Zone 2 is not Magic

There's been a lot of hype with zone 2 lately, but most of it isn't coming from coaches who've worked with real world amateur athletes. PhD doctoral candidate Christy Stoos recently published in the journal of sports medicine, much ado about zone 2, and they looked at whether low inensity zone 2 training is truly the best way to improve mitochondrial function and cardio fitness for everyday athletes. Spoiler alert, it's not. The three key findings in their paper were zone 2 benefits are largely observed in elite athletes training massive hours.

Number two, that higher intensities matter more when you have less time to train. And number three, zone 2 alone is not optimal for improving mitochondrial capacity or V2 max. And folks, this is where sweet spot training shines. We've been preaching this for 20 years.

You get higher mitochondrial stimulus, a bigger aerobic engine gains, fatigue you can actually recover from, and maximum return per minute train. If you've got 6 to 10 hours of training a week or less, Sweet Spot gives you the most bang for your buck without needing this prolevel training volume. Science matters, but real world coaching experience does too. We have both.

Start a free trial of Coach Cat today or hire an expert Fast Cat coach to start building your base the right way.

​@FasCatCoaching “Much Ado About Zone 2” There’s been a LOT of hype about Zone 2 lately but most of it isn’t coming from coaches who actually work with time-limited amateur athletes. Ph.D doctural candidate Kristi Storoschuk and her colleagues recently published in the journal of Sports Medicine (“Much Ado About Zone 2") looked at whether low-intensity Zone 2 training is truly the best way to improve mitochondrial function and cardio fitness for everyday athletes. :point_right: Spoiler: it’s not. The 3 Key Findings Were 1. Zone 2 benefits are largely observed in elite athletes training massive hours 2. higher intensities matter more whne you have less time to train 3. Zone 2 alone is NOT optimal for improving mitochondrial capacity or VO₂max :bulb: That’s where Sweet Spot training shines. Sweet Spot (≈84–97% FTP) delivers: ✅ High mitochondrial stimulus ✅ Big aerobic gains ✅ Fatigue you can actually recover from ✅ Maximum return per minute trained

If you’ve got 6–10 hours/week (or less), Sweet Spot gives you most bang for your buck without needing pro-level volume.

Science matters but Coaching Experience Does Too Train with us who have both Start a free 30 day trial of CoachCat or Hire an expert FasCat Coach

#SweetSpotTraining #Zone2 #TrainSmarterRideFaster #CyclingScience #TimeCrunchedAthlete #FasCat #CoachCat #FTP #EnduranceTraining