How hard do I need to exercise?

Monitoring your exercise intensity is an important part of the exercise process because it plays an important role in what your results will look like. If you're like me you've been taught that in order to get a good workout you need to workout hard and sweat! Right? Wrong. Each type of exercise and the intensity you do it at plays an important part and serves a different purpose. For example endurance training vs. interval training. They are completely different ways of training and yet work so well together. If you're training for a marathon (endurance training) it'll be low speed for a long distance and therefore the way to train for it is with long, low speed runs. Interval training, on the other hand, is short, very high intensity bursts followed by long breaks. The reason intervals help with long distance runs is because you are forcing your body into an anaerobic state that causes a high buildup of lactic acid (muscle burn). By training with intervals when you get to that last 10km on your marathon you will have trained your body to push through muscle burn already and as a result you will be able to keep pushing physically.

Low, medium and high intensity exercise all have their place and one is not better than the other. During the average workout you will be working at moderate intensity meaning that it's tough but you're not sweating buckets and out of breath. There are several ways to determine how hard you are working out. They are the “Talk Test,” “Perceived Exertion Scale” and “Monitoring your Heart Rate.”

“The Talk Test” is exactly how it sounds- it's the ability to talk during your workout. The American College of Sport Medicine says “People who are able to comfortably converse during exercise are likely working out at an acceptable intensity.” If you can speak comfortably, you're probably somewhere around the low-middle range of your Target Heart Rate (THR) zone or a level 4-5 on the Perceived Exertion Scale. Experts generally suggest that you shouldn't be breathless during your workout unless it's during a short duration interval type workout and of course if you ever feel dizzy or lightheaded, you should slow down or stop your workout.

“Perceived Exertion Scale” goes hand in hand with the Talk Test. What it does is give you a scale to measure how intensely you're exercising. For most workouts you want to be at around Level 5-6. If you're doing interval training you want your intervals to be around 8-9 and your recovery to be around a 4-5. You won't want to hit level 10 for most workouts and for longer, low intensity workouts stay around a level 5 or lower.

Below are two scales to help you better understand what the different levels look like ...

Level 1: I'm watching TV and eating bonbons.
Level 2: I'm comfortable and could maintain this pace all day.
Level 3: I'm still comfortable, but am breathing a bit harder.
Level 4: I'm sweating a little, but feel good and can carry on a conversation effortlessly.
Level 5: I'm just above comfortable, am sweating more and can still talk easily.
Level 6: I can still talk, but am slightly breathless.
Level 7: I can still talk, but don't really want to. I'm sweating like a pig.
Level 8: I can grunt in response to your questions and can only keep this pace for a short time period.
Level 9: I am probably going to die.
Level 10: I am dead.

Another chart says ...

0 - No exertion at all
1 - Very light exertion
2 - Fairly light exertion
3 - Moderate exertion
4 - Somewhat hard exertion
5 -
6 - Hard exertion
7 -
8 - Very hard exertion
9 -
10 - Very very hard exertion (Maximum)

“Heart Rate” is my favorite way to measure how hard I'm working because it's very accurate. I used to run up a local mountain once a week at a pace that I thought was good for me and my fitness level. However, whenever I was finished I felt like I was going to keel over. Then I learned about heart rate monitors. After learning about heart rate I bought a monitor and on my first run I had to walk most of the time because my heart rate went too high too fast. As I continued running and staying “in zone” I improved so much faster and within 4 runs I could run all the way to the top without stopping faster than before and not only that but I felt good when I got to the top!! Since then I've always kept an eye on heart rate because while the other methods are good, they're not 100% accurate.

If you do have a heart monitor there are 4 basic zones to keep an eye on which are all based off your max heart rate (MHR).

1. Recovery Zone is 50% MHR or less
2. Fat Burning Zone is 50-65% MHR
3. Performance Enhancing Zone 65-85% MHR
4. Anaerobic Threshold 85-100% MHR

Exercising in zone is very important but also very simple so don't stress over it. Follow the guidelines above and if you have any questions talk to me at the office or email me at createdtomove@gmail.com