We’ve spent three weeks taking cardio apart: the myths that had us convinced harder was always better, the quiet power of Zone 2, and the truth about why Zone 3 became No Woman’s Land while true intervals earned their reputation honestly. Now for the question you’ve probably been waiting for: okay, but how much do I actually need?

The Simple Version

Here’s the framework, distilled down to something you can actually use:

•  The majority of your cardio — 3 to 5 sessions, 30 to 45 minutes each — should be easy, Zone 2 effort. Walks, easy bike rides, a relaxed swim. This is your foundation.

•  One to two sessions a week can be true high intensity — short, hard intervals (sprint intervals or HIIT) followed by real recovery. 15 to 20 minutes total, intervals included, is plenty.

•  Zone 3 — that moderately-hard middle ground — isn’t banned. It’s just not where you want to live by default. An occasional class you love is fine. Five days a week of “kind of hard” is where the drain sets in.

•  Strength training isn’t optional cardio’s sidekick — it’s foundational for bone density, metabolic health, and how your body composition shifts through this age & stage of life. It belongs in your week alongside, not instead of, cardio.

How This Actually Fits Into a Full Life

You do not need a separate hour blocked out for every category. This is where realignment — the discover-and-adjust mindset, not the all-or-nothing one — matters most.

Your Zone 2 doesn’t need its own workout clothes and calendar block. It can be the walk you take on a work call, the fifteen minutes after dinner instead of the couch, the bike ride with your kid. 

Stack it onto a life you’re already living instead of adding an entirely new task to your list.

Your high-intensity work, on the other hand, is worth protecting as its own short, focused session — because the recovery on either side is part of what makes it effective. 

Fifteen well-dosed minutes, twice a week, done with real effort and real rest, will do more than an hour of half-hearted grinding.

A Week That Actually Works

A realistic week might look like: two strength sessions, two short interval sessions layered onto or near those strength days, and three to five easy walks scattered through the rest of the week — some as short as twenty minutes. That’s it. No color-coded spreadsheet required, just a plan your future self can actually follow through on.

The Whole Point

This month wasn’t really about cardio. It was about trading a punishment mindset for a strategy — noticing what your body needs at this age & stage of life, discovering what actually works instead of what you were told should work, and realigning your effort where it counts.

You don’t need to do more. You need to do the right things, in the right proportion, with enough recovery to actually let them work. That’s the secret sauce — and it was never about sweat.

If you want this built out for you — strength, intervals, and a realistic weekly rhythm, coached live — that’s exactly what The Strength Collective and my 1:1 coaching programs (Kickstart, The Well Woman Year) are for. I’d love to help you build a week that actually works for the body you’re in now.