We may earn a commission from links on this page.Low-intensity cardiosometimes called LISS or zone 2is a previously-underrated form of exercise. Its finally coming back into fashion after spending years on the sidelines whileHIIT and lifting-only routines ran the field. But what is zone 2 cardio, exactly? How can you make sure you're doing it right? And is it really so bad if your heart rate drifts into zone 3? What is zone 2 training?Zone 2 training is cardio done at a steady, low intensity. It has benefits for aerobic training (so you can run faster), anaerobic training (helping you to recover faster between reps and sets, or between intervals), and it's also an efficient, low-fatigue way to burn calories.Zone 2 is a term drawn from the five-zone system of heart rate training, and the same concept is also known by other names and metrics. To runners, it is easy pace or long slow distance pace. To cyclists, it corresponds to zones 2 and 3 of a seven-zone system of mechanical power. In other sports, like swimming and rowing, its often just called easy or low-intensity exercise.All that said, there is no official definition of zone 2, and different devices won't necessarily agree with each other. The same heart rate might be "zone 2" on one device and "zone 3" on another. So please take the following with a grain of salt.The hallmark of zone 2 training is that its relatively slow and that its done at a steady pace. You'll be aiming for a heart rate of around 70%, but that doesnt mean doing intervals at 90% and then resting at 50%. It means holding that 70% level the whole time youre exercising. You can do zone 2 cardio with any steady, repetitive movement. Popular methods are running, cycling, swimming, rowing, brisk walking, fast hiking, or churning away on the elliptical. (Walking can count if you're new to exercise; as you get fitter, you'll probably need to choose a slightly harder form of exercise.)To be clear, its still workits not the same as sitting around restingbut it should feel like you could keep going forever if you wanted to. You dont stop a zone 2 session when you get tired, you stop it because you set out for a 30- or 45- or 60-minute session, and your time is up. COOSPO Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap $26.39 at Amazon $32.99 Save $6.60 Shop Now Shop Now $26.39 at Amazon $32.99 Save $6.60 How do I find my zone 2? I'll give you the short answer, but there are some major caveats, which I'll say more about below. So think of this formula as giving you some ballpark numbers, and then I'll tell you how to adjust it for your own, actual body (which will not necessarily match the cookie-cutter formulas). There are two steps: Find your max heart rateYour maximum heart rate is defined as, literally, the fastest your heart can beat. (Sometimes people assume this is a guideline, that you should keep your heart rate under this number. Nopeif your heart rate is higher than the number you thought was your max, that just tells you that number was not your max.) Here are some different ways to find your max heart rate: A max heart rate field test (best for people with healthy hearts and some pain tolerance): There are a few ways of doing this, but basically you're going to try to push your heart rate to its absolute max, and see what that number is. The most common way is to find a long, steep hill, and run up it three times, really sprinting hard on the last one. The number you see at the end is a good estimate of your max. Obviously, don't do this if you've been told you shouldn't exercise at high intensity. Your personal history (best for athletes who have experience using a HR monitor): If you've done high intensity exercise in the past, especially killer efforts that left you collapsed on the floor, the highest number you've ever seen on your watch or heart rate monitor is probably your max, or close to it. A 5K race or an FTP test will often get you close, if you really pushed yourself the whole way. Estimating based on easy exercise (best for non-athletes who have experience using a HR monitor): If you have a sense of what heart rate you see when you're exercising at a steady, conversational pace, multiply the highest number you would consider conversational by 1.25. This is my own based on studies that have found the top of conversational pace to be around 77-79% of max. This isn't as good as a field test, but for many people it will give a better result than the formula below.A formula. I don't recommend using a formula if you have the option of using either of the first two real-world options above. Using a formula to get your max heart rate is like asking ChatGPT for your shoe size. It will give a plausible guess, but it could easily be very, very wrong. Anyway, the easiest formula is to subtract your age from 220. (There are other formulas, but honestly they all have serious inaccuracies. I wouldn't worry about whether any one of them is "better" than the others. They all suck.)I have more here on why max heart rate formulas are pretty much all wrong, but that's beside the point for the moment. If you know your max heart rate, you can proceed to the next step. Use a percentage of your max as your "zone 2"Once you know your max heart rate (or have an estimate you're willing to work with), multiply to get the upper and lower boundaries of zone 2. Multiply by what? Well, there's more than one opinion out there about what zone 2 should be. If you use a smartwatch or other device, go into the settings and set a custom heart rate (all the major brands can do thischeck the instructions to find out where this setting lives.) The zones will usually populate automatically. As I've written before, every device has a different idea of what should count