After our recent Zone 2 training campaign, many of you have reached out with questions about applying these principles specifically to rucking. Whether you’re preparing for mountain adventures, tactical selection, or simply building a bulletproof fitness foundation, understanding how to properly implement Zone 2 principles to rucking can transform your results.

In this guide, we’ll break down the essential do’s and don’ts of Zone 2 rucking to help you maximize your training while avoiding common pitfalls that can lead to injury or stalled progress.

The Science Behind Zone 2 Rucking

Before diving into the specific guidelines, it’s important to understand why Zone 2 training paired with rucking is so powerful. Zone 2 training (working at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate) creates profound physiological adaptations that improve endurance, fat metabolism, and cardiovascular health.

When you add the functional load of a rucksack, you’re simultaneously building strength while developing your aerobic system – a combination that translates directly to real-world performance in the mountains.

THE RUCKING DO’S:

DO Stay in Heart Rate Zone 2

Building a foundation over months (4-6 months) in Zone 2 will slowly improve your pacing until you can do a 2.5-3 hour ruck with 50 pounds at a 15 minute-per-mile pace. This gradual adaptation allows your cardiovascular system, muscles, and connective tissues to strengthen harmoniously.

How to implement: Use a heart rate monitor and keep your heart rate between 60-70% of your maximum. For most people, this feels like a pace where you can still hold a conversation, though you’re working hard enough that you wouldn’t want to recite poetry.

DO Include at Least One Long-Duration Ruck

Regardless of which program you’re training for, you likely could benefit from doing at least one long-duration ruck (60+ minutes) per week. These longer efforts build mental resilience and train your body to efficiently use fat as fuel.

How to implement: Start with 60 minutes and gradually build to 2+ hours. Focus on consistency rather than speed during these sessions.

DO Be Patient with Hill Training

As long as you can manage descents without joint pain, hilly terrain can be a part of your training, especially if you want to move through that type of terrain more efficiently. Hills naturally increase the training stimulus without requiring additional weight.

How to implement: When approaching hills, slow down to maintain your Zone 2 heart rate. You might need to significantly reduce pace on steeper inclines – this is perfectly normal and beneficial.

DO Focus on Form Over Speed

Maintain proper posture with shoulders relaxed, head and shoulders stacked over hips, and pack weight properly distributed across hips. Try to catch yourself if you’re leaning forward too much, and think about filling your chest and back with air when you breathe.

How to implement: Periodically check in with your body during your ruck. Look for tension in the shoulders, forward lean in the torso, or shifting of weight to one side. Make small adjustments before compensation patterns set in.

DO Progress Methodically

If you stick to heart rate Zone 2 as you build a foundation over months, your pacing should slowly improve. Patience is key – the adaptations that make you truly “mountain-ready” take time to develop.

How to implement: Follow a structured progression plan where you increase either weight OR distance each week, but never both simultaneously. Document your training to track improvement.

DO Monitor Your Average Heart Rate

If you’re rucking on varied terrain your heart rate will rise into Zone 3 from time to time – that’s normal. As long as your average heart rate is in the Zone 2 range over the length of the ruck, you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

How to implement: Use a device that tracks average heart rate over your session. Brief spikes into Zone 3 on hills are acceptable as long as your overall average remains in Zone 2.

THE RUCKING DON’TS:

DON’T Run with a Ruck

Never run with a rucksack. Way too high of a risk blowing a back or an ankle. The compression forces multiply significantly when running with added weight.

Why it matters: Even with perfect form, running with weight dramatically increases impact forces through your joints and spine. Save running for unweighted training.

DON’T Start Too Heavy

Begin with 10-15% of your bodyweight and progress gradually. Your cardiovascular system may adapt quickly, but connective tissues need more time to strengthen.

Why it matters: Starting too heavy often leads to compensation patterns that can cause long-term issues. Early success in rucking comes from consistency, not from aggressive loading.

DON’T Ignore Pain Signals

Sharp pain, particularly in joints, is never normal and should be addressed immediately. Learn to distinguish between productive discomfort and warning signs.

Why it matters: Continuing through joint pain can lead to injuries that set your training back by months. General muscular fatigue is expected; sharp, localized pain is not.

DON’T Increase Weight AND Distance Simultaneously

Change one variable at a time to reduce injury risk. This allows you to isolate which change is affecting your body and prevents overtraining.

Why it matters: Changing multiple variables at once makes it impossible to determine the proper stimulus. Progressive overload works best when methodical.

DON’T Chase Intensity Over Consistency

Rucking with heavy weights is hard on the body. For this reason, we do just enough rucking to ensure fitness, but not so much that you get beat up.

Why it matters: Consistency over weeks and months builds results far better than sporadic “hero sessions” that require excessive recovery.

DON’T Ignore Recovery

If done correctly, a ruck/hike could be a recovery day as long as you don’t go too heavy or pick too steep of a route. Recovery is where adaptation happens.

Why it matters: Proper recovery between sessions allows your body to strengthen and adapt. Without adequate recovery, training effects diminish and injury risk increases.

Putting It All Together

Zone 2 rucking is one of the most effective methods for building mountain-ready fitness, but it requires patience and proper execution. By following these guidelines, you’ll build a strong foundation that translates directly to improved performance in the mountains, on the trail, or in any environment where stamina and strength matter.

Remember that rucking, like any training modality, is a skill that improves with practice. Focus on technique first, then consistency, and finally progressive overload to see the best results.

Our coaching team is here to help you dial in your perfect Zone 2 rucking program. Whether you’re training for the mountains, preparing for tactical selection, or just building solid baseline fitness, these principles will keep you progressing safely.

Move better. Train smarter. Adventure longer.

The Revo Team 🏔️

Want personalized guidance on your rucking program? Drop by the gym or schedule a coaching session to discuss how we can help you reach your specific goals with our customized Zone 2 rucking protocols.

If you’re an active Montanan who hikes, bikes, skis, or hits the gym regularly but still feels stuck, you’re not alone. Many outdoor enthusiasts (even some high level hobbyist athletes) unknowingly train in the dreaded “gray zone” – a bit too hard to build endurance, but not hard enough to elicit big gains. This often means spending most workouts in Zone 3 (moderate-to-hard intensity) and then wondering why progress and recovery plateau. The solution? Embrace Zone 2 training, the often-overlooked low-intensity cardio zone that can transform your endurance, boost recovery, and even improve longevity and brain health.

At Revo in Missoula, we’re on a mission to help people become more capable humans – in the gym and in the mountains – and Zone 2 is one of our secret weapons. In this post, we’ll break down what Zone 2 training is, why it matters (backed by science and experts), common mistakes to avoid, and how to incorporate it using relatable mountain and special-ops analogies. Let’s dive in!

What Exactly is “Zone 2” Training?

Zone 2 refers to a level of aerobic exercise that is relatively easy and sustainable – often called the “base” or endurance zone. It’s your engine. Exercise intensity is typically divided into zones based on heart rate or effort. Zone 2 is a moderate effort where you’re breathing faster than at rest but can still hold a conversation without gasping. If you push just a bit harder, talking would become difficult – that may bump you into Zone 3. In Zone 2, you should feel like you could maintain the pace for a long time. It’s not a lazy stroll, but it’s definitely far from a sprint.

• In practical terms: imagine a steady uphill hike, a flat bike ride, or an easy jog where you’re able to chat with a friend. Your breathing and heart rate are elevated, but under control. If you can only grunt single-word answers, you’re above Zone 2. If you could sing “Sweet Caroline” (Go Sox!) without pausing, you might be below Zone 2!
  
• Heart rate guidelines: Zone 2 usually corresponds to roughly 60–70% of your maximum heart rate, or about 70–80% of your heart rate at lactate threshold. For many people, this is somewhere around 120–140 beats per minute, but it’s highly individual. A quick-and-dirty estimate is the popular “Maffetone method” (180 minus your age as a ballpark for Zone 2 heart rate). The key is that it’s an intensity you can sustain for a long duration.
  
• Fuel usage: In Zone 2, your body predominantly uses fat for fuel (with some carbs). This is the intensity at which your metabolism is optimized to burn fat and generate energy efficiently. Go much above it, and you start relying more on carbohydrates and producing more lactate. Whether you want to trim up or go as far as possible, this adaptation is WILDLY important.
  

Zone 2 is the sweet spot for building your aerobic engine – it trains your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscle fibers to become more efficient at using oxygen. It’s often called the “aerobic base” because it lays the foundation for all higher-intensity work. In fact, professional endurance athletes often spend ~80% of their training time in Zone 2 (yes, the pros do most of their training at low intensity!)​. This might sound counterintuitive, but it’s part of a bigger picture and understanding programming that allows them to go faster on race day. As the saying goes in endurance coaching, “train slow to go fast.”

