Efficient Zone 2 Training – Older Athletes

Practical guide to Zone training. Any activity is better than none, but efficient exercise using Zones is best. Part of the Older Athlete Series.

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[Music] what we older types don’t like to admit is we’re running out of time there’s more life behind us than ahead of us any exercise is better than none but efficient effective exercise is surely best it doesn’t really matter whether we call this activity exercise or training we all want to enjoy our chosen sports for as long as possible so it really makes sense to do so efficiently and way that maximizes the benefits to our health because get this right and this could help us lead longer happier healthier [Music] lives you know that you can exercise at different levels of effort these have long been divided into so-called training zones five zones being the most common there is a confusing number of terms bandied around and from my reading it’s obvious even the experts don’t agree on how to define and use these zones I have seen the same Zone described as steady heavy moderate and somewhat Hard Exercise depending on which method that expert is using I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking just tell me what I need to do to be able to continue to enjoy my sports and to exercise efficiently of course you might just enjoy riding your bike ignoring all the numbers and great if that works for you my aim is simply to make two videos that explain how us older folks can use training zones if we choose to do so we won’t get bogged down in heart rate formulas this will be practical I have to say I am in no way a health professional I have no qualifications whatsoever in this field I was one of the BBC’s First Health correspondents I got used to studying Health reports speaking to Medics and translating their work into more understanding communicable form and that is all I am trying to do in this series of [Music] videos walking is one of the best activities you can do if the intensity is such that you get a little breathless then even better at this intensity we are using slow twitch muscle fibers these mainly use fat as fuel they are pulling fatty acid from your body slow twitch fibers have the highest content of M mondria the powerhouses of our cells and these need work mitochondrial Health becomes especially important as we grow older because one of the most significant Hallmarks of Aging is a decline in the number and quality of our mitochondria that’s the view of Dr Peter attire one of the world’s leading longevity doctors he goes on to say aerobic exercise stimulates the creation of many new and more efficient mitochondria while eliminating ones which have become dysfunctional graphically Zone one looks like this at this level of effort your fat use increases with intensity carbohydrate use increases slowly as does the amount of lactate measured in your blood you’re not getting a big training response but it is contributing to mitochondrial function walking might not get you fit for cycling and running but as you can see it is great for your overall health but it’s better if you can pick up the pace of it [Music] Zone 2 is the next level of intensity and it’s here that much of the good stuff happens because you’re still using slow twitch fibers this is how Zone 2 looks graphically because those slow twitch fibers are working you’re burning fat as fuel and eventually that Peaks meanwhile carbohydrate use has also been increasing lactate levels in the blood are rising and at this point a physiological change happens the lactate level Kinks slightly upwards this is lactate threshold one or metabolic threshold one and for some it defines the top of Zone 2 it’s when your body starts to find it less easy to clear lactate from your blood the torque test is reportedly a practical way to find the top of your Zone 2 top athlete or amateur training in zone 2 is a good way to improve the health and number of your mitochondria the very things from which you draw energy and at the same time you do minimal training damage to your body which is great for older athletes so this talk test is a good way of listening to your body and estimating your top of zone two I can talk to you but not in complete sentences this talk test is said to be more reliable than taking a percentage of your maximum heart rate because those standard percentages not only vary between individuals it varies in yourself dayto day this slight breathlessness estimates the top of Zone 2 you’d train below this level where you can talk a little more freely current guidance for reasonably trained older athletes is 3 hours of Zone 2 training a week which might seem like a lot but remember a Brisk Hill walk or jog can also get you into zone two right now I feel I’m just pushing through the top of my zone 2 my heart rate around what is it 142 so let’s see how well that is estimated my first metabolic Threshold at the top of Zone 2 I have come to Edinburgh napia University’s Department of sport exercise and Health Sciences to have those metabolic thresholds accurately measured this test costs 90 and is very popular with amateur athletes who wish to put precise numbers to their training and to figure that out we do a lactic thres test um so we can pinpoint specific heart rates or workloads so they can build upon that and hopefully improve with the ultimate goal I guess of pushing their curves to the right that’s what we kind of talk about quite a lot increase H the workload at those thresholds yeah to lower the heart rate at those thresholds to improve performance there’s more out there available on mass for people to understand what what information they can get and then how they can use this I ride at increasing intensity and every four minutes Neil Guthrie Pricks my finger takes a sample of my blood and a machine will measure the lactate content he’s looking for the point where it starts to Kink upwards which typically happens between 1.7 and 2 mes per liter of lactate in my blood meanwhile the mask is helping to measure whether I’m burning fat or carbohydrate is fuel we can pinpoint again the exact workload someone as using fats up until or a heart rate H and then again we can try and shift that to the right with the correct correct training while I found all this stuff interesting it is not essential for training in my example though let’s see how different estimates of the top of Zone 2 compared to the actual measurement the lab measured my top of Zone 2 at 147 beats per minute which is exactly the longdistance raise values my coach gave me OB be it 8 years ago the T test was pretty close 142 some Garmin devices do the estimate for you mine said 144 but if we use one of the common formulas that work on a percentage of maximum heart rate that is low and I do know my maximum heart rate had I used the unreliable 220 minus age to estimate it the number would be way out but please remember these vary from one day to another depending on sleep hydration stress and more amid this potentially confusing blizzard of numbers my key takeaway is to listen to your body there are some days I just don’t feel like going on the turbo so I go for a walk instead that might start in zone one if I feel up to it I’ll pick up the pace like today and end up in zone two the important point is that some activity is always better than none but hey we’ve only covered two of the five zones what about the other three they will come in a future video and one of them is almost as important as Zone 2 training subscribe and you will not miss it you’ll find all the older athlete series of videos here with more to come until next time goodbye [Applause]