‘Zone zero’ activities can deliver powerful returns, if you do them regularly.
Have you noticed how fitness fanatics on TV or the internet now shout about exercise like it’s some sort of special “event”? It’s become something you must do at a set time, for a specific duration, in expensive clothing. It’s little wonder that keeping fit can feel like a full-time job. For those of us already struggling for time and energy to juggle work, life and family, even the thought of lacing up our trainers can induce a cold sweat.
Yet in many ways, exercise is an event. Modern life has forced us to treat it this way. Why? To counter our increasingly inactive lifestyles – endless hours of sitting in the car, at our desks or on the sofa.
Humans didn’t evolve as sedentary creatures. For almost all of our existence, we barely stood still, following herds and gathering berries, every waking hour a hive of low-level activity.
So if today’s world has conspired to make us bigger and heavier, could a return to our prehistoric habits make us slimmer and happier?
What if the lever to losing weight and feeling great isn’t 30 minutes of sweaty, noisy, neon-lit gym classes three times a week, but just a bit more movement threaded throughout your day? Longer walks with the dog, peaceful pottering in the garden, or maybe even an extra round of golf.
When something sounds too good to be true, it often is. Yet there’s growing evidence that doing more gentle activity each day pays big dividends – for weight loss, mood and motivation, and even longevity. And the best bit? The less active you are, the more you stand to gain.
Get in the zone
Very easy everyday movement, like walking, cleaning or shopping, is increasingly termed in fitness circles as “zone zero” – but that doesn’t mean it has zero impact.
“The name comes from the concept of heart-rate zone training: the idea is that how hard you work – measured as a percentage of your maximum heart rate, or MHR – delivers different health and performance improvements,” says personal trainer and Telegraph columnist Matt Roberts.
Most systems use five training zones, each tied to a percentage band of your MHR: the lower zones are lighter, easier efforts that build an endurance base; the higher zones are harder, more intense workouts that boost speed and power.
“Zone zero sits beneath these five traditional training zones because your heart rate never exceeds 50% of its maximum,” says Roberts. “This, and because these types of movements are unstructured and unplanned, means zone zero should be classified as an activity, not true exercise.”
The simplest way to estimate your MHR is to subtract your age from 220. For a 50-year-old, that’s roughly 170 beats per minute (bpm), so any movement that keeps your pulse under about 85 bpm counts as zone zero. Activities in each zone, as a percentage of your MHR, provide different health and performance benefits, outlined below:
Zone 0: Under 50% MHR (very light)
Typical activity: Gentle pottering, standing desk, easy stroll, light chores
Main benefits: Breaks up sitting, improves circulation and post-meal glucose; aids recovery
Talk test: Effortless conversation; can nose-breathe throughout
Zone 1: 50-60% MHR (easy)
Typical activity: Relaxed walk, gentle cycle, easy swim, warm-ups and cool-downs
Main benefits: Active recovery and joint-friendly movement
Talk test: Full sentences without effort; breathing only slightly raised
Zone 2: 60-70% MHR (steady)
Typical activity: Brisk walk, easy jog, steady cycle or row
Main benefits: Builds your aerobic base and endurance; improves metabolic efficiency
Talk test: Comfortable conversation in sentences; deeper but controlled breathing
Zone 3: 70-80% MHR (comfortably hard)
Typical activity: Strong, steady run, continuous laps in the pool, hilly hike
Main benefits: Raises aerobic capacity and pacing; pushes sustainable speed
Talk test: Short phrases only; conversation becomes broken
Zone 4: 80-90% MHR (hard)
Typical activity: Hill reps, longer intervals, hard spin efforts
Main benefits: Lifts lactate threshold and speed endurance
Talk test: Single words between breaths; talking is difficult
Zone 5: Over 90% MHR (uncomfortably hard)
Typical activity: Short sprints on foot or bike, all-out efforts under a minute
Main benefits: Boosts VO₂ max and top-end power
Talk test: Talking not possible; gasping for air
From zero to hero
The benefits from zone zero activity are many and varied, with research suggesting they come from the simple act of breaking up long spells of inactivity.
