VERIFIED CONTENTAuthor: Maciej Szukała

Measuring the intensity of exercise allows you to objectively analyze how hard you are training. It has been known for years that the differentiation of the intensity level of the training performed translates into continuous progress. The correct selection of the load allows for the conscious shaping of specific parameters of the body and motor features. Many athletes train by feeling for years, but this is a method that often leads us astray. How can you measure the intensity of exercise and is there a universal way to do it?

Why do we measure the training load?

Providing muscles, endocrine and nervous systems with stimuli in the form of exercise leads to gradual adaptation of all systems. The muscles slowly get stronger and the heart can work harder. The problem is that adaptation is a physiologically very expensive process. The synthesis of new muscle proteins, reprogramming of the nervous system or secretion of hormones in increased concentrations cost the body a lot of energy.

It is evolutionarily unprofitable. Therefore, the lack of changes in training will sooner or later lead to a stagnation of form first, and then start to cause regression. To be able to control what happens to your body as a result of exercise, you should measure how hard you train. Only then are you able to assess whether the delivered stimuli change over time and allow you to distinguish stages in your plan.

Why is exercise by feeling risky?

Athletes often say that it does not make sense to create a training plan and measure the intensity of exercise, because knowing your body is the best way to program your exercises. This is partly true because not all body signals can be summarized in a table and graph.

Imagine a simple example. If you are weakened or you have had a hard day at work, and the schedule results in running intervals, most likely your subjective feeling of effort will be much greater than your previous experience would suggest. Why?

Each of us has a certain resistance to stressors and reducing it by everyday events makes the training seem more strenuous. It is worth remembering that a good feeling of your own bodyit comes after several years of practicing a given discipline.

Beginners very easily fall into one or the other extreme:

  • train too hard, because they assume that if the muscles do not hurt after training, the effort has no effect,
  • train too lightly, being careful not to expose themselves to overtraining.

The systems described below act as a barometer that will allow you to target your training, achieve the desired results faster and avoid routine fatigue.

Reps in reserve (RIR)

The RIR method is often used in strength or strength endurance disciplines. It can be used by bodybuilders and crossfit trainers.

Its use is based on performing as many repetitions in working (not warm-up) series as to leave a precise number of movements until the muscles fall. For example, 4RIR means you would be able to complete four more repetitions in a given set before needing a rest.

The RIR measurement method is applied in a degressive manner. This means that each week you use a weight that leaves fewer repetitions in reserve. As a starting point you have to take a certain number of repetitions in the working series, e.g. 8. It may look like this:

  • week 1 - 4RIR (you should theoretically be able to do 12 repetitions),
  • week 2 - 3RIR,
  • week 3 - 2RIR,
  • week 4 - 1 RIR,
  • week 5 - 0RIR, the work set is performed until muscle failure, the 8th repetition is the last that you are able to perform with impeccable technique.

At the beginning of your adventure with weights, the RIR method may seem a bit complicated. It also requires feeling, because you should be aware of the weight you are able to use in a given exercise and within the assumed range of repetitions. With a little practice, this diagram will be very precise.

Subjective perception of effort (RPE)

Another method is to refer to the 10-point RPE scale. Sometimes you can also find it under the name of the Borg scale (then it has 20 levels). The RPE scale refers to the increasing symptoms of fatigue. This is a convenient method for measuring your effort in running, cycling or swimming.

Regardless of the methodology adopted, the scheme of action will be the same. The higher the level of exertion you feel, the further you are on the RPE scale. It is assumed that level 0 corresponds to no effort, and level 10 is the maximum intensity of work. Between them he findsyourself:

  • 1 - very light effort,
  • 2-3 - deepened breathing, but still comfortable effort, ease of conversation,
  • 4 - the breathing becomes noticeably deeper and the conversation is possible, although more difficult,
  • 5-6 - breathing becomes heavy, discomfort appears,
  • 7-8 - deep and forced breathing, it becomes impossible to keep the conversation going,
  • 9 - extremely hard effort.

Using the RPE scale allows you to subjectively assign values ​​to a given training (and even each part of it), which makes the method very personalized, but also prone to errors resulting from underestimating (or on the contrary - overestimating) your own abilities.

Very often people who exercise do not want or are unable to mobilize themselves to sufficiently hard effort, at the same time claiming that they have already achieved the maximum result on the scale.

Heart Rate Zones

Using heart rate zones is especially useful in endurance sports, when your heart has enough time to adjust its rhythm to sustained work. In the case of strength disciplines, local muscle fatigue is likely to occur sooner than the heart rate is at an appropriate level.

