Heyo, so as you all probably know by now (if you pay even the slightest bit of attention to my rambling (wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t)), I like to walk. I like to walk for relatively long distances, which takes me quite a bit of time.

A while ago, I was thinking that there’s probably a name for that type of exercise—doing something relatively “mild” but doing it for a long time.

Turns out there is: LISS cardio.

“LISS” stands for “Low Intensity, Steady State.” Basically, you do an activity that raises your heart rate to about 60% of your max heart rate and then continuing to do that activity for at least 45 minutes.

(I do it for about 240 minutes, but I’m bad at moderation.)

It’s kind of the opposite of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), during which you hit 90% of your max heart rate during short intervals, then take short “break” intervals in between. I used to do HIIT when I first started working out at UBC. I’d get on the elliptical machine, go at a moderate pace with little resistance, and then crank up the resistance for a minute and a half every three minutes. This worked really well for 30-minute workouts, but I don’t think a 30-minute workout could make me feel worked out anymore, no matter what I did during the time. I need to be exercising for a long period of time to feel like I’m getting anything from it.

But yeah! LISS is great. My resting heart rate is in the 40 BPMs most of the time (my Garmin says my resting average is 47, but I don’t have my Garmin on all the time) and I feel like I have really good cardiovascular endurance. My heart rate still shoots up when I go up hills and stuff (~130-140 BPM), but very quickly comes back down to normal.

I’d say it’s the LISS.