as zone 2. If you'd like me to be the tiebreaker, I'd go with 60% to 75% of your max heart rate. So, multiply your estimated max heart rate by 0.6 to get the lower end of that zone, and 0.7 to get the higher end. For example, if your max heart rate is 200, your zone 2 is 120 to 150 beats per minute. If your max heart rate is 175, your zone 2 would be 105 to 132.What are the benefits of zone 2 cardio?Zone 2 work builds your aerobic base. When you do cardio at this kind of easy pace, your body adapts by growing more capillaries (tiny blood vessels) to get oxygen and nutrients to your muscles more efficiently. You get more mitochondria to power each muscle cellyou have thousands of mitochondria per celland you produce more of the enzymes that turn food into usable energy. Your heart and your lungs get more efficient at taking in oxygen and moving blood to your muscles, and your muscles become able to store more carbohydrates (in a form called glycogen) so that more of the carbs you eat are at the ready when you start a run or ride.For runners, your zone 2 work, often called "easy pace," should make up most (some say 80%) of your weekly mileage. The fitness you build doing easy running is what allows you to benefit from, and recover from, harder efforts like interval training. For people whose main sport is more strength oriented (meatheads like myself), zone 2 cardio strengthens the same body systems that help us recover between sets, and even between reps. It increases our work capacity, letting us get more work done in total. As long as youre eating enough, adding cardio into your routine should make you able to do more work in the gym, not less. (And no, cardio does not kill your gains.)And for people who are just exercising for health, zone 2 cardio is the perfect moderate exercise were all supposed to get at least 150 minutes of per week. Its heart-healthy, and even people with medical conditions that limit their ability to exercise can often do low intensity cardio safely. (Ask your doctor to be sure, of course.)Importantly, zone 2 training is very low fatigue. More time-efficient forms of cardio and conditioning like HIIT, hill sprints, or CrossFit WODs are great for your aerobic fitness, but those workouts have to be high intensity to work, and youll be pooped afterward. Theyre great in small doses, but they kind of have to be in small doses. By contrast, easy pace work is basically free. You can work up to doing an easy zone 2 session every day, in addition to your regular training, and feel fine. Once youre used to it, you can do zone 2 work on your rest days without defeating the purpose of a rest day. As long as you have the time for it, its like a cheat code for aerobic gains.How do you know when youre in zone 2?The best way to know if youre in zone 2 is to pay attention to your effort, and how it feels. Even though zone 2 is defined in terms of heart rate, there are so many caveats to determining your max and deciding on the zone boundaries that I dont recommend that beginners calculate it from heart rate percentages at first. Unless youve actually gotten your heart rate up to a maximum effort level, and know what that number is, you dont really know your max heart rate. Instead, lets talk about what it should feel like. On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is nothing and 10 is all-out sprinting, low intensity cardio is about a 3 to 5. Youre working, but not very hard. If your breath starts to get ragged, or if you feel like you're getting pretty damn tired and you can't wait for this to end, you're probably somewhere 7+ and definitely going too hard for a zone 2 workout.A zone 2 pace is conversational, and its sometimes described with a talk test. If you could tell your friend about your day while youre exercising, youre probably around the right level. That doesnt mean spitting out a few words here and there, but speaking in full sentences without feeling out of breath. If you find yourself stopping to catch your breath or if you feel like you need to take a break, youre going too hard. (That said, some of zone 3 is also within that conversational zone, but it's okayzone 3 is still good for you.) That said, it shouldnt feel too easyzone 2 is more like a brisk walk or easy jog than a leisurely stroll. If you stop, you should feel like you took a break from something. It should take a little work and focus to keep up the pace.RunningRunners often have trouble with this, because the dividing line between walking and running is sometimes too high to maintain an easy pace while youre running, if youre a beginner. The next best thing is to jog as slow as you can, and when you start to feel out of breath, switch to a brisk walk. For some people, a brisk walk for the whole session is a perfect zone 2 workout. As you get more fit, easy jogging will become possible. Heres a real world example of how to keep a zone 2 pace: if Im heading out for an easy run, I start at a nice chill jogging pace. But I live in a hilly neighborhood, so pretty soon Ill be chugging up a hill and notice my breathing getting heavier. At this point, if my heart rate is getting higher than I'd like for this workout, I switch to a power walk. Jogging the flats and walking the uphills is a great way to keep your effort level steady, instead of accidentally turning your easy jog into a hill sprint workout. Bundle of NordicTrack T10 Treadmill + iFIT Pro - Annual Membership $1,295.00 at Amazon $1,695.00 Save $400.00 Get Deal Get Deal $1,295.00 at Amazon $1,695.00 Save $400.00 CyclingCyclists often measure their training in a seven-zone system that is based on how much power, in a physics sense, you are putting into the gears of your bike. These are called Coggan power zones, and bike