Zone 2 Exercise Is Not As Good as Some (Attia) Say

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2025 01:27AM by gloaming.

One of the two senior autors of the first linked paper, in the YouTube is Martin Gibala. I've got a lot of respect for him ahd have his book, "The One Minute Workout." This is a good interview with him (which includes a short discussion of the afib risk).

In my n=1 afib experience, longer (>30 min???) duration activity needs to be done at a Zone 2 level or less for it not to be a vagal/parashymapthetic trigger for me. Shorter duration (10-15 minute) very high intensity interal training is OK for me (though I have corresponded with afibbers who have an adrenergic/sympathetic trigger for afib, where this would not be appropriate).

For a long view of Zone 2 training for those who are not elite atheletes, see the work of PHil Maffetone and Long Slow Distance (LSD).

My hypothesis is that there may be an oxidative stress cost to doing long duration higher intensity activities (> Zone 2 effort). The cellular metabolism is pushed into a more anaerobic state in these activities. This cost may be managable for short duration activities, but not for longer duration activites, at least for some, like me. I'm pretty sure that the longer duration, higher intensity activities were my path to afib. Figuring this out fairly quickly in my afib journey and (mostly) avoiding long duration high intesity activity has been one key to my keeping my afib burden < 0.05% in most years.

I was aware of the LSD approach in the 1990's, based on the work of Dr. John Douillad, but didn't bother to implement it. Now, I'm pretty sure if I had, I likely would have never gotten afib. However, my familiarity with the work was very beneficial when I figured out that my afib path was likely long duration, high intensity activity.

I personally spend a lot of time in lower intesity activity punctuateed with short duration high intensity intervals. This works out pretty well for me. I can do almost all activity nasal breathing. I was rock climbing a few days ago with a 38 year old friend (I'm 70). I have a 60# climbing pack and the approach trai is about 2 miles at 7000' elevation, very steep and much of the trail winding through talus fields. I had no issue doing it with easy nasal breathing & my friend, with a 10# pack was huffing & puffing.

George said: '...My hypothesis is that there may be an oxidative stress cost to doing long duration higher intensity activities (> Zone 2 effort). The cellular metabolism is pushed into a more anaerobic state in these activities. This cost may be managable for short duration activities, but not for longer duration activites, at least for some, like me. I'm pretty sure that the longer duration, higher intensity activities were my path to afib..'

I have had the same suspicion for at least 20 years now. I was always healthy, only the odd time off for soft tissue damage, but then my heart gave me some warning runs of tachycardia. They went away and I chalked them up to fatigue, overtraining, whatever...When I was formally diagnosed with AF, the various tests were all negative until the polysomnography that showed I have severe obstructive sleep apnea. Looking back, I may not have been doing myself any great good for much of my training life, probably working too hard during workouts that felt good/better because they weren't racing efforts, and I also didn't ever have a coach. The oxidative stress must have been a factor. Then, in later years, poor sleep kicked in and the rest is an unfortunate cardiac history.

My early running bible was Joe Henderson's 'Run Farther, Run Faster', where I'm pretty sure he used a lot of LSD philosophy, and probably referenced Maffetone's work and thinking. This was about the time I went to Cyprus on a UN peacekeeping mission for six months in late 1979. I did a lot of running, some of it in 40 deg C heat. Oh, to be young again...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2025 01:28AM by gloaming.

Darn...I see I managed to mangle the title of this thread. Would one of the mods please delete the word 'Does'? I would very much love to see this title improved.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2025 01:28AM by gloaming.

Quote
gloaming
Darn...I see I managed to mangle the title of this thread. Would one of the mods please delete the word 'Does'? I would very much love to see this title improved.

Try editing the subject for each of your posts, including the initial one. Then I'll edit my subject to what you write.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2025 02:17AM by GeorgeN.

Thank-you, George. Some forums don't permit any edits after a 'like' or a reply. This worked.