Analogy (Mountain Life): Think of climbing a mountain. You don’t sprint up a 5,000-foot ascent right out of the gate – you’d burn out halfway. Instead, you find a steady, rhythmic pace to keep you going for hours. That sustainable uphill plod is Zone 2. It’s like using low gear in a 4×4 truck to crawl up a long mountain pass – not flashy, but it’ll get you to the summit without blowing your engine.

Why Zone 2 Training Matters

Zone 2 training might feel “too easy” to do much good, but science and experience say otherwise. In truth, Zone 2 is a powerhouse for improving endurance performance, enhancing recovery, promoting long-term health, and even boosting your brain. Here’s why spending time in this zone pays off:

1. Builds Endurance and Aerobic Performance

Zone 2 is the engine-builder. Training in this zone strengthens your heart and increases your body’s capacity to deliver oxygen to muscles over time. It’s like laying a broad foundation for a pyramid: the wider the base, the higher the peak can eventually rise.

• Aerobic base and “engine” size: Low-intensity training stimulates adaptations like growing more mitochondria (the energy-producing furnaces in cells) and increasing capillaries in muscle. In fact, Zone 2 training has been documented to increase mitochondrial numbers by up to 50% in a short time (just after a few long sessions)​. More mitochondria and better blood flow mean you can generate energy for longer without fatigue. This directly translates to improved stamina whether you’re biking, skiing, or chasing your kids around. It also means you’re much, much more adaptable.
  
• “Everything improves by building your base”: By consistently doing Zone 2 work, all your higher-intensity abilities improve as well. Endurance coaches note that training in Zone 2 will improve performance even in the higher zones, but doing only high-intensity (Zone 4/5) will not significantly improve your Zone 2 aerobic base​. The days of only doing HIIT training are over and dated. In other words, you can’t effectively cheat your aerobic base with only HIIT sessions. As conditioning expert Joel Jamieson says, “Fundamentally, lifting weights is an anaerobic event – you’re not going to build a big aerobic engine through an event that takes 10-15 seconds to complete.” You build that engine with sustained lower-intensity work.
  
• Go faster by going slower: It sounds paradoxical, but slowing down in training often makes you faster in the long run. This is backed by research on training intensity distribution. One study comparing training styles found that a polarized approach (majority low-intensity, some high-intensity, and minimal mid-intensity junk miles) “resulted in the greatest improvements in most key endurance variables” like VO₂ max and time-to-exhaustion in well-trained athletes​. Athletes who avoided the constant Zone 3 grind and instead did ~80% Zone 1-2 work saw better performance gains than those who spent more time in the middle. So if you’ve been slogging away at moderate-hard runs each workout and not improving, switching to mostly Zone 2 with occasional very hard efforts can break you out of that plateau.
  

Analogy (Special Ops): Special Forces operators are famous for their endurance. A Navy SEAL or Green Beret might have to hike with a heavy rucksack for days. How do they build that ability? Not by doing every run as a gut-busting sprint, but by rucking and jogging for long distances at a steady Zone 2 pace. In fact, military training programs schedule plenty of long Zone 2 runs/rucks to build an aerobic base – the foundation on which one builds to run fast and recover quickly​. It’s a case of “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” By going slow and smooth in training, they become faster and more durable when it counts.

As we often remind SF clients and trainees, you can’t be “All Show, No Go.”

2. Enhances Recovery and Helps You Train More (Without Overtraining)

Some training modalities and gyms only offer methods that can look like a week of hard workouts only to leave you feeling crushed, causing your performance outside of the gym to dip? Zone 2 can be a remedy for that, and a form of “training that doesn’t make you suffer for the sake of it.” Here’s how Zone 2 benefits your recovery and lets you handle more volume:

• Low stress, high volume: Because Zone 2 is relatively gentle on your system, you can do a lot of it without breaking down. It doesn’t flood your muscles with lactate or hammer your nervous system. You can accumulate substantial weekly volume in Zone 2 (even 4–6 hours a week) and still feel fresh. One physician noted that if you stay truly in Zone 2, you can avoid overtraining syndrome even at 300+ minutes per week of cardio​. In contrast, too much time in high intensity zones without adequate recovery can lead to burnout, persistent fatigue, and even heart strain that shortens longevity​. Zone 2 gives you the aerobic gains without the beat-down.
  
• Active recovery: Zone 2 workouts can double as recovery sessions. A brisk Zone 2 bike ride or swim the day after a hard workout increases blood flow to muscles without adding damage, helping to flush out metabolic byproducts and deliver nutrients for repair. Think of it as a gentle massage for your physiology – you’re doing work, but also helping your body bounce back. This means you can train more frequently across the week. Instead of needing 2-3 days to recover from every killer HIIT session, you can intersperse tough workouts with Zone 2 days and keep momentum. Over time, this consistency yields big fitness dividends.
  
• Hormone and stress balance: Hard training spikes stress hormones like cortisol. Too much of that too often can mess with your sleep, mood, and immune system. Zone 2, on the other hand, tends to keep you in a lower stress state, even sometimes called the “flow state” where it feels almost meditative. It can actually reduce overall stress and improve your heart rate variability (HRV) – a marker of recovery. Legendary endurance coach Dr. Phil Maffetone often had athletes do months of strictly low-heart-rate training to rebalance their systems and come back stronger. While you might not need to go that extreme, sprinkling in plenty of easy miles is a great way to stay healthy and motivated.
  

Real-life example: We see a lot of folks at Revo who used to go hard every workout – think daily CrossFit WODs or hammering every group bike ride. They felt fit for a while, then the plateau hit: nagging aches, constant fatigue, and no improvements. Once we taught them to replace some of those “red-line” days with Zone 2 sessions, it’s like a fog lifted. They could train more consistently, their nagging pains eased up, and ironically their high-intensity workouts got better because they were coming in recovered. By dialing back, they leapt forward.

3. Boosts Longevity, Metabolic Health, and Fat Burning

Zone 2 training isn’t just about performance; it’s one of the best investments you can make in your long-term health and longevity. Steady aerobic exercise has unique benefits for your heart, metabolism, and even cellular aging processes:

• Heart and longevity: Your cardiovascular fitness (often measured by VO₂ max or similar) is one of the strongest predictors of longevity – arguably more than any other fitness metric. Zone 2 work is ideal for improving cardiovascular health. Scientists and longevity experts recommend accumulating around 150–200 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week for optimal heart health​. At this amount, you help keep your arteries clear, blood pressure in check, and heart muscle strong. Unlike high-intensity bursts, Zone 2 puts enough workload on your heart to adapt without causing excessive stress or wear and tear. It’s the steady mileage that keeps your ticker running smoothly for decades.
  
• Metabolic fitness and fat utilization: Training in Zone 2 literally trains your body to be a fat-burning, fuel-efficient machine. At this intensity, your muscles maximize the use of fat for fuel, which improves your ability to metabolize fat even at rest. This has a cascade of benefits: better insulin sensitivity, steadier blood sugar levels, and reduced risk of metabolic diseases. Regular Zone 2 cardio helps stabilize blood sugar and improves insulin sensitivity (how well your body handles carbs) while enhancing overall metabolic health​. Over time, this can translate to lower risks of type 2 diabetes and obesity. If weight loss or management is a goal, Zone 2 is your friend – you’re tapping into fat stores during the workout and improving your metabolic flexibility for later. It’s not about burning a massive number of calories in one go (as HIIT might), but about teaching your body to use energy better.
  
• Mitochondrial anti-aging effects: Earlier I mentioned Zone 2 spurs growth of mitochondria. Why does that matter for aging? Because loss of mitochondrial function is a hallmark of aging – it’s tied to fatigue, decreased metabolism, and many age-related diseases. By boosting your mitochondrial density and efficiency, Zone 2 essentially helps “keep your cells young.” More mitochondria also means you clear lactate byproducts and metabolic waste better. Exercise researchers connect these cellular improvements with better longevity. It’s no surprise that populations who maintain cardiovascular exercise routines tend to live longer and healthier. Zone 2 is a sustainable way to keep at it for life.
  
• Lower inflammation: Steady aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce chronic inflammation in the body (as opposed to exhaustive exercise, which can temporarily increase inflammation. BTW, both are important). Zone 2 efforts trigger the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines. For example, moderate cardio boosts levels of IL-10 and other anti-inflammatory agents that help your body repair and stay in balance. Chronic inflammation is linked to everything from heart disease to Alzheimer’s, so tamping it down with regular aerobic work is a big win for longevity.
  

Fun fact: Zone 2’s emphasis on fat burning is why athletes traditionally have done these sessions in a fasted state (like a morning easy run before breakfast). In Zone 2, being in a fasted state can encourage even more fat oxidation (since insulin is low)​. However, fasted training isn’t necessary to reap the benefits and can have negative effects if done incorrectly or too intensely – the key is simply spending time in the zone. (If you do try fasted workouts, start short and easy to see how you feel.)

