At Clay, we believe lasting health is built on a strong foundation. That’s why I focus on helping every Clay Member develop consistent routines around what we call The Foundational Five: Protein, Daily Steps & Movement, Hydration, Quality Sleep, and a Metabolic Reset. These key habits drive your energy, improve resilience, and enhance performance—no matter your current health status or long-term goals. Each one is simple, powerful, and fully within your control.
Increase Your Daily Steps: A Practical Guide
Why Steps Matter
Movement is the cornerstone for health, longevity, and recovery. Walking daily boosts blood sugar control, aids digestion, and supports active recovery all supporting metabolic health.
Here’s one sample outline to help you get started on finding ways to get your 8K+ steps a day.
Morning: 2,000 Steps
Start your day with a 15-minute walk—ideally before breakfast, in a fasted state. This low-intensity movement helps kickstart circulation, clears the mind, and taps into fat as a fuel source, supporting metabolic flexibility. At Clay, we build this into morning routines because it’s simple, accessible, and powerful. No gear. No gym. Just you, your body, and a commitment to moving forward—literally and metabolically.
Workday: 2,000 Steps
Movement doesn’t have to wait for the gym. During the workday, we aim for another 2,000 steps—layered into the rhythm of your routine. Here are some small ways to rack up those mid-day steps:
Walk during meetings
Take movement breaks each hour
Choose stairs over elevators
Park a little farther than usual
Step outside for meetings & calls
Utilize a treadmill desk
At Clay, we emphasize stacking small wins throughout the day—because yes, even the long route to the bathroom counts. It’s not about intensity here; it’s about consistency, circulation, and keeping your metabolism awake while you work.
Post-Meal: 2,000 Steps
After you eat, move. A quick 10-minute walk after meals—especially lunch or dinner—can help stabilize blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and support digestion. At Clay, we lean into this as one of the simplest, most effective habits for metabolic health. You don’t need a workout—just a stroll around the block with a coworker, or some steps while you catch up on a podcast. Small actions, done consistently, change how your body processes fuel. This is one of them.
Evening: 2,000 Steps
As the day winds down, walk it out. An evening walk—whether it’s with family, the dog, or just your own thoughts—helps shift your body into recovery mode. It lowers stress hormones, supports digestion, and signals your nervous system that it’s time to slow down. At Clay, we view this as more than a step count—it’s a reset. The light’s softer, your pace is slower, and your mind has room to process the day. This simple habit reinforces your circadian rhythm and sets the stage for better sleep and next-day performance.
Written by Andrew Browning, Coaching Director @ Clay Health & Care Andrew Browning is a performance coach and educator with nearly two decades of experience in training, teaching, and behavior change. As Clay’s Coaching Director, he combines deep knowledge in exercise physiology, metabolic health, and recovery with a passion for helping people build sustainable habits that fuel performance at every level.
Reviewed by Dr. Allen Gorman, Medical Director @ Clay Health & Care Dr. Allen Gorman is a physician-scientist with a focus on metabolism, aging, and cellular repair. His clinical and research work spans two decades, with a passion for translating complex science into actionable health strategies.
In this episode of Peter Attia’s podcast, The Drive, Olav Aleksander Bu, one of the world’s top endurance coaches and sports scientists discusses the science behind elite athletic performance — getting into everything from functional threshold power to VO2 max to lactate threshold to mastering nutrition strategies that fuel world-class endurance. Olav shares his precision-driven philosophy on training, explains the power of consistent testing, and offers a glimpse into the future with how artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape of athletic optimization.
Why This Matters:
At Clay, we view performance metrics not just as numbers, but as tools for unlocking the next level of health, resilience, and longevity. Whether you’re training for a personal best or optimizing daily energy for life’s demands, understanding how to interpret and act on your body’s signals is critical. Olav’s insights give our community a masterclass in what it means to pursue excellence with intention — blending science, consistency, and innovation to maximize results over the long term.
