min−1 )
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10913670701294047
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Ok, I’m seeing where my confusion is coming from. It appears that polarized training only has 3 zones, whereas I’m used to the 5-zone model. I’d never even heard of the 3-zone model until now. So when you say “zone 3”, it’s the equivalent of zones 4/5 in the 5-zone model. Similarly, your “zone 1” might actually be more in line with the zone 2 of the 5-zone model.
Peter Attia’s recommendations for maximizing health and VO2 max involve spending most training time in Zone 2 and then small amounts of time in Zone 4/5 (HIIT once per week), so this sounds basically the same as what is being recommended in the Polarized Training system using the 3-zone model.
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AnUser
#235
For clarity if we are using different definitions, Zone 2 I used as defined by Inigo San Millan and Peter Attia, which was when lactate is around 2 mmol/L or at the point of maximum fat oxidation.
There are 3, 5, 6 and 7 zone models used, it’s very confusing and may be useful for professional sports.
Dr. Seiler proposed very simple 3 zone model
Zone 1 - under AeT
Zone 2 the in between
Zone 3 - over AnT
They are using 5 or 6 zone model,
In Seiler POL 3 zone model - Zone 1 is under AeT or lactate threshold = that’s Attia’s Zone 2.
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This is someone’s interpretation of the Seiler’s 3 Zone model. It’s NOT entirely accurate IMO so take it with a grain of salt, but it’s a approximate visual representation.
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And the equation provided can be used with HR monitors that are a lot more accurate than the Oura ring.
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One important distinction in the 3-zone vs 5-zone model would be that the 5-zone model claims that very little happens in their zone 1, and that zone 2 is where much of the “magic” happens, so it doesn’t really count the zone 1 (out of 5) as being very important towards training gains, whereas the “zone 1” of the 3-zone model apparently does (low intensity walking, anything other than being a couch potato basically?). They go very in-depth in several of the Attia podcasts about the unique adaptations that occur in “zone 2” of the 5-zone model.
Ok, so there’s a “low intensity bullseye” in the chart above within Zone 1 (out of 3) instead of breaking into two different zones.
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AnUser
#241
How would you measure VO2 Max that way?