4. Feeds Your Brain and Improves Mental Resilience

One of the coolest benefits of Zone 2 training is how it impacts your brain. We tend to think of exercise in terms of muscles and heart, but our brains get a huge boost from steady-state cardio.

• Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): Zone 2 workouts stimulate the release of BDNF, often dubbed “fertilizer for the brain.” BDNF is a growth factor that helps neurons grow and connect. Notably, increased blood flow from Zone 2 cardio triggers BDNF release, which supports brain health and cognitive function​. This can lead to improved memory, learning, and mood. In fact, regular aerobic exercise is associated with lower risk of dementia and age-related cognitive decline. You’re not just training for that next trail run – you’re keeping your mind sharp for the long run.
  
• Neuroplasticity and learning: Ever notice how some of your best ideas or stress relief come during a relaxed bike ride or jog? Zone 2 is that magic zone where your brain is alert (thanks to increased circulation) but not overstressed. It’s great for clearing mental cobwebs. Studies have found moderate exercise can improve executive function and even spur the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus (a process called neurogenesis). Think of Zone 2 sessions as both a workout and a mental reset – you often finish feeling clearer and calmer than when you started.
  
• Stress and mood: Aerobic exercise at Zone 2 intensity can elevate your mood by releasing endorphins, the “feel-good” hormones. It also helps reduce anxiety levels. Unlike a grueling HIIT session that might leave you feeling crushed and depleted, a Zone 2 run or ride tends to reduce cortisol and leave you with that pleasant “runner’s high” or “hiker’s bliss.” Over time, this contributes to better mental health and resilience. There’s a reason a lot of people refer to their easy runs as “therapy.”
  
• Oxygen and the brain: During Zone 2, you’re improving the efficiency of oxygen delivery throughout the body, including the brain. More oxygen to the brain means better performance of cognitive tasks. Some research even suggests aerobic fitness is linked to improved memory and processing speed in adults. And if you ever plan high-altitude adventures, a strong aerobic base can help your body and brain cope with lower oxygen levels.
  

Analogy (Real Life): Picture a long, peaceful trail run on a cool morning. As the minutes go by at your easy pace, you settle into a rhythm. Your mind wanders, solutions to problems pop up, stress from work dissolves a bit. That’s the Zone 2 flow state kicking in – your brain is literally being nourished by increased blood flow and growth factors, and you finish not just physically better off, but mentally recharged too.

By now it’s clear that Zone 2 training is a cornerstone for balanced fitness: it makes you endure longer, recover faster, burn fat, live healthier, and even think clearer. No wonder experts like Joel Jamieson, Dr. Andy Galpin, and a plethora of others all advocate for incorporating Zone 2. Dr. Galpin, for example, advises that doing around 150–180 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week (e.g. 30 minutes a day) can dramatically improve your cardiovascular health without hindering strength or muscle gains – it’s safe to do daily and may even help your lifting by improving blood flow and recovery​. In other words, you don’t have to fear that adding some cardio will “kill your gains” – intelligently done Zone 2 can actually support your strength goals.

So, how do we put Zone 2 into practice? First, let’s avoid the pitfalls that many well-intentioned people encounter when they try.

Common Zone 2 Training Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Zone 2 sounds simple – go easy, right? Yet, many people struggle to do it correctly. Here are the most common mistakes we see active adults make with their Zone 2 training, and coaching tips on how to fix them:

1. Starting Too Hot Out of the Gate: One big error is going out too fast at the beginning of a Zone 2 workout. You feel fresh, it feels “too easy,” so you pick up the pace – and before you know it, your heart rate has spiked above Zone 2. The first miles or minutes of any workout are tricky because your body is warming up. If you jack up the intensity too soon, you’ll overshoot Zone 2 and spend the rest of the session yo-yoing or needing to slow way down. Coach’s tip: Deliberately start slower than you think necessary. Use the first 10 minutes as a true warm-up. Gradually ease into your Zone 2 pace. This prevents heart rate “drift” early on. As legendary coach Matt Fitzgerald notes, you need discipline – keep your heart rate below ~80% of max from start to finish of a Zone 2 session, even if it means walking up steeper hills​. Check your ego at the trailhead: it’s better to go a little too slow in the first half than too fast. You can always finish feeling strong and even pick up slightly in the latter half while staying in Zone 2.
   
2. Chasing Heart Rate Numbers (Over-Relying on Tech): Another mistake is getting too obsessed with the heart rate number on your watch without understanding its limitations. Yes, heart rate is a useful guide for Zone 2, but devices and formulas can be flawed. For example, those wrist-based heart rate monitors can be wildly inaccurate – often off by 40-50 beats!​ Sweat, arm movement, and device error can give false readings. Even chest straps, while better, can have hiccups. And the generic formula “220 minus age” to find max heart rate (and thus zones) is just a rough guess – individual variation is huge. If you rely on bad data, you might think you’re in Zone 2 when you’re not, or vice versa. Coach’s tip: Use heart rate as a tool, but not your only guide. Make sure your zones are personalized (consider a lab test or field test to find your true aerobic threshold). Use the “talk test” and RPE (rate of perceived effort) alongside the HR reading – can you breathe mostly through your nose and hold a conversation? Does it feel about a 3-4 out of 10 in effort? Also, you really should utilize  a chest strap HR monitor if you want accuracy. And remember heart rate can drift up due to dehydration, heat, or fatigue – so some days your pace will be slower for the same HR. That’s okay! Listen to your body’s feedback, not just the watch.
   
3. Not Going Long Enough (or Being Too Impatient): Zone 2’s magic often happens with duration and consistency. Many people do a 20-45 minute easy spin or jog and call it a day – that’s a start, but the biggest benefits (fat-burning, mitochondrial adaptations) kick in when you sustain Zone 2 efforts for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or preferably multiple hours. If you cut every session short, you might not reach the steady state where your body fully switches into fat-burning mode​. Additionally, doing Zone 2 only sporadically (like once every other week) won’t move the needle much. 

Coach’s tip: Aim to gradually increase your Zone 2 session length. For beginners, start with 20-30 minutes and add 5-10 minutes each week. Work up to 45-60 minute sessions most days if possible, or longer 2+ hour adventures on weekends if training for endurance events. Remember, consistency is king – 30 minutes daily will trump a 2-hour slog once a month. Also, be patient with progress. In the first few weeks, Zone 2 might feel really slow. (You might be walking up hills that you think you should run – that’s normal!) Stick with it, and you’ll notice in a month or two that you can go faster at the same heart rate. Those are the signs your aerobic base is growing. Don’t abandon the plan if you don’t see instant results; aerobic development is a marathon, not a sprint.

4. Letting Ego or Boredom Pull You Out of Zone 2: This is more of a mental mistake. Many athletes find Zone 2 “boring” because it lacks the thrill of high intensity. They end up creeping into Zone 3 because it feels more like a workout. Or they get self-conscious that they’re going so slow (especially if others whiz by on the trails or post faster paces on Strava). The result: they rarely stay truly in Zone 2.This will blow up your adaptations for the workout and your overall results. But as I’ve often heard, “above Zone 2 is above Zone 2” – you don’t get the benefits if you constantly exceed it, even by a little​. The body knows the difference. 

Coach’s tip: Treat Zone 2 days as discipline days. You’re practicing control and resilience. If you need variety, do your Zone 2 on different terrains – hit a scenic trail, ride a bike, or go for a ski tour in winter. Invite a friend (Zone 2 conversational pace is great for catching up!). Listen to a podcast or audiobook during a solo easy run. If your mind is engaged, you’re less likely to unconsciously speed up. Or even better, practice focusing on your breathing and do body scans. How do you actually feel? How are you moving? And remember the purpose: every time you hold back to stay in Zone 2, you’re investing in that aerobic bank account that will pay off hugely in your next race or big hike. We like to say: “Keep your easy days truly easy, so your hard days can be truly hard.” No one wins an endurance event or conquers a mountain by blowing up halfway. Zone 2 trains you to be the one who can keep going strong.

5. Ignoring Environmental Factors: Finally, people often forget that where and how they train can affect heart rate. Doing your Zone 2 run on a hot afternoon or on a hilly route can easily push you out of zone. Then they blame themselves for not sticking to Zone 2, when in fact the conditions made it really hard. Furthermore, studies have shown that doing this type of training outdoors is superior to indoors due to outdoor stimuli like scent, peripheral vision, etc.