In this 2+ hour conversation, The Diary of a CEO, host Steven Bartlett sits down with Dr. Benjamin Bikman, a powerful voice in metabolic health and author of Why We Get Sick. Together, they delve into the hidden epidemic of insulin resistance — a condition affecting nearly 88% of adults today — and how it’s fueling not just fat gain but the chronic disease epidemic. Dr. Bikman shares a clear and easy to understand framework for understanding glucose, insulin, and fat metabolism, and offers steps anyone can take to restore metabolic health and longevity.
Why This Matters:
At Clay, we believe metabolic health is the cornerstone of peak living — it’s not just about your weight, it’s about your energy, resilience, and vitality. Dr. Bikman’s insights connect the dots between our everyday choices and the beneath the surface forces that determine how we age and perform. For anyone serious about optimizing body composition, protecting brain health, and living a longer, higher-quality life, understanding and mastering insulin is super helpful! This conversation delivers the knowledge and motivation to take control.
This one’s one of the most popular conversations that we ask our longevity clients to listen to. Here, Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Andrew Huberman team up to tackle one of the biggest threats to health and longevity: heart disease. Together, they dive into:
Why heart attack often presents without warning
How cardiac life support has evolved
The importance of tracking markers like ApoB early in life.
Dr. Attia pulls from his clinical expertise to share material strategies for managing blood pressure, optimizing exercise and nutrition, and using routine testing to stay ahead of cardiovascular and kidney risks — while Dr. Huberman brings his sharp lens on brain-body performance.
Why This Matters:
At Clay, we’re about more than avoiding disease — we’re obsessed with building a future of thriving health. Conversations like this one are crucial because they shift the focus from crisis response to proactive care. Understanding how to track and manage key markers, design training and nutrition plans with precision, and apply the right interventions at the right time can dramatically extend your cognitive and physical peak.
If you care about your heart—and aging well in general—do yourself a favor and check out this conversation with Dr. Benjamin Levine and Rhonda Patrick. He breaks down how the right kind of exercise can actually reverse heart aging by up to 20 years. He’s one of the top experts when it comes to how the heart adapts to stress, movement, or the lack of it.
Why This Matters:
I’ve sent this one to a bunch of clients already because it’s such a clear case for why we train the way we do at Clay. Your heart’s not a ticking clock—it’s a muscle. And with the right kind of consistent work, it can actually get younger.
At Clay, we believe that optimal health and performance stem from understanding your body’s unique physiology. Zone 2 training—exercising at a specific heart rate zone to maximize fat oxidation and mitochondrial efficiency—is foundational to this approach.
To accurately determine an individual’s true Zone 2, we collaborate with Oval, utilizing their advanced lactate threshold testing technology. This partnership allows us to tailor training programs that align with each client’s metabolic profile, ensuring effective and sustainable results.
Before Anything Else, You Need to Understand Lactate Threshold.
Lactate threshold refers to the exercise intensity at which lactate begins to accumulate in the bloodstream faster than it can be removed. This point is crucial because it signifies a shift from predominantly aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism. Training just below this threshold—within Zone 2—enhances mitochondrial density and function, improving the body’s ability to utilize oxygen for energy production.
In my own training, I’ve learned firsthand how staying just below this threshold improves my endurance and metabolic efficiency over time. It’s humbling, but necessary, to slow down to truly build capacity. With patients at Clay, I’ve seen remarkable improvements in fatigue resistance and metabolic markers after consistent training in their personalized Zone 2 ranges.
Incorporating Zone 2 training into your routine doesn’t require exhaustive efforts. Activities like brisk walking, cycling, or light jogging, maintained at a pace where conversation is comfortable, are effective. I advise clients to find that pace where they’re just under the edge—breathing deeply but not gasping. That’s the sweet spot.
Personally, I aim for 45 minutes of Zone 2 jogging or cycling 3-4 times a week, keeping my heart rate dialed into my lactate threshold insights from Oval. That feedback keeps me honest and efficient. I recommend the same for most clients who regularly exercise: 30-60 minutes, 3-5 times per week, depending on goals and baseline fitness.
We also encourage flexibility. If you’re on your feet all day or have a hard workout planned tomorrow, 30 minutes of Zone 2 is plenty.
For more tips, check out Inigo San-Millán, one of the leading voices in lactate metabolism research, and Peter Attia’s work, who regularly covers the longevity impact of Zone 2 training.