training systems like Zwift and Peloton use the same basic idea. To calibrate these zones, youll take an FTP (functional threshold power) testbasically, a 20-minute race against yourself. From there, you (or your training app) calculates wattage numbers for your zones. Zones 2 and 3 in this system usually correspond to our zone 2 cardio. (Your heart rate at the end of an FTP test will be pretty close to your max heart rate, by the way, if you really went all-out.) If you train with both a heart rate monitor and a bike power meter, dont worry if they dont match exactly. A ride in power zones 2 and 3 will meet your low-intensity cardio needs, even if your heart rate starts in zone 1 and spikes into zone 3 by the end. Peloton Bike+ $1,995.00 at Amazon $2,495.00 Save $500.00 Get Deal Get Deal $1,995.00 at Amazon $2,495.00 Save $500.00 Other cardioFor other forms of cardio, go by feel, or by heart rate if you truly know your heart rate percentages. When youre on the elliptical or the rower or the airbike, you should feel like you could carry on a conversation easily, and stop because time is up rather than because youre running out of gas.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.Tech enthusiasts are already aware that the most anticipated tech event in the world, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is currently underway. But most forget that this is also one of the best times to shop for last year's flagship models oreven better for your wallettwo-year-old flagship TVs. If you're looking for a deal on a 75-inch TV, consider Sony's 2023 flagship LED TV, the Sony Bravia 75-inch Class X93L at $1,398 (originally $2,498) at Walmart. The lowest price this model has been since its release, according to price-tracking tools. Sony Bravia 75-Inch Class X93L Panel Type: LED, Screen Size: 75 inches, Resolution: 3840 by 2160, Video Inputs: HDMI, Composite, RF $1,398.00 at Walmart $2,498.00 Save $1,100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $1,398.00 at Walmart $2,498.00 Save $1,100.00 The Bravia X93L is an LED-backlit Google Smart TV (you can use Apple AirPlay and Google Cast), meaning you won't get the contrast of an OLED, but you'll have more brightness with 1,383 nits. It is a 4K TV with a 3,840 by 2,160 resolution, Dolby Vision and HDR-10, four HDMI ports (two of which are 2.1 ports with 120Hz, but one of those is the E-ARC connection for audio), a contrast ratio of 1,383,000:1, a 120 Hz refresh rate, a 9.8 ms input lag in game mode (not the best, but still good), and variable refresh rate (VRR) for gamingbut no AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync.People looking for a TV for their home theater system will appreciate its design to easily fit a soundbar on the front or below the TV, with adjustable legs for width and height. It also handles reflection very well, in part due to its brightness. If you're not looking to get a soundbar or surround sound, the audio is much better than its competitors (although like all TVs, the bass will always be lacking). You can read more about this TV on PCMag's "excellent" review.

As CES began this year, one topic came up over and over again among reporters: Wheres Ballie?" The personal robot that Samsung showed at CES 2024 left a huge impression on everyonerolling around on the floor, following people around, while projecting images up onto the floor or wall. While not having as large a presence at CES as it did last year, Ballie popped up in the Samsung booth, presentation, and materials, with the news from Samsung that Ballie should be available this year. Its been a long road for Ballie since it was introduced at CES in 2020. At that point, Ballie was merely a concept that looked as if it had been 3D printed at home. By last year, Ballie was a fully functional model; as the centerpiece of the Samsung CES presentation, it promised to be a companion, a security team, and living embodiment of your voice assistant for SmartThings. (SmartThings is Samsung's smart home platform, arguably the fourth largest behind Apple, Google and Amazon.)And then we heard nothing for most of the year.By the time Ballie popped back up at IFA (an international tech expo) in September, it had improved dramatically as it inched closer to a real consumer-ready model. This Ballie interacted using real language and expressed emotions, results of tightly integrated AI. It could follow commands, call people, and predict the needs of people and pets in the home. It could recognize items you held and then give you information about them. It could make decisions about whether to project small bites of information or more detailed data, and then choose the right location to project that info.In this years iteration, Ballie is being actively demonstrated for attendees, rather than simply having a one-time, spotlight demo. It projects choices for the user as virtual buttons on the floor, and can control devices via SmartThings integration. Seeing Ballies current design (a sphere on two front wheels with a back fin for balance), I am reminded of the Enabot Rola, a tiny personal robot Ive been testing the last few months. While I havent thought much of the Enabot generally, the design makes the robot surprisingly resilient. Regardless of what it bumps into or encounters (including the jaws of my Doberman), the low center of gravity allows the Enabot to recover its position upright quickly. I suspect Ballie might have the same resilience of movement.While I dont yet have any sense of pricing or availability beyond the loose commitment Samsung has offered reporters this week of a pending release within the next calendar year, what is abundantly clear is that with each appearance, Ballie becomes a more viable consumer product.