Coach’s tip: On Zone 2 days, pick your route and timing smartly. Flat or gently rolling terrain is best for running Zone 2, especially if you’re still building your base. Hills can spike your heart rate; if you encounter one, it’s okay to slow down significantly or even hike briefly to keep your pulse down​. If heat raises your heart rate (it will), try to do easy workouts in the cooler morning or evening. You can heat adapt, but that’s different. Also, ensure you’re well hydrated – dehydration can elevate heart rate for a given effort. Controlling these variables sets you up for Zone 2 success. Over time, you’ll be fit enough that even hills and heat don’t push you straight out of zone, but when starting out, set yourself up with forgiving conditions.

By avoiding these pitfalls, you’ll make the most of your Zone 2 sessions. It can be humbling at first – every endurance athlete has had that moment of getting passed by walkers because they’re keeping their heart rate low! But trust the process. The “easy” training needs to feel easy. If it doesn’t, you’re probably not actually in Zone 2, or you haven’t yet built the aerobic capacity to make it feel easy (in which case, you really need more Zone 2).

How to Incorporate Zone 2 Training into Your Life

So hopefully you’re convinced of Zone 2’s benefits and you know what not to do. How do you put this into practice within a busy life of work, family, and outdoor fun? The good news: Zone 2 training is highly flexible and can be adapted to you. Here are some practical ways and tips to make Zone 2 a staple of your weekly routine:

• Blend it with activities you enjoy: Zone 2 doesn’t have to mean drudgery on a treadmill. Personally, I despise workouts that make me feel like a gerbil. Anyway, because it’s a moderate effort, you can often integrate Zone 2 into recreational activities. Love hiking? Go for a hike and keep the pace brisk but conversational (hiking is excellent Zone 2 training). Enjoy cycling? Do a mellow ride on a bike path or gravel road, keeping your breathing easy. Even a spirited walk can be Zone 2 if you push the pace a bit. In winter, cross-country skiing or ski touring at an easy effort are great options. By doing activities you genuinely like, you’ll look forward to Zone 2 days rather than seeing them as a chore.
  
• Make it social: Zone 2 is the perfect intensity to train with a partner or group of friends who have similar goals. Since you can talk while moving, it doubles as social time. For example, join a weekend group hike or an easy run club (We have a Revo Run Club on Sundays!). The time flies by when you’re chatting or enjoying nature together. Plus, you can keep each other accountable not to speed up too much (the “chat test” keeps everyone honest). Missoula has plenty of trails and folks who appreciate the outdoors – use those Zone 2 workouts as a chance to connect with the community or family.
  
• Use it as a commute or “daily life” exercise: Perhaps you have limited time to set aside just for training. Zone 2 can often be achieved through daily lifestyle tweaks. Could you bike to work at an easy pace? That 20-minute commute each way might give you 40 minutes of Zone 2 for free. Maybe walking the dog each morning briskly gets your heart rate into Zone 2 – voila, another 30 minutes. Take the stairs, go for a walk break at lunch – it all adds up. Be creative in finding those opportunities.
  
• Schedule it like any other workout: Treat Zone 2 days with the same respect as your intense training days. Put them on the calendar. For instance, if you do strength training or intervals 3 times a week, fill in the other days with 30-60 min of Zone 2. A sample week might be: Monday easy run 45 min, Tuesday strength, Wednesday Zone 2 bike 60 min, Thursday strength, Friday easy jog 30 min, Saturday long hike 2 hours, Sunday rest. Adjust to your level and goals, but make sure Zone 2 shows up multiple times. Consistency is key – think of it as brushing your teeth for your heart.
  
• Monitor progress and adjust: After 4-6 weeks of regular Zone 2, test yourself. Has your pace at your Zone 2 heart rate gotten faster? (Commonly, people see that where they used to run 11:00 minutes/mile at 140 bpm, now they run 10:00 min/mile at the same heart rate – a sign of improved efficiency.) Or maybe your heart rate is lower at a given hiking pace than it used to be. These are great motivators that the training is working. If progress stalls, you might add a bit more volume or ensure you truly kept the intensity low enough. Also pay attention to how you feel day-to-day – ideally, these workouts leave you energized, not drained.
  
• Don’t neglect the high end entirely: While Zone 2 is crucial, a well-rounded program does include some high-intensity work too. Once you have a solid aerobic base (which might take a couple months of emphasis), incorporating a couple of short Zone 4-5 interval sessions per week will further boost your fitness. The beauty is, with your base in place, you can handle those hard days better and recover faster from them. This is the 80/20 rule in action – about 80% low, 20% high. Many mountain athletes use winter (or an off-season) to build the base with lots of Zone 2, then layer more intensity closer to their big climbs or races. At Revo, we periodize training similarly: base -> build -> peak. Zone 2 is your base phase emphasis, but it remains a constant thread year-round for maintenance.
  

Analogy (Mountain Expedition): Think of preparing for a big mountain expedition or backcountry excursion. In the months prior, you’d do lots of long, low-intensity outings to get your body used to long days – essentially Zone 2 work to build endurance. As you get closer to the trip, you might add a few hard hikes with a heavy pack or fast summit pushes (higher intensity) to be ready for intense efforts. But you never abandon the base training – it’s what allows you to recover and go day after day in the mountains. This paired with appropriate strength training would have you leading the charge. Training for life and longevity is similar: keep a base of Zone 2 always, spike in some high intensity occasionally, and you’ll be prepared for anything.

By incorporating Zone 2 into your routine, you’ll likely find you not only perform better during big efforts, but you also feel better day to day. Your energy levels, sleep quality, and even mood can improve when you strike the right balance in training.

Conclusion: Train Smart, Stay Capable – The Revo Way

In a fitness culture that often screams “no pain, no gain,” Zone 2 training is a refreshing paradigm shift: sometimes, to gain more, you actually should hurt less. By committing to easier aerobic sessions, you’re investing in long-term gains that transcend any one workout. For active adults juggling work, family, and outdoor passions, Zone 2 is the gift that keeps on giving – it builds you up rather than breaking you down.

At Revo, our philosophy is about helping you become a more capable human – capable of summiting that peak, crushing that mountain bike trail, playing with your kids without fatigue, and staying healthy for years to come. Zone 2 training aligns perfectly with this mission. It’s a sustainable, science-backed approach that yields resilience. Our coaches have seen firsthand how athletes who embrace Zone 2 flourish: they plateau less, they stay injury-free more often, and they rekindle their love for training because every workout no longer feels like a grind.

To recap, Zone 2 training matters because it builds an aerobic base that powers everything else. It’s like constructing a strong foundation for a house – with it, you can build higher (go faster, go longer). Without it, the house wobbles and eventually cracks under stress. Zone 2 delivers endurance, efficient fat-burning metabolism, a robust heart, and even a smarter brain. It teaches your body to be an energy powerhouse and your mind to be patient and disciplined.

Sure, high-intensity workouts have their place – they add the spice and the sharp edge to your fitness. But high intensity without a base is like icing without the cake. If you’ve been stuck in the cycle of hammering every workout and seeing diminishing returns, it’s time to slow down to speed up. As we often remind our members, you don’t get better during the workout, you get better by recovering and adapting – and Zone 2 lets you adapt big time.

Next time you head out for that run, ride, or ski, give yourself permission to take it easier than you normally would. Monitor your breathing or heart rate and aim for that comfortable, steady effort. It might feel strangely easy or even “slow,” but know that you are right where you need to be. You’re training your aerobic system to be a reliable diesel engine that can go forever. With each Zone 2 session, you’re laying bricks in the wall of your endurance, one that will support all your higher efforts.

In the mountains, those who pace themselves often reach the summit; those who sprint usually turn back early. The same goes for training and life. Zone 2 is pacing yourself smartly. It’s the tortoise beating the hare. It’s the wise investment that yields compound interest.

Become the athlete who is not just fit, but unbreakably fit. Marry that Zone 2 endurance with strength and a dash of intensity, and you’ll be ready for anything – a weekend adventure, an unexpected challenge, or simply the demands of an active lifestyle.

At Revo, we’re here to guide you on that path – from the gym to the great Montana outdoors. So let’s train smarter, not just harder, and unlock the full potential of your capabilities. Lace up, heart rate monitors on (or noses breathing), and let’s embrace the power of Zone 2. Your future fitter self will thank you for it!

How RevoFit’s 3-Day Spring Program Builds the Ultimate Base for Outdoor Athletes

(And why this 6-week block is your launchpad for a strong, injury-resistant summer)

Missoula’s trails are drying out, bikes are coming off trainers, and long weekend hikes are just around the corner. For outdoor athletes and active folks, spring isn’t just a change in weather—it’s the ramp-up toward your highest-volume season.

At Revo, we believe your training should reflect that.

That’s why our current 6-week RevoFit training block is strategically designed to build what we call the performance foundation—a blend of strength, movement efficiency, and aerobic conditioning that sets the stage for a healthy, capable, adventure-filled summer.