Integrating Zone 2 into Clay’s Health Optimization Programs
At Clay, our Health Optimization clients benefit from personalized programs that incorporate Zone 2 training as a cornerstone. During onsite appointments at Clay clinics, I walk clients through lactate threshold testing myself, explaining what we’re measuring and how the data applies to their daily lives.
By identifying each individual’s lactate threshold through Oval’s testing, we tailor exercise prescriptions that align with their metabolic capabilities and goals. This approach ensures that clients train efficiently, avoid overtraining, and achieve sustainable improvements in health and performance.
To see our approach in action, here’s Clay CEO, Joel Nelson breaking down a lactate threshold test using Oval’s technology at our Henderson, NV clinic:
Oval’s portable lactate meter and software give us real-time visibility into how your body uses energy across intensities. This test helps us personalize both low-intensity endurance work and high-intensity intervals for smarter gains.
Finding the sweet spot. A Clay Coach uses Oval’s lactate pulse tech to uncover True Zone 2—where endurance gains and fat burn really take off.
Elite Tools Belong To Everyone
Our mission at Clay is to democratize access to elite-level health and performance tools. By leveraging data-driven assessments like lactate threshold testing, we provide clients with insights previously reserved for professional athletes.
We believe that everyone deserves to understand their body on a deeper level. That means replacing guesswork with measurement, and ambition with a smart plan. By combining assessments with health coaching, we help each person move toward a more metabolically flexible and physically capable version of themselves.
What Metabolic Insights Do We Gain?
Lactate threshold testing provides valuable insights into an individual’s metabolic responses during exercise. By identifying the precise point where lactate begins to accumulate, we can determine the true Zone 2 heart rate range, ensuring that training is both effective and safe.
This is where fat oxidation peaks—Zone 2 is your body’s fat-burning engine. Beyond that threshold, your body shifts to burning primarily carbohydrates. So when you’re training just below that point, you’re training your body to become metabolically flexible.
We also use this test to define Zone 5—your max output—used in high-intensity intervals. This clarity allows for intentional, polarized training that combines smart recovery and smart intensity.
At Clay, we utilize the MetFlex Index to assess an individual’s metabolic flexibility—the ability to efficiently switch between fuel sources like fats and carbohydrates. A higher MetFlex Index indicates a more adaptable metabolism, which is associated with better health outcomes and performance.
We score metabolic fitness based on data from the lactate test and combine it with insights from body composition, nutrition intake, and recovery patterns. This comprehensive view empowers us to design health strategies that build long-term resilience—not just short-term performance.
Empowering Health Through Precision
By partnering with Oval and integrating lactate threshold testing into our programs, Clay provides clients with the tools and insights necessary for personalized, effective training. This approach not only enhances performance but also promotes longevity. Through data-driven strategies and a commitment to accessibility, we empower individuals to take control of their health journeys and understand their own inner workings on a deeper, metabolic level. It’s a fantastic “ah-ha” moment to witness and one of the true highlights of my job here at Clay.
Written by Dr. Allen Gorman, Medical Director @ Clay Health & Care
Dr. Allen Gorman is a physician-scientist with a focus on metabolism, aging, and cellular repair. His clinical and research work spans two decades, with a passion for translating complex science into actionable health strategies.
Reviewed by Andrew Browning, Coaching Director @ Clay Health & Care
Andrew Browning is a performance coach and educator with nearly two decades of experience in training, teaching, and behavior change. As Clay’s Coaching Director, he combines deep knowledge in exercise physiology, metabolic health, and recovery with a passion for helping people build sustainable habits that fuel performance at every level.
At Clay, we take a whole-body approach to health because your body is a whole system—interconnected, dynamic, and responsive. Each of our Five Elements of Health—Fuel, Brain, Body, Blood, and Heart—build upon one another to create a high-performance engine. At the center of that engine is your metabolism, and your heart plays a central role in dictating how well your metabolism performs.
People tend to think of the heart in isolation: blood pressure, cholesterol, family history. And while those metrics matter, they’re often downstream of more foundational issues like metabolic dysfunction, mitochondrial inefficiency, and energy imbalance.
