Polarized training
Most sessions easy, a few genuinely hard, almost nothing in the middle
Endurance coaches noticed decades ago that the athletes who improve most spend roughly 80 percent of their sessions at a conversational effort and the rest at or above threshold, with little time in the moderate zone that feels productive and is not. Applied outside sport, it usually means keeping most walking, riding or swimming easy and adding one or two short interval sessions a week. The appeal is that the hard part is brief. The discipline is in keeping the easy part actually easy, which is where most people come unstuck.
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- Stacy SimsRecommends
Exercise physiologist · Women Are Not Small Men
Brisk walking will not do it: that is her reading of the evidence for women in the menopause transition. She wants the hard end of the week to be genuinely hard, with short sprint-level efforts driving the blood vessel and cardiac changes she says steady cardio does not deliver.
Source: Dr Stacy Sims: Why Menopausal Women Need Polarized Training
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under fitness, longevity or energy.
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Resistance training
Lifting weights 2-4 times a week to build and hold muscle
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Zone 2 cardio
Easy aerobic work you can hold a conversation through, 3+ hours a week
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Cycling
Steady riding, outdoors or on a stationary bike, as daily low-intensity cardio
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High-intensity interval training
Short all-out efforts with full recovery in between, a few times a week
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Daily cardio
Around half an hour of aerobic work most days, at any pace you can sustain
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Time-restricted eating
Confining food to a set window, often 8-10 hours a day
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