The Unexpected Cardio Hack That Transformed My Body at 37.
My low-grade 'Zone 2' cardio regime torched 56 pounds of fat.
Going slow is how you go fast.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman says the best tool to improve your fitness without sacrificing extra time is to "Mesh Zone 2 cardio with your daily activities".
He has a simple guideline to identify if you're engaging in zone 2 cardio:
“It’s when your cardio elevates your heart rate and increases your breathing somewhat but allows you to carry out a conversation without pausing or gasping to complete your sentences.”
Think of a brisk walk or low-intensity jog.
Studies show moderate exercise intensity "enables you to use fat as an energy source for longer and more efficiently."
It's got me in peak shape, but not for the reasons you'd expect.
This moderate intensity of working out is how I melted 56 pounds over eight months and have maintained 12% body fat ever since.
My formerly inactive lifestyle left my fitness looking like a rusty old pickup truck and with a diet, a drunken sailor would be ashamed of.
But something changed.
My employer forced me to go into the office during the pandemic, which sent my anxiety to the moon like one of Elon's rockets.
As I arrived at my spirit-crushing desk job every morning, even before I could plug in my laptop, I brainstormed strategies to postpone the inevitable act of sitting down.
I'd walk around the one-way system, which was implemented to keep me away from other humans, before heading to the furthest kitchen in the building.
I'd methodically pour water in two cups and brace myself for the journey back to my chair.
Then, I'd repeat this mind-numbing activity three or four times before lunch. Little did I know I was weaving Uncle Huberman's advice into my routine.
When lunchtime arrived, you'd see smoke coming off my feet as I bolted through the turnstile for a dose of sunshine and a walk around the block.
It was all in aid of removing that overwhelming pressure the anxiety brought to my chest, not some scientific formula for keeping fit.
My weight began to fly off, and research shows that implementing these low-grade movements not only burned calories but also made performing other exercise activities easier.
The entire pandemic and work fiasco unintentionally resulted in me moving more.
Short strolls turned into longer walks, then into jogging and weight training three times a week.
But, my gateway drug to all of this was low-intensity movements.
The low-grade nature of 'Zone 2' wasn't just for optimal fat burning. It also removed my intimidation to exercise and actually made me excited because the bar didn't feel as high.
It was as if all the psychologically discouraging roadblocks had been removed, positively impacting the other larger fitness dominoes like my weight training.
Let's sink our teeth into the details.
Weave "Zone 2" into everyday life with a NEAT twist.
Don't just skim this — dig in and really get the details. It's worth the time.
Once you understand and implement this, it works like a wizard's potion because it becomes something you'll do for life.
When you add a twist of Non-exercise activity thermogenesis or, as Dr. James Levine coined, NEAT — torching fat becomes as simple as tying your laces.
NEAT is an even lower energy expenditure—you use it to lie down, stand, climb stairs, fidget, clean, or stray walk across the office to the water cooler multiple times a day.
Research shows when you include all non-strenuous activity, it makes up about 60% to 80% of all the calories we burn daily.
High levels of NEAT are directly associated with lower levels of obesity.
It seems small, but it's significant because minor and seemingly insignificant changes can help you burn 350 calories a day from "Low-grade activities," — which is 40 extra pounds a year for the average person.
When you layer in my 8,000 daily steps at my current fluctuating weight of 77–79 kg at 37 years old, I burn approximately 329 calories.
In my weight training sessions, which are min three times a week, I burn around 600 calories (details here).
Then I lock my weight training in with a 'Zone 2' cardio workout of 300–500 calories from the stair climber, cross trainer or a jog on the treadmill while I'm usually reading something on my phone or chatting to a buddy at the same time.
That's 1,229 calories + my 350 NEAT calories, roughly 1,579 calories burned on training days.
Fat on my body hasn't got a prayer.
As someone who avoided exercise like the plague for longer than I should have, building up to those numbers was easy.
But as the great Mr Jim Rohn famously said:
“The simple things that lead to success are all easy to do. But they’re also just as easy not to do.”
I wasn't doing this stuff when I was clinically obese because it was easier to put off my lofty fitness goals until another week, month or year.
Low-intensity movements were my secret weapon.
By starting with small, manageable steps (literally), I got the tiny cogs turning, which set up the bigger gears to become unstoppable.
Final Thoughts.
The part no one talks about is how I turned myself into a dedicated athlete at 37 without a single injury (knock on wood).
My former self would train like Rocky Balboa ahead of a fight with Ivan Drago, only to walk around gingerly for days afterwards.
I was brainwashed into thinking staying fit meant crushing high-intensity workouts, making every trip to the gym feel like a Herculean task.
When discussing achieving your best body, fitness guru Joe Delaney hit the nail.
“It’s the cumulative result of small, gradual, repetitive, and distinctly undramatic actions. It’s the expression of routine, the manifestation of unspectacular but unrelenting habits”.
He's right.
My low-grade 'Zone 2' cardio regime was an unexpected hack that transformed my body.
If I can do it, so can you.
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