At Clay, we view the heart not as a standalone organ, but as the metabolic mirror—a powerful feedback system for how you’re living, moving, fueling, and recovering. If you optimize the heart, you’re optimizing far more than blood flow. You’re addressing energy, inflammation, and longevity itself.
Heart Health Begins with Metabolism
Every cell in your body contains mitochondria—the microscopic power plants that convert nutrients into usable energy. Your heart is packed with mitochondria because it never gets a break. It beats roughly 100,000 times a day, 365 days a year.
Your metabolism is essentially the total performance of these engines across your body. When it’s humming, mitochondria efficiently convert glucose and fat into ATP. But when it’s dysfunctional—due to insulin resistance, poor movement, low oxygenation, or chronic stress—your cells accumulate fuel they can’t use. That excess shows up in the bloodstream as inflammation, elevated insulin, and plaque formation.
This inflammation is not just a side effect—it’s a warning sign. Elevated insulin levels, a common outcome of insulin resistance, lead to chronic inflammation. This sets the stage for arterial plaque build-up, decreased vascular elasticity, and the gradual breakdown of the heart’s ability to respond to stress and exertion.
In clinic, I often tell patients: “If we’re seeing plaque on your arteries, the problem didn’t start in your arteries. It started in your cells.” That’s why we test for fasting insulin levels and conduct thorough metabolic assessments at Clay. It’s not enough to wait for symptoms—you need to see the storm coming.
A strong heart pumps more blood with fewer beats. That’s efficiency. That’s health.
We leverage VO2Max and Lactate Threshold Testing via Ovalto identify how your body uses oxygen under exertion and when it transitions from fat-burning to glucose-burning. These tests tell us how efficiently your mitochondria are functioning and whether your heart is keeping up with your metabolic needs.
From there, we build out your Fitness Heuristics: personalized guidelines that prioritize:
80/20 Intensity Balance: 80% of your training in low-intensity, high-volume (Zone 2) work to build mitochondrial density.
20% in high-intensity training to trigger adaptation and increase cardiac output per beat.
Minimum Effective Dose: At least 7 hours of weekly movement with clear distribution and intentionality.
I’ve seen clients drop their resting heart rate by 10–15 beats per minute in just a few months following this approach. More importantly, they feel it—energy during the day, sharper cognition, less craving for sugar. These changes are the metric.
Coaching Director Andrew Browning conducts a lactate threshold test at Clay Clinic in Henderson, Nevada—where data meets performance for personalized heart and metabolic health.
Your Heart Doesn’t Lie—It Reports Everything
It reports your sleep, your stress, your fitness, and your food. That’s why it’s so effective to use wearables like WHOOP or Garmin to track heart rate variability, sleep quality, and recovery. At Clay, we’re fairly agnostic about what tool you use to track so long as you are tracking, interpreting the data correctly, and sharing those markers with your Care Team. These devices don’t just show you how fast your heart beats—they show you how well your body responds to life.
Heart health starts with data. At Clay, we use:
Calcium Scoring: A coronary calcium scan to detect plaque in the arteries before symptoms emerge.
Resting and Stress EKGs: To monitor electrical activity and detect underlying heart rhythm issues.
Fasting Insulin & Lipid Panels: As leading indicators of metabolic stress on the heart.
When needed, we work with clinical partners to implement cardiology-driven interventions. But for most people, the prescription starts with fitness
A patient of mine recently came in frustrated by stubborn weight gain and fatigue. Her labs looked “fine” by conventional standards, but her fasting insulin was high and her heart rate variability was consistently low. With data from her wearables and the right lab testing, we uncovered an underlying metabolic imbalance. Four months later, her HRV has doubled, her energy is back, and the fat’s melting off—not because we treated weight, but because we treated the system.
A 42-year-old entrepreneur with a “clean” bill of health came into the clinic identifying subtle fatigue and stress. After a VO2Max and fasting insulin panel, we identified early insulin resistance and a reduced cardiac efficiency that would have gone unnoticed in a more traditional clinical setting. With targeted interventions, we reversed the trajectory within months and helped to avoid unnecessary complications down the line.
