#571: Is Zone 2 Training Actually Best for Health? – Prof. Brendon Gurd
Sigma Nutrition Radio
Danny Lennon
4.8 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In recent years "Zone 2 training" has gained immense popularity in fitness and health circles, often being proclaimed the "best" cardiovascular training for metabolic health. Zone 2 training is sustained, low-intensity exercise below the lactate threshold that is commonly employed by many elite level endurance athletes, with a variety of proposed performance benefits. This led to interest from health-conscious folks about its ability to improve markers like VO2 max and mitochondrial function, which are associated with better health outcomes and longevity.
Prof. Brendon Gurd, an exercise physiologist at Queen's University, is the co-author of a recent review published in Sports Medicine that examined some of the claims made around zone 2 training and health in the general population.
This episode looks at whether the evidence truly supports Zone 2 as a uniquely effective training zone or if this hype has outpaced the research. These insights help professionals and individuals make evidence-based recommendations and avoid unintended negative consequences of following certain ideas.
About The Guest
Dr. Brendon Gurd is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University, where his research focuses on exercise physiology and skeletal muscle adaptation. His work explores how different intensities and types of exercise influence mitochondrial content and function in muscle tissue, with the goal of understanding how to optimize health and performance through training.
Timestamps
- [03:23] Discussion with Professor Brendan Gurd
- [05:56] Zone two training: Mechanisms and misconceptions
- [10:56] Practical applications and recommendations
- [22:16] Research gaps and future directions
- [35:47] Key ideas segment (Sigma Nutrition Premium)
Links to Resources
- Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium
- Join the Sigma email newsletter for free
- Enroll in the next cohort of our Applied Nutrition Literacy course
- List of Sigma's Recommended Resources
- Review paper: Storoschuk et al., 2025 – Much Ado About Zone 2: A Narrative Review Assessing the Efficacy of Zone 2 Training for Improving Mitochondrial Capacity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in the General Population
- Lecture Slides: Prof. Brendon Gurd – Is Zone 2 the optimal intensity for inducing mitochondrial adaptation?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 571 of the podcast. My name is Danny Lennon and you are very welcome to the show. |
| 0:10.8 | Today we're going to be digging into the topic of Zone 2 training and particular looking at some of the claims that have become |
| 0:17.6 | popularized about this type of training with a particular focus on health |
| 0:23.1 | outcomes and how this pertains to the general population who are looking to improve their |
| 0:27.1 | cardiorespiratory fitness and their general health over the long term. And so one of the things |
| 0:33.7 | that has became popular in recent years is the use of zone to training to do that. |
| 0:38.5 | That comes along with a variety of claims about why it may be the best way to train for some |
| 0:44.3 | of these adaptations that we'll get into. |
| 0:46.8 | And one thing that caught my attention recently was a recent review article that was published |
| 0:52.2 | in sports medicine. |
| 0:53.3 | And today's guest, Professor Brendan Gerd, was one of the co-authors of that paper, titled |
| 0:59.6 | Much Adieu About Zone 2, and Kirstie Storoshch was the lead author on that. |
| 1:05.0 | And this review looked at some of these claims around Zone 2 training for the general population with the goal of improving |
| 1:12.5 | things like mitochondrial capacity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and therefore some of the health |
| 1:17.8 | benefits from that. And trying to walk through for the various claims that we have about it, |
| 1:23.6 | what does the evidence say? What quality of evidence do we have? What quantity of evidence? |
| 1:27.7 | And are we, in some cases cases are some people misunderstanding what the evidence actually says? |
| 1:34.3 | Or maybe just have heard certain messages that might be misleading and that could take them, |
| 1:39.7 | lead them to take decisions about what type of exercise to be doing that may be counterproductive or |
| 1:46.1 | may not be giving them the type of optimization that they think it is giving them. And so I thoroughly |
| 1:52.3 | encourage everyone to go and read the paper in full. I will link to that in the description box |
| 1:57.6 | where you're currently listening. You can go and read that paper. And in addition to that, Professor Gerd has kindly given a set of slides from a lecture he gave |
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