Zone 2 Training For Female Hikers

Is Zone 2 training less effective for female hikers? Inside this episode we explore the subject and if it is something hikers need to be concerned with.

​Review referenced in the episode:

Effects of Exercise Training on Mitochondrial and Capillary Growth in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. And in today's episode,

[0:04] we are talking a little bit about zone two training for female hikers. And this is a very, very interesting subject, which someone asked me about the other day. I looked into a little bit and, you know, it definitely deserves a little bit of discussion. So essentially what prompted this episode and me looking into this is a hiker who follows me sent me the question saying, I saw a recent reel from Stacey Sims, which says zone two training is not very effective for women compared to men. And they're asking if that is true. So to give you a little bit of context on what we're talking about, number one, zone two training. If you haven't really heard of this before, zone two training is basically just low intensity cardio. So cardiovascular exercise, which you can sustain for long periods of time at a relatively low intensity. So in our context, It might be walking, hiking, cycling, doing things that are pretty casual, but for long durations. And definitely something that I will always tell hikers to prioritize in their training, and a lot of people fit into their life.

[1:08] Now, the second bit of context, if you haven't heard of this person before, Stacey Sims is a big influencer. I don't think that's the right term, is a very popular coach in the world of women's training. She puts out some great stuff. She has some great ideas. She has lots of books and videos and podcasts and all of this. And she's a big, big, big name in the worlds of specifically women's training.

[1:31] And essentially where this question came from is this person had seen a short snippet video from Stacey Sims talking about this subject. And when I got sent through this, I went and had a look at it. And basically to talk you through in the reel, what Stacey Sims says is she says, the benefits of zone two training, when you look at it.

[1:50] There are for men, but not for women. There aren't so many. She says that women don't really improve mitochondrial density from zone two work. And she basically says the main benefits of zone two work are stress relief and getting out of fresh air. So this is a pretty big claim. She's basically saying zone two work, so this lower intensity cardio, it's great for men in this type of context, but for women, they don't really get a huge amount out of it. And she says that mitochondrial density, which is one of the, if you want to get sciency, they're one of the main reasons why people recommend this zone two stuff, which can be really, really beneficial for energy production and exercise performance and this and that. She says that women don't really get this. And she says, no, she doesn't say completely don't do it, but she says mainly zone two stuff is just stress relief. Anything calming and stress relieving is going to be good. And getting out fresh

[2:40] air, walking out in the air or cycling out the air is going to be good. So it's a pretty bold statement. And considering that, you know, in the hiking context, we often talk about zone two training. And I know a big portion of my hikers out there are women. It's definitely worthwhile talking about because these things get kicked around all the time.

[2:59] So essentially what I did, you know, I sort of looked into this. I watched the video, then I went and looked at sort of her further article, which I went into all of this. And I kind of had a little, and there are a few little problems when it comes down to this particular reel. Now, number one, you know, Stacey Sims, she's great in her space and she's a really, really well-renowned coach. And who she works with is yes, women specifically, but the stuff she talks about is really for the general population. And what I mean by that, it's talking for people who are looking at general health, who are looking at general fitness, and who are looking at general longevity.

[3:33] Now, any type of person who is online, who are talking about these things, what they say may be absolutely fantastic for the general population, but we need to be aware if we are a hiker and we're thinking about training for hiking, and that is one of our priorities.

[3:50] Hikers and training for a specific outcome and just training for general health can sometimes be a little bit different.

[3:57] Number two the problem with this reel is as with any type of short form video when you're just looking at a minute or two minutes or three minutes it always misses context and in this particular thing it was just clipped out of a broader conversation so it missed the context of that and then finally when we're actually looking at the science of what she was talking about you know there's this you know it's a pretty bold statement to make and there is a bit of debate on the science. And I kind of went and looked into the things she referenced in her article. And the study that she quoted, which was talking about zone two training for not being great for women, the study quoted, which says low intensity training doesn't increase mitochondrial density, but didn't really look at zone two training specifically. I looked at some lower intensity training, but it wasn't really exactly the same thing. So there's a bit of a question mark there. And then in this article, she had a quote from a journal, which was basically saying, physical activity is essential for males to maintain mitochondrial integrity in conjunction with more coupled respiration like females, even though their bioendogenic capabilities may remain lower than females, which I fully understand in a podcast format. You would have just gone cross-eyed me reading that. But this was a big quote in this article trying to say, zone 2 training is amazing for women. But I went and looked at this particular article in this journal. And I wasn't really talking...

[5:22] About the context of what we're talking about, it was a study that had done on mice. And yes, studies on mice is relevant in the context, but it hadn't actually progressed to human studies. So it's a little bit tricky. So it is a little bit misleading. And then on top of that, probably the glaring thing is there was a big review on this particular subject. And a review, like a study, one study looks at one study. It has a small size of anywhere from how many people to however many people.