Heart, Mitochondria, and Light
Mitochondria respond not just to movement, but also to light. Specifically, red light exposure (natural or therapeutic) has been shown to enhance mitochondrial efficiency and reduce oxidative stress. Red light therapy is a powerful adjunct for those dealing with fatigue, slow recovery, or seeking improved cellular function.
Inflammation, Insulin & the Arterial Wall
Inflammation doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s often a signal of excess fuel—especially excess insulin in the bloodstream. High insulin promotes fat storage, cellular stress, and over time, damage to the endothelial lining of your arteries.
When artery walls are injured, your body deploys plaque as a patch. But this is not a sustainable solution. It’s like using duct tape to fix a crack in your engine. Over time, the system degrades.
We screen all clients for cardiac risk using Calcium Scoring and EKG if indicated. But we also work upstream by improving fuel partitioning through movement, nutrition, and mitochondrial health.
Clay’s Approach to Heart Health: Whole-Body First
Traditional care focuses on downstream markers: cholesterol, hypertension, family history. We don’t ignore those, but we look upstream.
Our approach is:
Minimum effective dose of fitness: 7 hours/week, 80/20 mix of endurance and intensity
This isn’t about “more exercise” for its own sake. It’s about the right stimulus, applied consistently, to build capacity for life.
Heart as Foundation: Connecting Deeper Topics
Heart health is not a stand-alone metric. It’s a manifestation of your metabolic condition, your movement practice, and even your recovery protocols. When inflammation rises due to metabolic imbalance, the arteries take the first hit. Plaque forms in response to damage. That’s not just about diet; it’s about energy balance.
Energy balance means burning what you consume, neither storing too much nor running on fumes. Achieving that balance leads to:
Lower resting and max heart rates
Increased lean muscle mass
Reduced visceral fat
Diminished sugar cravings
This is how we teach the heart to be strong, quiet, and reliable.
The Clay Difference
Conventional medicine often waits for pathology to appear. We don’t. We test early, act early, and build systems for sustainable improvement. Our focus on minimum effective dose and metabolic feedback loops creates an upward spiral of health. And because we believe in the power of real metrics, we track your fasting insulin, VO2Max, and lactate threshold as standard data points. Not optional add-ons.
Written by Dr. Allen Gorman, Medical Director @ Clay Health & Care
Dr. Allen Gorman is a physician-scientist with a focus on metabolism, aging, and cellular repair. His clinical and research work spans two decades, with a passion for translating complex science into actionable health strategies.
Reviewed by Andrew Browning, Coaching Director @ Clay Health & Care
Andrew Browning is a performance coach and educator with nearly two decades of experience in training, teaching, and behavior change. As Clay’s Coaching Director, he combines deep knowledge in exercise physiology, metabolic health, and recovery with a passion for helping people build sustainable habits that fuel performance at every level.
Most people think of cardio as an all-out sprint or a long, exhausting grind. But what if the most powerful form of cardiovascular exercise was also the most sustainable, the most restorative, and the most overlooked?
Welcome to Zone 2.
Zone 2 training is one of the most effective — and underutilized — tools for long-term health, performance, and longevity. At Clay, we consider it a non-negotiable foundation. It’s where we start with nearly every client, regardless of age, goal, or experience level.
Whether you’re an athlete chasing performance, someone focused on fat loss, or simply aiming to live with more energy and resilience, Zone 2 is the metabolic base camp you don’t want to skip.
Benefits of Zone 2 Training
Zone 2 training refers to aerobic exercise performed at a low-to-moderate intensity — just below the point where your body shifts from using fat to using carbohydrates as its primary fuel source. This sweet spot delivers compounding returns.
Here’s what consistent Zone 2 training does:
Cardiovascular Health
Strengthens the heart, improving stroke volume and efficiency
Reduces resting heart rate and blood pressure
Enhances capillary density and oxygen delivery
Metabolic Flexibility
Trains your body to burn fat more efficiently at rest and during movement
Improves mitochondrial function (your body’s cellular energy factories)
Enhances insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation
Recovery and Performance
Increases ability to recover between high-intensity efforts
Supports endurance, movement economy, and stamina
Reduces inflammation and oxidative stress over time
Fat Loss & Longevity
Associated with improved biological aging markers and mitochondrial health
Burns fat without over-stressing the nervous system or spiking cortisol
Preserves muscle while improving metabolic health
Zone 2 Training Protocols
Duration:
Start with 30 minutes and work toward 45–60 minutes per session.