Each week includes a structured 3-day approach, combining principles from world-class coaches around the world and intentionally designed to compliment each other so that you get the best adaptations and results possible. Gone are the days of wrecking yourself for the sake of it or suffering just to suffer.

Let’s break down each day, the energy systems they train, and why this combo is uniquely powerful for trail runners, cyclists, skiers, hikers, and mountain athletes of all levels.

Day 1 – Tempo Strength Training

Building Resilient Tissues and Movement Control

We start our week with tempo-based strength training—deliberate, controlled lifting with slow eccentrics, isometric holds, and an emphasis on movement quality, joint position and tension.

This type of work:

• Increases time under tension, promoting muscular hypertrophy and tendon stiffness
• Improves joint control in lengthened positions—crucial for stride mechanics and injury prevention
• Teaches athletes to own the entire range of motion, improving motor control and force absorption
• Focuses on type 1 muscle fibers (Endurance fibers) and improves your muscles ability to utilize and move blood under load and tension

Physiology Behind It:

Tempo work enhances neuromuscular efficiency and intermuscular coordination, especially in the glutes, hamstrings, and deep stabilizers. The slower tempos create more mechanical tension, one of the primary drivers of structural strength adaptations.

We’re also expanding eccentric strength capacity—critical for downhill running, braking, and deceleration-based movement, where most soft-tissue injuries occur. This type of training not only improves tissue integrity, but it trains your muscles to absorb more forces instead of your tendons.

Why It Matters for Outdoor Athletes:

When you’re fatigued on the trail, your body defaults to its most ingrained movement patterns. Tempo work makes those patterns more stable, efficient, and resilient, so you maintain posture and performance deeper into your adventures.

Day 2 – Plyometric Efficiency + Rotation

Training for Movement Economy, Not Just Power

Unlike traditional plyo programs that prioritize maximal explosiveness, Day 2 is designed around sustainable, submaximal outputs that mirror how endurance athletes move in the real world.

We combine:

• Low-to-moderate intensity jumps
• Rotational med ball work
• Controlled landings and decelerations
• Minimal rest between sets

Our goal isn’t to spike intensity—it’s to teach the body how to produce and absorb force repeatedly, especially through multi-planar (rotational) movement patterns.

Energy System Focus:

This day targets a blend of the lactic anaerobic and aerobic systems—where most endurance athletes spend the bulk of their event efforts. It trains the local muscle fatigue threshold while also building rhythm, breathing control, and movement timing.

The energy demands sit in the 30–90 second effort range—challenging enough to accumulate fatigue, but controlled enough to stay technical and intentional.

Key Adaptations:

• Improved fascial elasticity and tendon recoil
• Greater capillary density and local muscular endurance
• Enhanced rotational coordination, aiding in gait and stride efficiency
• Increased fatigue resistance during repetitive dynamic efforts

Why It Matters:

Running, biking, and hiking aren’t just forward linear movements—they involve rotation, transfer of force across joints, and controlled deceleration. This day trains those variables without frying the nervous system or exceeding what athletes can recover from mid-week. So you can keep getting in your runs and rides!

Day 3 – High Resistance Intervals (HRI)

Conditioning Your Aerobic Engine Through Smart Resistance

Day 3 is our conditioning day—but not in the “go all out until you collapse” sense. Instead, we use High Resistance Intervals (HRI) to develop aerobic power, heart rate recovery, and repeatability in a way that matches the strength and endurance needs of outdoor athletes.

HRI typically includes:

• 10–15 seconds of high-resistance work (bike, sled, rower, etc.)
• 40–60 seconds of active recovery
• Total sets: 12–20 minutes of controlled aerobic conditioning

Unlike HIIT (which spikes the heart rate and produces high localized fatigue), HRI keeps the heart rate in the aerobic training zone (120–150 bpm) while placing high local muscular demands on larger muscle groups.

What It Trains:

• Fast-twitch fiber aerobic efficiency
• Cardiac output – more blood pumped per heartbeat
• Muscular endurance under load
• Mitochondrial density in the working muscles (especially quads, glutes, and hamstrings)

This method builds an aerobic engine that can recover faster, push harder longer, and support higher outputs without redlining.

Why It’s Perfect for Endurance Athletes:

You’re already getting long slow miles on the trails. HRI gives you a high-return conditioning session that:

• Strengthens your aerobic system
• Minimizes recovery cost
• Reinforces power output in tired tissues
• Improves efficiency without accumulating unproductive fatigue

Why These Three Days Work Together

We’re not just throwing random classes on a calendar. RevoFit is a system. Each day builds on the one before it:

This structure:

• Prevents burnout
• Maximizes adaptation overlap
• Builds strength, stamina, and movement quality
• Prepares your body for in-season performance and reduces injury risk

Why This 6-Week Block Matters

This is our pre-season performance block—the crucial training window between winter strength and power building and summer in-season adventures. We’re intentionally emphasizing tissue resilience, energy system development, and repeatable movement quality.

When we transition into in-season protocols in late spring and summer, the emphasis will shift toward lower volume, maintaining muscle tissue and quality, and sport-specific expression. But the adaptations built now will be what carry you through the summer.

Ready to Train With Purpose?

If you’re an outdoor athlete in Missoula, you don’t need random workouts—you need a training plan that works with your sport, your season, and your body.

RevoFit is that plan.

• Try our Free 10-Day RevoFit Trial
• Book a Free Strategy Session + Movement Assessment
• Join a community that trains smart, moves well, and lives outside

Train for your season. Move better. Go further.
Let’s get to work.

Our 2024 Fall Fitness Challenge will be better than ever! We’ve revisited our whole curriculum and structure to try and provide more hands-on nutrition coaching, more specific nutrition lesson plans, and a better overall experience. We’re really excited about this one and we hope you are too!

Our intention is to offer you a 6 Week Challenge in which you will get structured workouts and nutrition guidance geared towards what you’re hoping to achieve – which may include fueling for performance or shedding some pounds. You’ll get weekly habits and lessons from experts in the field with decades of combined experience to help teach the important concepts of nutrition and fitness so you can become your own expert and adjust as needed throughout your lifetime for results and continued progress.

Most challenges simply provide people with stringent guidelines that are not remotely sustainable. We hope to give you the tools to not only look the way you want, but to be healthier and happier for a long, long time. With this challenge, it’s our hope to try and offer you 6+ months worth of expensive nutrition coaching concepts in 6 weeks. It’s grueling, but absolutely worth it!

Here are the details!

What it Entails:

• Start Date: October 14th, 2024.
  • We will have orientation the week before so you can meet your coach and get all the details needed to start off with a bang. 6 weeks isn’t as long as you think!
• Nutrition Seminar: Nutrition Expert, Supercoach and Athlete Julie McCloskey will lead a seminar to cover our most broad and important topics as well as provide insight into our lesson plan curriculum over the coming weeks.
• Direct Contact With Your Coach
  • Your coach will be in touch via email and at the gym every week to help you fine tune each lesson plan, weekly habits, and challenges so that you have the support you need
  • Team sizes will be smaller than ever so that you get the attention you deserve
• Specifically Designed Programming
  • You will have access to 3 RevoFit classes per week and 2 Semi-Private MTStrong workouts per week taught by a professional coach. That’s up to 5 workouts per week!
• New habits assigned every week to help you fine tune your environment for success
  • Learn how to track macros, and the importance and role of each one!
  • Sleep Hygiene 
  • Steps and Environmental Change
  • Habit Change Concepts
  • Fueling for Weight Loss vs. Health vs. Performance – they are not the same!
  • Stress Management for Long Term Health
  • Breathing Mechanics & More!
• Many Challenges, both team and individual with TONS of prizes!
• LOTS of easy recipes for meal prep to make your life easier
  • Shopping lists
  • The truth about fats, carbs, cooking oils, etc
• Wrap Up Party November 22nd, 2024
  • Prizes will be awarded, we’ll party and celebrate not only your amazing effort and results, but the bright future that is your fitness journey!

Pricing:

Quick Note: For current members and potential new members – If you get a friend to sign up with you, your entry is free. That means for current members OR new members, one great strategy would be for you to split a new member price and get the best deal possible. Win-win!

We are offering Early-Bird Pricing until September 20th, no exceptions! Reach out for links to sign up!

• Non-Member Pricing – $500
• RevoFit Member Pricing – $300
• MTStrong Semi-Private Member – $250

Are you IN? Have further questions? Please contact us at Memberships@revomt.com and we’ll reply ASAP!

We’re so excited for all the full and half marathoners from our community this weekend. You worked hard and we hope you’re proud of your results.

We had first time runners crushing their goals and seasoned vets setting PR’s and BQing. Great work! You earned it!