[5:49] Typically, the way we make claims around training and exercise and sciences, we don't usually look at one study or two studies, but what we want to look at is the body of evidence. And what that means is looking at all the different studies out there, as many studies as we can, which are relevant, which are well-designed and this and that, and coming to a conclusion, looking at the body of evidence. And on this particular subject, there's actually a review, which looks at a whole bunch of different studies.

[6:14] And this particular review had 353 different research articles, which are looking at this mitochondrial content and its conclusion and i don't want to say this is a hundred percent the truth but they concluded through this review which kind of leads you to believe is they didn't really seem like there was an influence on age or sex or menopause or disease or the amount of muscle mass engaged what that means is they looked at all of this broader context and even men and women both saw benefits from this so you know what even though we have this really like interesting reel, which is like, hey, it doesn't really do this, is a bit debatable.

[6:53] But beyond all that, I'm not a massive fan of diving into science and that, and because this can always be so misleading. What I've just said on this podcast, I would guarantee 75% of people have zoned out because it's not super interesting in an audio format, I fully understand. But beyond all that, let's forget about the science and let's just bring us into something that's really, really easily digestible and really, really relevant. The most important thing that you listening to this podcast need to keep in mind when looking at this type of situation, when looking about these types of content, looking at videos, podcasts, articles, people talking about this and that.

[7:26] You need to consider, is the source of information that I'm looking out there, are they talking about my particular situation?

[7:35] And yes, whether you're a male or a female can affect this, but we need to get a little bit more honed in because you listening to this podcast, I would assume the training for trekking podcast you are probably interested in hiking that is the outcome or one of the outcomes we're trying to improve through your training a hiker by definition is an endurance athlete hiking is an endurance sport and endurance activity you have to sustain moderate periods of intensity for long periods of time we want to minimize fatigue we want to improve performance improve comfort a hiker is an endurance athlete now something we need to keep aware of is training for an endurance sport is different than training for health.

[8:20] There are some similarities, but it's not exactly the same thing. On top of that, training for endurance sports is not the same as training for body composition change. Body composition change is weight loss or muscle gain. And in all honesty, 95% of the content you will find online is talking about general health, weight loss, or muscle gain. It's not talking about endurance sports. And even if the science was absolutely indisputable out there that women don't gain a huge amount from zone 2 training which as i said before is absolutely not indisputable and there's a massive question mark around those statements a hiker by definition still needs to prepare for multiple hours of lower intensity movement and no amount of interval training no amount of sprint training no amount of strength

[9:10] training is going to get you ready for that type of thing if We cannot prepare the body for that. Not to say strength training and interval training and sprint training cannot be beneficial and cannot be a great inclusion in your training, but there's just no escaping this low-intensity, long-duration zone to work if you really want to be comfortable as a hiker. Just pure common sense to get ready for multiple hours worth of hiking, you need to get the body ready for multiple hours worth of exercise. There's no escaping this. So the takeaway to this.

[9:42] Is if you are listening to this podcast, if you see a claim which you're like, oh my gosh, that's pretty crazy. That's kind of against what I really consider training for hiking. That's a little bit different.

[9:55] Ask yourself the question, is this information talking to my particular context? And not just my context in gender, not just my context in profession, whether it's an office worker, not just my context in, I guess, relationships, single, married kids whatever there's a million and one different coaches talking to different audiences, but is it relevant for me as a hiker sometimes it will still be relevant and that's great but you need to look at it through those glasses and then one final thing i'll sort of say is if you are unsure on this like because i fully fully fully understand you know just you as a hiker as a trainer like how are you supposed to know there's so many different opinions out there there's so many different people so many different people giving stuff and some people who give amazing advice in some contexts, maybe don't always get it right or whatever it may be. It can be a little bit

[10:46] tricky digging through that. So if you're in the situation, if you're a hiker and you are unsure, if you see a bit of content out there, if you see an article, a podcast, a video or something, and you're like, does this make sense for me as a hiker? And you're not sure, feel free to send it over to me. Let me have a look at it. I can look at it, dig into it, look at it in the broader context. And I might say, you know what? Yeah, cool. This makes complete sense. I might say, you know what? Actually, a bit of a question mark. Or you know what? In this particular context, you know this is what's going on so that's my open offer to you but basically summing up today when it comes down to zone two training for female hikers in all honesty as a hiker.

[11:21] There's no escaping it i don't think there's a huge amount of evidence to back up that is not going to be beneficial for women or any less beneficial for women at least what i've seen and regardless as a hiker you probably still want to be fitting into it not to say strength training high intensity training isn't going to be beneficial but we need to keep the context of hiking top of mind. So with that being said, I hope that made sense. And this, you know, science-y stuff is a little bit tricky to get through. Not tricky, but, you know, not super exciting to get through in the audio format. But I really do hope that makes sense. If anyone does have any questions of that or it wasn't clear or you want to see, you know, the review I mentioned or the studies or whatever it may be, flick me an email, flick me a message. Let me know. Happy to share it all out. But with that being said, thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope it was informative. Hope it helps a few people. And we'll talk to you very soon. Bye.

Want to get fit, strong and resilient for your hiking adventures?

Check out
The Online Summit Program