Frequency:
Aim for 3–5 sessions per week, depending on your goals and training background.
Intensity:
The simplest way to find an approximate Zone 2 is via what’s known as the “Talk Test” where during cardio exercise, you can talk in full sentences, but you’re not breathing effortlessly.
More specifically, it falls around:
60–70% of max heart rate
2–3 on a 1–10 perceived effort scale
Lactate threshold under 2 mmol/L (if testing)
Keep in mind that the “Talk Test” is no replacement for the best-in-class tools such as Lactate Threshold Testing and VO2 Max (more on both of these shortly!).
Modality:
Any aerobic activity works — walking, jogging, cycling, rowing, hiking, swimming — as long as you can sustain it at the appropriate intensity for a prolonged time.
Finding the Zone—Andrew Browning leads a lactate threshold test with an Optimization Client at Clay Henderson to pinpoint optimal Zone 2.
Zone 2 for Different Populations
Athletes
Use Zone 2 to build an aerobic base that supports performance in all energy systems.
Increases endurance, improves recovery between sets, and buffers high-intensity sessions.
Older Adults
Prioritizes heart and mitochondrial health while being joint-friendly.
Can be adapted to walking, biking, or pool work to reduce risk of injury.
Critical for improving glucose control and preserving cognitive health.
Women
Especially beneficial during peri- and postmenopausal transitions to improve metabolic health and reduce central fat gain.
Can be timed with menstrual cycle phases — lower intensity during the luteal phase, for instance, when energy levels may dip.
Supports hormonal balance and helps mitigate insulin resistance.
Zone 2 is the Foundation
Here’s how to integrate it:
HIIT / Strength Days: Use Zone 2 on alternate days to promote recovery.
Mobility Work: Consider combining with light movement or walking to create restorative sessions.
Overtraining Prevention: Too much high-intensity work can lead to burnout, poor sleep, or hormone dysregulation — Zone 2 offsets that stress.
“If HIIT and strength are the flashy headliners, Zone 2 is the roadie making sure the show doesn’t fall apart.” — Andrew Browning, Coaching Director
Tools for Zone 2 Success
How to Monitor:
Heart Rate Monitors: Chest straps (Polar, Garmin) are more accurate than wrist-based options.
Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE): 2–3 out of 10. You should be able to talk but not sing.
Lactate Testing (Advanced): Devices like Oval can help pinpoint precise thresholds.
Helpful Apps & Devices:
Moxy Monitor: Measures muscle oxygenation for advanced athletes
TrainingPeaks: Great for long-term tracking and workouts
Zone 2 Insights from the Clay Care Team
Maggie Riemenschneider, PA-C “For my clients struggling with energy crashes or blood sugar swings, Zone 2 training often becomes a game-changer. It’s one of the most underutilized tools for supporting hormonal balance and restoring baseline resilience — especially for women dealing with perimenopause or adrenal dysfunction.”
Andrew Browning, Coaching Director “Most people overestimate how intense Zone 2 should feel. You should be able to hold a conversation, breathe through your nose, and finish the session feeling like you could do more. This isn’t weakness — it’s strategy.”
Dr. Allen Gorman, Medical Director “Zone 2 taps into mitochondrial adaptation — this is where the real metabolic magic happens. After educating patients on Zone 2, I notice that some are underwhelmed by it, but I’m telling you, it’s the base of energy efficiency and longevity.”
Written by Andrew Browning, Coaching Director @ Clay Health & Care
Andrew Browning is a performance coach and educator with nearly two decades of experience in training, teaching, and behavior change. As Clay’s Coaching Director, he combines deep knowledge in exercise physiology, metabolic health, and recovery with a passion for helping people build sustainable habits that fuel performance at every level.
Maggie Riemenschneider is a nurse practitioner with a holistic and personalized approach to care. Drawing on her background in primary care, functional medicine, and women’s health, she helps patients uncover the root causes of their symptoms and empowers them to take charge of their long-term health.