Once you’ve past the 48 hour post-race window, you’ll want to focus on your recovery efforts so that you bounce back quickly and healthily. It can be tempting to “rest” all week, but that can keep you feeling limp and beat up longer than you’d like. Here’s some tips to help you bounce back quickly so you can get back to enjoying your runs and the trails.
 

• EAT!
  • You need more protein and carbohydrates than you think. Protein will help repair your structures (muscles and connective tissue). Carbohydrates will help refuel you and bring your energy back. Heathy fats will help your hormones rebalance which are key to aiding the healing process. If you are looking for help in this department, I recommend reaching out to our expert nutritionist, Coach Julie McCloskey, who has lots of experience in this realm.

• Downregulate to Speed Up Recovery
  • Our body has an amazing system to help regulate our biological requirements to help with fight or flight modes, or rest and digest modes. This is called your autonomic system. We get more into this in this article here. But for the time being, you need to nurture your rest or digest mode. This can help with blood pressure, insulin response, sleep regulation, stress management, inflammation, and more. It’s an important skill to develop.
  • Here’s some great ways to help this process:
    • Go for a walk
    • Spend extra time with loved ones
    • Meditation & Breathwork
    • Hot baths
    • Massage
    • Sauna, compression sleeves, red light therapy (Go to CryoMethod!)
    • Time with pets
    • Get out in the woods
    • Enjoy good food
    • Focus on sleep schedule and ritual
    • Anything that helps you relax.
  • Quick note: A couple things that can be helpful in other contexts but may be counterproductive here would be any kind of cold immersion like cold plunges or quick HIIT workouts that can increase a stress response. This is akin to overspending on a credit card. There’s lots of context to use these methods, but not right now.
  • And, obviously, avoid alcohol and drug use. Your body desperately wants to get back to it’s normal and those vices will slow the process dramatically.

• Increase Bloodflow & Start to Upregulate
  • Towards the middle of the week you should get back on your feet. Try to increase walking, and you can begin doing some easier aerobic workouts that are low impact such as cycling or swimming. Your muscles need to feed and increasing bloodflow will help with those processes and improve inflammation markers.
  • Other great options can include yoga, pilates, and stretching or foam rolling routines. Remember to keep up with sleep and fueling, your body is still healing.
  • For more advanced runners, we recommend a few brief “shake out” runs to keep everything feeling loose so you don’t get locked up. Do not work through pain. These should be short and feel easy. Be disciplined.
  • Try to avoid HIIT workouts, heavy lifting, or more intense cardio such as spin classes. Those can be implemented soon, but they could put you back in a hole if applied too soon.

• Prepare Your Body To Get Back To Work
  • After 7-10 days (sooner for more advanced athletes), you can start to increase your work output. You can start to stoke your recovery fire by beginning to implement some workouts. We like High Performance Recovery Training workouts (Credit Joel Jamieson) or short burst conditioning workouts.
  • You can start getting back to resistance training and plyometrics, but keep your volume and intensity moderate to low. These workouts can also help you determine if some of your aches and pains are worse than you thought, in which case you should seek out a physical therapist before proceeding further.
  • Of course, you can also start to increase your running volume again. But all the same rules apply – Be disciplined with your mileage and volume and listen to your body.

Need Some Help?

That’s what we’re here for. Feeling a little more beat up than you expected and want some help honing your recovery process?

Simply respond to this email and we can get you back on track.

Already thinking about your next adventure?

LFG. Hit us up.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a post to diminish one or the other. Quite the contrary.

But knowing your intent at the gym can improve your results exponentially.

-Working out-

If life has been hectic or stressful and/or your time is limited, you just need to workout. If this is the case, find a modality you enjoy but will still provide you with what you need (Strength, plyos, conditioning). You can work in some variety if you like, but generally speaking you should leave each workout feeling better than when you started and it should be fun. 

Or maybe you’re an athlete who is in-season, in which case you should still be getting in your workouts but they can be extremely efficient and simple. 

Either way, continuing to get in the gym is still a big win. The habit alone will benefit you when the time comes to ramp up your training, and your body will respond far better to a more advanced program down the road. 

-Training-

If you are working on a program more specific to an event, sport, weight loss, muscle gain, etc – You should consider yourself training. This requires more intent. 

You need to understand the intent of your training – What are your goals? Are your workouts specifically geared to improve those goals? Or do your workouts incorporate a little too much of everything? Training should be more focused.

One mistake we see a lot is people who would consider themselves “training” doing the same routine for far too long. If you’ve been doing the same routine for a long time but would consider yourself training, we’d recommend taking a deeper look into where your deficits are and how you can adjust to improve those. Remember, plateau’s are when we adapt too well to our current stimulus, you may need to change up the stimulus.

Or the effort. If you are in training, your effort level is extremely important. That doesn’t mean full-send or nothing, it could mean learning pace discipline, or lowering the weight to improve your movement quality.

Questions about how to improve either? Hit us up! Are you in training or enjoying your workouts these days?

Here at RevoMT we are invested in your results and want you and all of our members to have the best experience possible. In an effort to hold our members accountable and committed to your goals, we have had to implement a late-cancel and no-show policy to ensure that we can accommodate everyone looking to take our classes.

Booking

• All reservations must be made through our scheduling app, Zen Planner Member. If you are having issues with your Zen Planner account, please contact memberships@revomt.com.
• You may schedule your class appointments up to 8 hours in advance, after which the schedule will be locked.
  • If you’re looking to get into a class with open availability within the 8 hour window, please contact the gym phone @ (406) 219-6283 and a staff member can manually enter you for class.
  • You may also email memberships@revomt.com.
• If a class does indicate that the roster is full, please do not show up without a reservation as we cannot guarantee a slot.

• For the time being, you must make you reservation and/or cancel your reservation via the app prior to the 8 hour window.
  • We must enforce this rule due to the early morning classes being booked out and consistent no-shows.
• RevoMT must have a valid credit card, phone number, and email on file for your Zen Planner account to work.
  • All waivers and contracts must be signed prior to signing up for classes.

Waitlist

• If classes are full you may add your name to the waitlist. Of course, if someone cancels their reservation within the 8 hour window, you will then be added to the class.
• If you are added to a class reservation off of the waitlist, you will receive an email notification requesting that you confirm your appointment within 45 minutes.
• Note: If you choose to add your name to the waitlist, please treat this like an appointment until it is clear that you did not get in. If your name is added to the class list off of the waitlist, it is not Revo’s responsibility if you no-show for your reservation.

Cancellations

We get it, life happens. Maybe the kids are sick or you got stuck with an irregular meeting on your schedule and you have to miss your workout. Total bummer and we get it – Here’s how to cancel.

• You must cancel your appointment 8 hours in advance if you are using the the Zen Planner App.
  • Text messages to coaches, emails, or direct messages via social media will not be considered official cancellations. We cannot promise these communication modalities will be seen on time.
  • HOWEVER – If something comes up and you must cancel or switch you appointment, you can simply text or call the gym phone @ (406) 219-6283 and a staff member on duty will gladly remove your appointment. This policy is strictly for accountability & ensuring all members can attend the times they’d prefer.
  • It is smoother for you to simply text the gym phone to cancel your appointment rather than try to do it over the app. If you cancel within the 8 hour window, your session for that day is burned and the system may not allow you to book another one later in the week.
• If your class reservation is canceled within the 8 hour window your account will be subject to a late/no-show fee.
  • If your cancellation is due to an emergency, of course we get it. Please contact us at memberships@revomt.com and we can refund you the fee and get you all sorted out.
  • If you are participating in our classes with a punch card, you will lose one of your punches with a no-show.
  • If you are a semi-private member or a RevoFit member, you may lose one of your class attendances for that week. You may contact the gym and see if you can attend at another time but it must be done manually by our staff.

If you are experiencing any issues with your Zen Planner Scheduling App or your RevoMT Membership, please contact us immediately so we can help you get more comfortable with the process. Our policies aren’t meant to be a further nuisance, they are designed to hold our members accountable and ensure everyone has an opportunity to schedule their desired class times. 

Thank you for understanding and, as always, happy workouts and we look forward to seeing you at the facility!

Why “More” Isn’t Always “Better”

Chances are that, if you’re reading this, you probably do not struggle with showing up for the gym. You do the damn work. You train often, and you train hard.

You have gym discipline.

At least, you have half of it.

You “do the hard stuff, even when you don’t feel like it… especially when you don’t feel like it”.

But, chances are that, if you’re reading this, you likely struggle with the other half of gym discipline: “sticking to the program, and not overdoing it when you feel good”.

While the vast majority of folks struggle with the first half of discipline (showing up consistently), many otherwise mature athletes struggle with the latter half: 

Stick to the program

Follow the prescribed volume and intensity.

Prioritize recovery, rest, and make sure to live your life outside of the gym.