The following article discusses adult themes.There was a legend in my high school about turning your PlayStation 2 into an ersatz vibrator by creating a custom skate park in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3. Build a circular grind rail, turn off the ability to fall, jump on it and your DualShock would launch into a never ending frenzy of haptic feedback. Its an idea the team at Motorbunny is taking to its logical conclusion, adding a wireless controller for its eponymous ride on sex toy that can connect to a DualSense controller. Its pitch is that youll be able to combine getting your game on with getting off. And yes, I am ashamed for writing that sentence.The company was at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, showing off PlayMate, its wireless dongle that can control the beefy saddle-style toy. In its demo, the PlayMate was plugged into the USB-C port on the back of a DualSense controlling a PS5 playing Rocket League. Except theres no way to pull the haptics data from the DualSense, or any other gaming handset, for that matter. Instead, it has a built-in gyroscope that will track how aggressively you pitch and tilt your controller, and uses that information to control the Motorbunny. This isnt as good as the Tony Hawk plan from 2001, but will at least enable some folks to merge both of their hobbies at the same time.PlayMate is one of a suite of products the company is releasing, including a series of less expensive vibes under the Fluffer label. This is a sub-brand designed to tie in the worlds of gaming and sex, with the app even having some arcade games that you can use to control your toys. In one demo, there was a Flappy Bird clone that would increase the intensity of the vibration the longer you were able to keep the bird in the air. Sadly the company wasnt ready to share details of pricing and availability just yet, but said a whole host of products would be hitting the market in the following months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/motorbunnys-playmate-lets-your-console-kinda-control-your-vibe-233001475.html?src=rss

Meta is continuing to overhaul its moderation and content rules. Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted today that Instagram and Threads will start including political content in recommendations. It's a reversal from the policy the two platforms adopted last year, which made political content something users had to choose if they wanted to see. Now, Mosseri said that there will be three levels of political content that Instagram and Threads users can pick to see: less, standard (which will be the default) and more."Its proven impractical to draw a red line around what is and is not political content," Mosseri wrote. The change will begin rolling out this week in the US and in the rest of the world over the coming weeks. This announcement is the latest in a series of shifts Meta is making that seem like efforts to curry favor with President-elect Donald Trump. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would eliminate third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes model for Facebook, Instagram and Threads, mimicking the approach taken at X (formerly Twitter). Nick Clegg stepped down as Meta's president of global affairs to be replaced by Joel Kaplan, who is well-connected to Republicans in Washington DC.Yesterday, Instagram was also discovered to have blocked several LGBTQ hashtags and treated them as "sexually suggestive material" for months. The company said this was an error.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-and-instagram-will-recommend-political-content-after-all-232343107.html?src=rss

Automotive heads up displays (HUDs) have been around as far back as 1988, and while theyve gotten brighter and more colorful over the years, even todays most sophisticated implementations still feel a bit primitive. But after seeing what Hyundai Mobis (which makes auto parts for Hyundai, Kia and Genesis) is calling the worlds first full-windshield holographic display at CES 2025, it felt like I was looking at a major evolution in-car infotainment.Unlike traditional reflective HUDs, Hyundai Mobis holographic windshield display (HWD) consists of two main components: a projector (or in this case multiple projectors) hidden beneath the dash and a special optical film with a carefully tuned wavelength sensitivity embedded inside the windshield itself. This combination allows the HWD to pump out brighter and more colorful images with much shallower viewing angles. Unless youre sitting in the right spot, you may not even see the HUD at all.Because of the HWD's narrow viewing angles, Hyundai Mobis set up a separate demo to better show what it looks like. When installed in a car, the HWD's small sweet spot means the passenger's displays is not visible from the driver's side and vice versa, which is good for eliminating distractions.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetOn the Hyundai Mobis Kia EV9 demo vehicle, the HWD isnt limited to just a small corner at the bottom of the windshield. Instead, its split up into three different zones that span the entire width of the car: two for the driver and one dedicated to the passenger. For the driver, the HWD can display basic stuff like the cars speed, directions and more. But where things get interesting is when it shows holographic 3D maps that can adjust in real-time based on your position, adding an entirely new dimension to help you reach your destination.For passengers, their dedicated section of the HWD can be used independently for checking vehicle information or simply watching a video or playing games. Critically, because of the limited viewing angles of Hyundai Mobis tech, the driver cant see the passengers side of the HWD, so theres no distraction