For instance, research shows people who punctuate extended periods of sitting with brief, regular movement – as little as a minute or two every half-hour – tend to have smaller waists, lower triglycerides (the blood fats linked to heart and liver disease) and steadier post-meal blood sugar.
And it appears the best time to move is straight after you eat. “After a meal, a walk can help flatten blood sugar and lipids; it also gets your circulation moving to support recovery and digestion, and may help you sleep better later,” says Roberts.
If zone zero barely raises your heart rate, how does it make a difference? Picture your muscles as a “sugar sponge”. After a meal, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream. Sit still and this blood-sugar rise is higher and lingers, increasing the risk of weight gain and insulin resistance, a key driver of type-2 diabetes.
But go for a gentle walk instead, and your contracting leg muscles pull more glucose from the blood, flattening the spike so levels settle sooner. Even one to two minutes of light movement, like tidying the kitchen or doing the washing up, can reduce post-meal glucose and insulin compared with uninterrupted sitting, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Over time, that matters. Smaller, flatter blood sugar spikes mean your body produces less insulin – the hormone that encourages excess glucose to be stored as fat. So while gentle movement won’t torch many calories on the spot, it nudges your body to use energy for fuel rather than store it as fat. That subtle shift can support weight loss, or at least help fend off the dreaded middle-age spread.
Zero-sum gains
Easy movement can help sharpen your brain as well as shrink your belly. In a workplace study, employees who took a midday walk reported more enthusiasm and relaxation (and less nervousness) than those who stayed at their desks.
Even a six-minute stroll after an hour of screen time sharpened thinking, improved processing speed and task-switching. And if you’re stuck on a problem, walk it out: a Stanford University study found large gains in creative thinking both during and after a gentle stroll.
Moving more may even help you live longer. People who take more daily steps have a lower risk of all-cause mortality, with the benefit levelling off at around 6000-8000 steps a day for over-60s and 8000-10,000 for younger adults, according to a meta-analysis study in The Lancet. Crucially, total steps mattered more than pace once step count was accounted for, so slow and steady really is a winning tactic.
Adding up the advantages
Most experts believe zone zero is especially helpful for people who are very sedentary, coming back from injury, or intimidated by the thought of traditional forms of exercise.
“Zone zero is one step above inactivity, so it’s what we should be building into our lives to break up sedentary time,” says exercise scientist and ultra-marathon runner Dr Alyssa Olenick.
“Getting more regular activity can be helpful, whether it’s parking farther away, taking the stairs, cleaning, gardening, taking the rubbish out, or just walking more. There’s interesting research on something known as ‘exercise snacks’ – when people take some steps every hour during an eight-hour workday, it can positively contribute to metabolic health. But I don’t think it would help someone become meaningfully fitter unless they were incredibly sedentary in the first place.”
Roberts agrees: “All movement is good, but if you’re already reasonably fit, zone zero has only a small effect on overall fitness. The big health gains start to come from structured exercise sessions, especially strength training and cardio at zone 2 and above.”
How to fit more zone zero into your day
At work
- Turn desk phone calls into walk-and-talks around the office or outside
- Use a standing desk, or set a reminder to get up every 30 minutes
- Volunteer to do the coffee run
- Always take the stairs instead of waiting for the lift
At home
- Add a 10-minute stroll after each meal
- Stand or march on the spot during TV ad breaks or episode intros
- Potter with purpose: cleaning, tidying, folding laundry
- Run short errands on foot
- Get into the garden to weed, water and plant
Out and about
- Park at the far end of the car park to sneak in extra steps
- Walk up the escalator instead of standing still
- Take the dog for an extra lap of the park or field
- Power-walk to the shops rather than driving