Stay the hell home on your (super necessary) rest day!

Listen: we get it. It’s so tempting to do more on days that we feel motivated and fired up. It’s so tempting to do just a couple more sets, a couple more exercises, or to push just a little harder than your program has prescribed for the day. It can be so tempting when you leave the gym feeling good to go home and lace up the running shoes for Workout #2. 

These are the exact moments where gym discipline is absolutely paramount.

You might be thinking to yourself, “What’s the harm in doing a little extra? Isn’t that the whole point? That’s how the best of the best differentiate themselves from the rest: doing more.”

And you’d be right. Kind of. Let’s talk about it.

What Separates The Best From The Rest

Whether it was through coaches past or sports media, we’ve all heard how all the Kobe Bryant’s of the world got so damn good. They show up early, and they stay late. They work harder and longer than any of their competitors. They grind. Following their examples, it would make some sense to assume that – “the more work that I work, and the harder I work, the better results I’ll get. The more I put into it, the more I get out of it.” 

But this can be a misguided and criminally misunderstood concept, especially amongst strength and endurance athletes. You see, Kobe Bryant wasn’t working himself to the bone, day-in, day-out. He just practiced more than anyone else on the planet. He wasn’t destroying his body in the gym, or doing countless suicide sprints. He was shooting free throws and practicing flawless layups. Over, and over, and over. He wasn’t working out. He was practicing. That’s what made a world of difference between him and the rest of the NBA. We refer to that kind of work as skillwork. In sport, skillwork is wildly important but it likely isn’t significantly impacting an athletes body or ability to recover.

Work in the gym has a different intent – Apply enough stress to elicit adaptation. For active folks like us, that requires harder work than your average gym goer. That also means recovery discipline.

Additionally, the highest-paid athletes in the world invest millions of dollars into recovery: nutrition, massage, hot and cold therapy, and no doubt some pharmaceutical assistance.

So if you truly want to improve skills and techniques, you need to practice, not beat your body to a pulp. You need to lean more into recovery inside and outside of the gym, and you need to apply appropriate intensities.

Intensity in the Gym

Lifting intensity can be simply defined as “one’s proximity to muscular failure during a given exercise”. A general rule of thumb that I personally like to assign is “two in the tank”. For example, if I were to do an exercise for 10 repetitions, I would select a weight that, gun to my head, I could only do for 12 repetitions. 

Generally, two reps shy of failure for most of your strength/hypertrophy is perfectly sufficient to elicit most if not all of the positive adaptations we’re looking for, and any advantages that might come with training to true failure (“I couldn’t do another rep to save my life”) come with a much higher recovery cost. Strength gains can absolutely be made with intensities much lower than 2 Reps In Reserve (RIR), and for newer lifters, hypertrophy will come much easier as well.

Volume in the Gym

Volume, put simply, is “the amount of work one is doing within a training period”. It’s the number of sets times reps within a given training day, week, month, etc.

In my own training and coaching experience, and based on the scientific literature I’ve consumed, 10-20 sets per muscle group per week is ideal for most lifters. 

Some more advanced trainees may benefit from slightly higher weekly volume, but the odds that you, the reader, fall into this category is, frankly, slim. That is how steroids and hormones work: They don’t inherently make you huge, they help you rush the recovery process and train hard again the next day.

So if you find yourself tempted to do “just a couple extra sets” for a particular muscle group that you want to grow, remember this: exceeding your ideal training volume might not only yield diminishing returns, but may actually inhibit and prevent the growth and progress for that particular muscle.

In short, stick to the goddamn program, and be patient.

This past weekend was the 15th annual Missoula Marathon – a race that has earned the title of one of the top marathons in the country. I want to extend a huge congratulations to all our friends and family in our community who participated in and finished the full or half marathon. It’s always amazing to see everyone’s hard work pay off.

If you participated and found yourself with lower back, hip, knee, or even ankle pain, it might be linked to over-stretching your hamstrings!

One mistake we see very frequently with athletes is overstretching their hamstrings. What if I told you that your hamstrings are tight because of your posture? The ticket to making them feel and function better is to actually “activate” them and reorient your hips so that your hamstrings can actually get some slack.

You should probably stop stretching your hamstrings.

Hamstrings play an integral role in movement mechanics, far more than just helping bend your knees. They attach in the back of your pelvis and play an important role in extending your hip, helping you drive your thigh bone back to propel yourself forward (think walking/sprinting). They also assist in rotating the leg inwards and outwards.

Potentially most importantly, your hamstrings serve as stabilizers for your hips. When they stop doing their job effectively (which can be due to a number of factors), your pelvis will dip forward at the top and lengthen your hamstrings further making them feel tight. This can increase flexion and curvature of your spine, which can cause compression and pain in your lower back region. This is called Pelvic Anterior Tilt. If you’ve been to a physical therapist about your lower back or even lower extremities, odds are you’ve already been exposed to this concept.

Often as a result of an extended spine position, your ribs will lift forward, putting your diaphragm in a poor position for breathing. This can lead to pain or postural issues in your shoulders, upper back, neck and even jaw. Believe it or not, stretching your hamstrings could be increasing your risk of headaches!

This photo helps demonstrate the importance of keeping a better balance of lengthening and shortening your muscles to help hold your skeleton in a more advantageous position.

The ticket to making them feel and function better is to actually “activate” them and reorient your hips so that your hamstrings can actually get some slack.

You should probably stop stretching your hamstrings.

Hamstrings play an integral role in movement mechanics, far more than just helping bend your knees. They attach in the back of your pelvis and play an important role in extending your hip, helping you drive your thigh bone back to propel yourself forward (think walking/sprinting). They also assist in rotating the leg inwards and outwards.

Potentially most importantly, your hamstrings serve as stabilizers for your hips. When they stop doing their job effectively (which can be due to a number of factors), your pelvis will dip forward at the top and lengthen your hamstrings further making them feel tight. This can increase flexion and curvature of your spine, which can cause compression and pain in your lower back region. This is called Pelvic Anterior Tilt. If you’ve been to a physical therapist about your lower back or even lower extremities, odds are you’ve already been exposed to this concept.

Often as a result of an extended spine position, your ribs will lift forward, putting your diaphragm in a poor position for breathing. This can lead to pain or postural issues in your shoulders, upper back, neck and even jaw. Believe it or not, stretching your hamstrings could be increasing your risk of headaches!

This photo helps demonstrate the importance of keeping a better balance of lengthening and shortening your muscles to help hold your skeleton in a more advantageous position. 

As you can see, it makes sense that when the hamstring is lengthened it can feel tight, often leading athletes intuitively to stretch them more. All we’re doing during that stretch cycle is convincing your brain that it’s okay for that hamstring to lengthen even further, diminishing the muscle’s ability to do its job and help stabilize the pelvis.

If your hamstrings do feel really tight, it’s likely your quads and hip flexors are the muscles that are in a shortened position and probably need some lengthening. This makes sense given how much most people sit each day. 

Steps You Can Take

Stretching can be an effective short term fix, particularly for your quads and hip flexors. But there are studies that suggest we’re not very capable of making long term changes to the physical length of our muscle tissue through passive stretching.

Instead, here are three different ways to address your hamstrings in your workouts to get to work on those pesky tight hamstring and any surrounding aches and pains.

Step 1: Improve Your Positioning

Your posture plays a huge role in muscle function and your ability to control your skeleton in an optimal way. More specifically, how you breathe can dramatically affect your posture and muscular function. This breathing exercise can help you adjust your hip position in relation to your ribs, improving your posture driven by your diaphragm and reestablishing some very important core muscles.

This is an exercise we learned from The Postural Restoration Institute called 90-90 breathing and it can help improve that breathing function and pelvis positioning. You’ll notice in this exercise, we’re actually trying to give your hamstrings some engagement so that your body can use them to pull your hips back into a better position. This works in conjunction with some deep core muscles and your diaphragm to move your pelvis back into a more neutral position, which should in turn give you both better hamstring engagement and provide them with more slack so that they don’t feel as tight.

Check out this video on how to perform 90-90 Breathing to start repositioning your hips and ribs.

You can test the efficacy of this exercise yourself. Try lying flat on your back and lifting one leg at a time, keeping it straight and raising it towards the ceiling until your hamstrings stop your progress. If they stop before you reach 90 degrees, perform this exercise twice for 8-10 breaths at a time. Then retest. 

If your leg goes past 90 degrees, that would suggest they’re too loose and you probably need some strengthening to improve your hamstring function. We’ll address that in step 2.

Step 2: Resistance Training

In my opinion, strength training most muscle tissues through a full range of motion with proper form and appropriate load is a far better option for restoring mobility and function than stretching.

