When weight training for muscle mass or strength increase, every so often you want to challenge your body in different way to send different stimulus to the body not only to avoid plateau but to appreciate better muscle and strength growth.
This is also same with conditioning. Zone 2 is great training routine to improve your fat metabolism, however, it is also important to train in above zone 3 once or twice a week. You still want to train in zone 2 for majority of time, but you do want to stimulate your body with zone 3 training, which will also help improve your zone 2 performance.
In zone 3, you are still metabolizing fat but predominantly the body uses more glucose as energy source. If you have never exercise in such intensity, you may feel challenged more than when you were performing exercises in zone 2. The major outcome you are looking for in zone 3 training is improve your ability to produce power aerobically so you can perform more without fatigue.
Typical routine would be staying zone 3 for 3-5 minutes then recover to middle of zone 2 for 1-2 minutes. In terms of heartrate, if you are 50-year-old, your target heartrate for zone 2 is calculated by 180-age, which will be 130bpm (beats per minute). To give a range add 10 beats then you will find zone 2 to be 130-140. From 141-150bpm. Therefore, to put this in above example of zone 3 routine you will be targeting your heartrate between 141-150bpm for 3-5 minutes, then 130-140 bpm for 1-2 minutes, which will be zone 2. Although, heartrate range above is calculated, however, it is useful to use devices such as Morpheus, which will calculate your zones based on your condition that day.
So, how does this look like in actual workout. You can do this by using cardio equipment such as bike, treadmill, stair master, and so on. You can also use strength exercises and calisthenics to train your muscles and conditioning at the same time in Zone 3 training. Here is an example.
Zone 3: 3 minutes AMRAP (As Many Round As Possible)
5 Deadlift
10 Heavy Ball Slam
15 Push Ups
20 Renegade Rows
Zone 2: 2 minutes
Recovery Rower
Repeat 3-4 Sets
Objective of first portion is to elevate your heartrate to zone 3 so you may adjust your weight on deadlift, ball, and rows according to your capability. Zone 2 rower is for recovery so you don't want to go all out. When you repeat this for 3-4 sets, this will be 15-20 minute training.
Zone 3 training is challenging and should be start off with once per week and work up to 2-3 times per week. If you are choosing cardio equipment it may be more beneficial to vary the equipment rather than staying with one equipment only.
Kota Shimada
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