risk. The whole system is rather impressive, because so much of the tech is hidden beneath the dashboard. The only evidence that this HWD is different from more traditional implementations is that if you look really closely at the windshield when its off, you can see a faint outline where the optical film is sandwiched between the glass.After checking out Hyundai Mobis demo, I also got a chance to talk to one of the engineers behind the HWD, Dr. Minho Shin, who added additional context and insight about the tech. Through a translator, Dr. Shin told me that the company envisions its HWD as a way to augment the main display found in most modern cars, which will most likely serve as the main control center for manipulating what you see on the windshield. And for passengers, its possible they will be able to control what they see on their side of the HWD simply by casting content from their phones. Furthermore, the placement and size of the holographic display makes it easier for the driver to see and interact with helpful tools like real-time 3D maps compared to current tech. Dr. Shin even said that its possible to create a version of the HWD that would cover both the entire width and vertical height of the windshield, which seems like something straight out of every sci-fi or cyberpunk movie ever made. However, due to laws in many countries, that kind of functionality isnt widely permitted.A passenger-side view of Hyundai Mobis' HWD. Notice how you can't see the two sections of the display on the driver's side of the car.Photo by Sam RutherfordNow it must be mentioned that at CES 2025, BMW demoed similar technology with its Panoramic iDrive system. The Bavarian automakers approach is arguably a bit further along, at least when it comes to being integrated into its existing infotainment system and its availability, which is slated to arrive on all new models by the end of 2025. However, when you look closer, it almost seems like BMW is cheating a bit by using a black film that goes along the bottom of the windshield instead of being completely transparent like with the HWD, which may give Hyundai Mobis tech significantly improved driver visibility and awareness.While BMWs panoramic HUD is slated to arrive first, Hyundai Mobis wont be far behind as the company hopes to put its HWD into production by the end of 2026.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/a-holographic-windshield-from-hyundai-mobis-is-a-big-upgrade-for-in-car-huds-at-ces-2025-230050196.html?src=rss

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Bank tellers, cashiers, postal workers, and the jobs of administrative assistants are among those forecast to decline by 2030, according to the World Economic Forums Future of Jobs Report, which was released ahead of the groups annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, later this month.In all, the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates new job creation and job displacement will amount to 22% of todays total jobs, and specifically, 170 million jobs will be created, equivalent to 14% of current employment. This growth is expected to be offset by the loss of 92 million jobs, resulting in a net growth of 78 million jobs by 2030.The report is based on data from more than 1,000 leading global employers, representing more than 14 million workers across more than 20 industries in 55 global economies. The data looked at how macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and what strategies employers plan to implement to meet the emerging jobs landscape in 2030.Technological advancements, demographic shifts, geo-economic tensions, economic uncertainty, and the green transition are key drivers of these changes, and are expected to reshape industries and professions worldwide, according to the report.Heres a summary of some of the key findings:Jobs in declineClerical and secretarial workers, including cashiers, ticket clerks, administrative assistants, and executive secretaries are expected to see the largest decline in absolute numbers. The fastest-declining roles are also expected to include postal service clerks, bank tellers, and data entry workers.Jobs predicted to growFrontline job roles are predicted to see the largest growth in terms of absolute volume, including: farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers, salespeople, and food-processing workers. Care economy jobs, such as nurses, social workers, counselors, and personal care aides are also expected to grow significantly over the next five years, alongside teachers.Tech roles in the age of AITechnology-related roles are the fastest-growing jobs in terms of percentage, and include: big data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and machine learning specialists, and software and application developers. Green and energy transition roles, including autonomous and electric vehicle specialists, environmental engineers, and renewable energy engineers, also feature within the top fastest-growing roles.Most in-demand skills for employersThe report also found that the top in-demand skills and areas of growth are in technology within AI, big data, and cybersecurity, and 41% of employers intend to downsize as AI automates existing tasks.But human skills like critical and creative thinking, including resilience, flexibility, and agility remain highly sought after. In fact, analytical thinking is the most sought-after core skill among employers, with 7 out of 10 companies calling it essential.On average, workers can expect 39% of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated in the next 5 years. However, skill instability has slowed from 44% in 2023, as determined in the WEFs last Future of Jobs report. This is likely due to the fact that workers are upskilling, or getting additional training.