For the hamstrings, you’ll want to address their different functions in different ways so that you can improve their function and mitigate injury risk. Improving hamstring function through proper compound lifts is probably most important. This means making sure that you are performing variations of squats and deadlifts consistently in your strength programs. I recommend keeping both bilateral (two feet) and unilateral (single leg) variations in your workouts consistently over the course of the week. 

Locking in your form and improving your squats and deadlifts should be your first priority in the strength realm before adding in a variety of accessory lifts because your brain needs to learn how to integrate your larger muscle groups in the movement patterns so they can all work together more efficiently.

Accessory work to address other hamstring functions individually is also important, but more so for the health and integrity of the tissue. As you add in accessory work, think about separating knee flexion and hip extension and addressing each of those individually. 

Knee flexion is pretty simple because it’s still a single joint movement, so you should be able to cycle through different versions of leg curls and get an appropriate response. We perform them here at Revo with swiss balls, floor sliders, bands, and ankle attachments to weights. If you’re in a larger gym, leg curl machines can be a great option. 

For hip extension exercises, your form will be really important to ensure you’re not using parts of your lower back, calves, or even your quads/hip flexors as a compensation for poor positioning. Good examples of exercises for hip extension can be different variations of bridges, reverse lunges, Romanian deadlifts, kickbacks, and hip lifts. We’re very big advocates for hip lifts because you can still add a lot of load to the lift (your hamstrings are STRONG!) while keeping your injury risk low.

For both knee flexion and hip extension, there is one very important form note to make. You have to make sure to keep your ribcage stacked over your hips. What I mean by this is make sure you do not extend your lower back (excessive arch) resulting in your ribs sticking out. Picture lumbar support pads in cars or office chairs. Those are NOT HELPING. When you are in that position, your nervous system will struggle to find and use your hamstrings. You must keep your ribs down and your abs engaged or else you will continue to struggle to find your hamstrings and may reinforce movement patterns that can lead to lower back pain.

Which is just another reason why making sure you work those obliques and transverse abdominal muscles is so important. They help keep your ribs in place which should lead to better hip position – thus better hamstring engagement. So keep up with those side planks and bear crawls!

Step 3: Sprint!

The final step to not only great hamstring function but incredible overall fitness markers: go out and sprint! Sprinting should be considered a basic human function but once most people graduate from youth sports it is disregarded.

Hamstrings play a huge role in sprinting and keeping sprints in your programming will not only help restore better hip extension and stride efficiency for runners, but it will certainly help restore hamstrings of steel.

If you haven’t sprinted in awhile, you will need to work back up to it. So the first step is to add plyometrics to your routine. Then, I recommend adding in short bursts of sprints up a moderate incline hill. This can be easier on your knees, just make sure to walk back down. As you build resilience and work capacity, you can make your intervals longer and transition to a track for true sprint workouts.

Putting It Together

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to properly restore your hamstring function on your own. A second set of eyes can be really helpful because often we’re competing with compensatory muscles firing and it can be very difficult to discern those yourself. And if you’re looking to build up to sprinting, there’s appropriate steps you’ll want to take before getting to those. 

We can help! Reach out today and whether you’re in Missoula or finding us through other means we can help get you back on track and moving better than ever in AND out of the gym.

New Year’s resolutions fail 80% of the time, with the majority of resolutions dropped by the end of February. The data regarding crash dieting is even more discouraging. Some studies suggest that up to 95% of people who lose a fast ~20 pounds gain the weight back within a year.

The majority of people do not succeed at achieving their goals or resolutions. But it is not that people are lazy or uncommitted. We all have things we want to work on; self improvement or health oriented changes we’d like to make. The biggest mistake we see people make with goal-setting is a lack of actionable steps. Without concise actionable steps to take, commitment to the goal is almost impossible outside of just stressing about it. 

Step one to setting a goal or resolution that you can achieve is to ask yourself this question: Am I truly ready, willing, and able to make this change now?

Does achieving this goal excite you? Are you dying to get going? Act on that motivation now. Motivation can be a fleeting feeling. Taking action immediately can start a positive feedback loop that boosts your chances of success.

Outcomes, Process, and Behaviors

We set goals because we desire a specific outcome. But participation does not guarantee accomplishment. Make sure you’re setting goals that are trackable and actionable.

We like a tiered approach with goals, specifically outlining a desired outcome and then outlining smaller, process oriented goals that aid in yielding success. We also try to recognize certain behaviors that may be limiting our ability to achieve our larger goals and correct those first.

An Outcome Goal is usually the finish line. It is any goal that has the ultimate desired outcome as the target. People almost always start with outcome goals, but struggle to turn these to action steps they can stick to. Yet, there’s one big problem with outcome goals: Often we can’t control the outcome.

For example:

“My goal is to get below X bodyfat in 2020.”

Or

“I want to deadlift 3x my bodyweight.”

The problem is sometimes real life happens. There are many factors out of your control. Your job could become more demanding. Or maybe you get sick and have to take time away from activities. You could get hurt or find out you have a thyroid disorder.

Both of the example goals also lack any call to action. They lack trackable metrics that you could look at daily and say “I took another step toward my goal.”

Once you have your desired outcome, shift your focus to things you can control: Behaviors. 

For example:

“I’m going to eat to 80% full.”

Or

“I’ll make appointments for at least three workouts a week.”

There’s nothing wrong with desired outcomes. In fact, they’re perfect starting points. But we also want to pick goals that give us the best chance at positive change. You may not be able to guarantee an outcome, but you can control what you do.

Once we understand what it is we want, we can work backwards to strategize behavioral and process oriented goals to give you the power to make change.

Behavioral goals center around a behavior we can focus on and improve. They will help you create new habits that set you up for long term success and ultimately achieve larger goals. These are often some of the best goals to start with. Some easy examples may involve using a daily planner, improving workout consistency, sleep ritual and habits, or even improving a relationship by sticking to a weekly date night or no-screens night (Put down your damn phone!). 

Here’s some tips to help fine-tune your process goals:

• Be specific – Go to bed earlier is vague and doesn’t give you a specific task to adhere to. Instead, choose something that will help going to bed earlier. No electronics after 8 pm or brushing my teeth by 9:30 pm is not only a specific goal, but helps build out your sleep ritual.

• Stick with it – Don’t add more until you feel you have close to a 100% success rate. Remember, DO NOT QUIT just because you miss a day here or there. Everyday is a new slate. All or nothing mindsets kill goals/resolutions more than almost any other variable.

• Think it through – Be detail oriented. 

“I will get better at meal prepping” actually means “I will change how I grocery shop, learn to use a slow/pressure cooker, learn new recipes, eat more protein and plan my meals for a week.”

That can be daunting. Instead, scale things back and focus on one thing at a time with the intention of improving the big picture.

Lastly, process goals help us work backwards from the intended outcome. Move on to process goals once you’re confident that your behaviors aren’t roadblocks. Process goals are generally smaller tasks to accomplish that help you achieve your larger outcome goals.

For example, maybe you want to get jacked or super lean – Your workout plan and consistency would both be important parts of the process. Your process goal might be to not miss a workout or to schedule every workout for the week or month.

On a related note, our environment shapes us as much as we shape our environment. Sometimes part of the process is reshaping our environment to set us up for success. Clean out your fridge, surround yourself with goal-oriented people, etc. 

Most importantly, the task is done or it isn’t. There’s no gray area.

Here’s some tips for picking valuable process goals:

• Make goals trackable – There must be clear and trackable elements to your process goals so you can gauge your success. If a goal is too vague, your results will suffer. You must be able to say “I did or did not do X today.”

• “Trim the fat” – Don’t dance around the issues, be honest with yourself. Pick something that will directly lead to accomplishing the big picture goal. Scaling back should not be procrastinating. Go after what you want!

• The Mental Side – Mindset goals work too, and you can turn them into process goals by adding an action. Some people hate eating in the morning but need to get more nutrients daily. Hating breakfast is a story that you can change. Work to reframe your mindset regarding breakfast by finding options you like and look forward to. Creating a positive correlation is a VERY strong tool.

• Add don’t subtract – This is related to nutrition, but we like the idea of adding instead of subtracting. If I were to say “No more ice cream” you’ll spend too much time thinking about the ice cream you can’t have. Instead, add a goal like “I’ll get all the recommended vegetable servings everyday” and see if you even want the ice cream anymore. You may surprise yourself with the results.

We’re Here to Help

It’s important to understand we’re not trying to diminish the outcomes you desire. We’re trying to help you take action and work towards your goals. I’ve seen a lot of people interpret this information as outcome goals are bad or stupid and that’s not true. We all have aspirations and goals, and fortune favors the bold. Be bold and take action. Feeling lost or not sure where to start? That’s what we’re here for. We’re not here to hand you the outcome, you still have to earn it. But we can help! Hit us up today and let’s get the ball rolling.