zone2.fit › Weekly plan

Zone 2 per week

Tell it how much time you have. It splits the week into easy Zone 2 sessions and a few hard ones, and compares the total with the WHO guideline.

Zone 2 a week
180 min
Session length
60 min each
Easy share
75 % of sessions
Total
240 min
  1. MonZone 260 min
  2. TueZone 260 min
  3. WedRest—
  4. ThuHard60 min
  5. FriRest—
  6. SatZone 260 min
  7. SunRest—

That is at least 240 moderate minutes, inside the WHO range of 150–300.

How the planner splits your week

It divides your minutes evenly across the training days, in 5-minute steps, and gives what is left over to the last easy session of the week as a longer one. Hard sessions go in the middle of the week and never on consecutive days. Every session that isn't hard is Zone 2.

The total is compared with the World Health Organization's guideline for adults: 150–300 minutes a week of moderate activity, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity, or a mix of both, plus muscle-strengthening on at least two days; more than 300 minutes brings further benefit. Zone 2 counts as moderate activity. The planner counts hard sessions as moderate too, since much of an interval session is warm-up and recovery, so its total is a conservative one.

How much Zone 2 is enough?

Peter Attia, the physician who did most to popularise Zone 2, said in 2020 that about two hours a week is a good start and three to four hours ideal. In August 2026 he refined that: with six or more hours of training a week, roughly four of them in Zone 2; with only about two hours, dedicated Zone 2 sessions may not be the best use of the time.

Stephen Seiler's research on endurance athletes found that about 80 % of their training sessions are easy, below roughly 2 mmol/L of blood lactate. The "80/20" rule counts sessions, not minutes, which is how this planner counts too. A 2024 meta-analysis found only a small advantage for such polarised training, mainly in programmes shorter than 12 weeks and in highly trained athletes, so treat 80/20 as a sensible default rather than a law.

If you are starting from little or no exercise, make every session easy for the first weeks. Add one hard session once three or four easy ones a week feel routine, and grow the total by small steps rather than all at once.

What counts as a hard session?

Anything clearly above Zone 2 where talking in sentences stops: intervals such as 4 × 4 minutes hard with 3 minutes easy between them, hill repeats, a tempo run or a fast group ride. Warm up and cool down in Zone 1–2.

Sources

  1. Bull et al. (2020). World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Br J Sports Med. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  2. Attia, P. (2020). Exercising for longevity: Peter on Zone 2 and Zone 5 training. peterattiamd.com
  3. Attia, P. (2026). A better way to think about Zone 2. peterattiamd.com
  4. Seiler, S. (2010). What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? Int J Sports Physiol Perform. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  5. Silva Oliveira et al. (2024). Comparison of polarized versus other types of endurance training intensity distribution on athletes' endurance performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Med. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov