If your lifestyle doesn't generate energy, you can't expect to have much of it.

We are energetic machines.

To feel energised, our bodies must produce energy.

Aside from quality sleep, one of the most accessible and effective methods of generating more energy is through exercise, particularly cardiovascular exercise.

Many people view exercise solely as a means to burn calories and expend energy, rather than as one of the best natural tools for generating it.

And I’m not just referring to energy for physical activity and feeling awake. Our bodies also use energy for cognition, building immunity, rebuilding and recovering muscles, digesting food, bouncing back from fatigue, and much more.

Our bodies are extremely clever and distribute energy to areas that need it most. Therefore, the deeper your overall energy reserves, the greater your body’s ability to share it out. Enabling you to better perform physically and mentally throughout the week while preventing fatigue, bouncing back faster and fighting off illness.

So how do we build a greater reserve of energy?

In every energy-producing cell of our body, we have little batteries called mitochondria. These produce the energy that powers every biological process and are crucial for our bodies and brains to function well.

How do we increase these batteries?

By challenging our cardiovascular system. Boosting your aerobic fitness through cardiovascular exercise essentially adds more batteries to your cells, giving your body a stronger energy system. Not only that, but you’ll also enhance your longevity in the process.

One of the main physiological changes that occur between the ages of 40 and 80 that reduces physical ability in later life is a decrease in the health and density of our mitochondria.

The better your cardiovascular fitness, the greater your mitochondrial density, and the higher your VO2 max, which is perhaps the most powerful marker of longevity.

So the question is, how much cardiovascular exercise does one need?

If the goal is to really enhance your health, longevity, and energy, an ideal target would be 150 minutes each week. Approximately 80% of that time should be spent at a low-to-moderate intensity, often referred to as zone 2, with the remaining 20% spent at high intensity in the form of intervals.

Low-to-Moderate Intensity: A pace that makes it challenging to hold a conversation.

I often tell my clients that this should be done at a pace where, if you were to receive a phone call, you could chat, but the person on the other end would be able to tell you’re exercising.

If you use a smartwatch or fitness wearable, for most people, this would typically be at a heart rate around 135-155 bpm.

These 120 minutes can be broken down into as many sessions as you like. Personally, I enjoy 3 sessions of 40 minutes each.

High-Intensity Intervals: These should be short in duration, but very challenging.

How you structure your intervals will depend on your current fitness level, experience, available time, etc. A structure I enjoy, and often recommend, is as follows:

• 3-5 minute warm-up at low/moderate intensity

• 10 x 60-second intervals at 90% of your maximum effort

• 90-second ‘active rest’ at a low intensity between each round

Completing this session once per week is plenty.

The human body is quite unique in that it winds its own springs to recharge energy. We must simply provide it with the activities it requires to make this happen: movement, sleep, and nourishment.

I hope you enjoyed this article and have gained some insights or actionable takeaways.

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