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"Trainers Edge" page on our website is written by us or
collected by other information sources. We hope you find them helpful
in your own training, but please remember that this is just information.
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"Fitness Measurements
- Part I" from the folks at Super Future
Fitness |
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Tuesday, January 10th 2006: Gym members are often
a bit confused when it comes to determining workout intensity,
progress and results. I would like to provide some guidance
here with regard to aerobic exercise, resistance training
and exercise as a whole.As I stated in my first Trainer's
Edge column, aerobic exercise commonly referred to as cardiovascular
or cardio exercise should be performed for 30minutes 3-5 times
a week. To determine the level necessary to effectively train
the heart, it has become customary since the early 1970s to
use the formula below:
- 220-your age x .7 for the lower end of the aerobic zone
- 220-your age x .85 for the higher end of the aerobic zone.
A heart rate monitor is a good way to monitor your heart
rate while exercising and many provide an average exercise
heart rate as well as current rate. Otherwise take your pulse
by putting you a finger or fingers on the side of the neck
for 15 seconds and multiply the result by 4. SFF plans to
have heart rate monitors for sale in the near future. Ask
about them at the front. For some people the method above
may be less accurate than determining your Rate of Perceived
Exertion (RPE). The following explanation from the Center
for Disease Control explains
how to calculate RPE
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"Instructions for Borg Rating of Perceived
Exertion (RPE) Scale
While doing physical activity, we want you to rate your perception
of exertion. This feeling should reflect how heavy and strenuous
the exercise feels to you, combining all sensations and feelings
of physical stress, effort, and fatigue. Do not concern yourself
with any one factor such as leg pain or shortness of breath,
but try to focus on your total feeling of exertion.
Look at the rating scale below while you are engaging in
an activity; it ranges from 6 to 20, where 6 means "no
exertion at all" and 20 means "maximal exertion."
Choose the number from below that best describes your level
of exertion. This will give you a good idea of the intensity
level of your activity, and you can use this information to
speed up or slow down your movements to reach your desired
range.Try to appraise your feeling of exertion as honestly
as possible, without thinking about what the actual physical
load is. Your own feeling of effort and exertion is important,
not how it compares to other people's.
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Look at the scales and the expressions and then
give a number:
6 No exertion at all
7
Extremely light (7.5)
8
9 Very light
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17 Very hard
18
19 Extremely hard
20 Maximal exertion
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9 corresponds
to "very light" exercise. For a healthy person,
it is like walking slowly at his or her own pace for some
minutes
- 13
on the scale
is "somewhat hard" exercise, but it still feels
OK to continue.
- 17
"very hard" is very strenuous. A healthy person
can still go on, but he or she really has to push him- or
herself. It feels very heavy, and the person is very tired.
- 19
on the scale is an extremely strenuous exercise level.
For most people this is the most strenuous exercise they
have ever experienced.
Borg
RPE scale
© Gunnar Borg, 1970, 1985, 1994, 1998
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A simpler scale for
measuring RPE often used and useful for spinning, at SFF, for
example, is the following:
1 Rest
2 Very light
3 Light
4 Fairly light
5 Somewhat hard
6
7 Hard (heavy)
8
8.5 Very hard
9
9.5 Extremely hard
10 Maximal exertion
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Many of the "cardio" machines in the gym have what is called
a fat burning or weight loss zone.
This can be misleading. It is true that when you are in the "fat
burning zone" you are burning more fat calories as a percentage of
total calories. When you are in the aerobic zone. you are working harder
and burning more calories overall which will result in greater weight
loss. The most important thing to remember is that exercising at a higher
intensity is better than exercising at a lower intensity when it comes
to burning calories.
In addition to monitoring heart rate or using the rate of perceived exertion,
you can also use the talk test.
Below is an explanation of the talk test again from the CDC:
"The talk test method of measuring intensity is simple. A person
who is active at a light intensity level should be able to sing while
doing the activity. One who is active at a moderate intensity level should
be able to carry on a conversation comfortably while engaging in the activity.
If a person becomes winded or too out of breath to carry on a conversation,
the activity can be considered vigorous."
This is a subjective method and there are varying explanations of it
but the explanation above is the simplest.
In my next Trainer's Edge Column, I'll talk about ways of measuring exercise
progress and results...
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