This method of measuring stress intensity uses your maximum heart rate. It is the individual speed at which the human heart can work and depends on such values ​​as:

  • age,
  • gender,
  • training status.

To accurately determine your maximum heart rate, you should use the stress test offered by some sports laboratories and medical universities. You can also use a heart rate monitor. Many modern watches have specially designed algorithms that can help you determine your maximum heart rate, VO2Max, and lactate threshold.

The simplest method is to use one of the ready-made formulas developed by physiologists over the years. The most popular patterns are:

John Moores University algorithm

  • HRMax=202- (0.55xage) for men,
  • HRMax=216- (1.09xage) for women.

Tanaka's algorithm

  • HRMax=209.6- (0.65xage) for men,
  • HRMax=207.2x (0.65xage) for women,
  • HRMax=205- (0.6xage) for trained people,
  • HRMax=212- (0.7xage) for untrained people.

Fox-Haskell formula (a bit dated, but still many sources refer to it)

  • HRMax=220th century.

Sally Edwards algorithm

  • HRMax=210- (0.5xage) - (0.022x weight) +4 for men,
  • HRMax-210- (05xage) - (0.022x weight)for women.

Once you have established your maximum heart rate, you can train so that your current heart rate does not exceed a certain value. This way you will determine the intensity of the effort. Athletics coaches distinguish 5 training zones, where zone 1 is the least effort and zone 5 is the greatest.

Zone 1 is assumed to be active regeneration (50-60% HRM). These types of workouts help remove metabolites from the muscles and oxygenate tired tissues. Zone 2 (60-70% HRM) is used to improve overall endurance and fat burning.

Zone 3 (70-80% HRM) corresponds to efforts to improve your aerobic fitness.

Zone 4 (80-90% HRM) is for increasing your anaerobic capacity. Finally, zone 5 (90-100% HRM) improves potency and improves neuromuscular activation.

To be able to control your training load in this way, you need to measure your heart rate in real time. For this purpose, it is worth using heart rate monitors equipped with a wrist heart rate sensor or cooperating with the chest belt. The latter method is more accurate, but requires you to wear the heart rate sensor.

Metabolic Equivalency of Task (MET)

If you have ever used an elliptical cross trainer in the gym, you have certainly noticed that many of them calculate the workload using the MET scale. One MET is assumed to be the amount of oxygen consumed by a he althy 40-year-old man sitting motionless for one minute. This value is estimated at 3.5 ml per kilogram of body weight. Every activity you do multiplies this physiological cost, thereby increasing the perceived intensity of the exercise.

If the display shows 10 METs while pedaling the bike, this is equivalent to 35ml of oxygen assuming you maintain a constant intensity for 60 seconds.

In the WHO methodology, which uses the concepts of moderate effort, intense effort, etc., it is assumed that values ​​from 3 to 5.9 MET correspond to the first concept, and values ​​from 5.9 MET upwards relate to the second concept.

Power

Power is a popular parameter for determining work intensity in cycling. It is also used by runners during uphill training, because in this case the physiological changes in the heart will not be dynamic enough to give a reliable result. The power meter calculates how much energy an athlete must put into propelling the bike at any given time. For this, it uses the product of force and distance and divides them by time.

Bike power sensors are most often installed in:

  • rear wheel hub,
  • pedals,
  • crank.

Runners can use either a shoe-mounted module or a watch sensor (some models already have this feature).

Depending on the model, you will encounter single and double sensors, mounted on both pedals. For the latter, supplementary information includes a breakdown of the pressure level for each pedal and the travel balance. This information is important, as long as you like to analyze the technical details of the discipline.

The main advantage of measuring power over heart rate is the ability to precisely control the former value. While the heart rate is influenced by many variables that are often independent (e.g. weather, stress, pressure), power can be controlled with great precision, even over short distances.

Percentage of the maximum weight (% CM)

In bodybuilding, one more method is often used that relates to a certain percentage of the maximum weight. This is a variant of the method that refers to the heart rate zones and HRMax, but in static disciplines.

Its use requires a bit of practice, because you should know what weight in a given exercise is the maximum for you (In a squat it can be 150 kg, but on a flat bench 80 kg!). The maximum weight is defined as one with which you are able to perform only one, technically good repetition without the reproach or help of a training partner.

Once you have established a target value for the selected exercises, you can start to create a training plan.

Usually, where the% CM will be lower, a large training volume (more reps or series) is recommended. On the other hand, where you train with weights close to 80-90% CM, the volume will be smaller and the break time between sets will be longer.

Typically volumetric workouts help to increase cardiovascular endurance and local muscle endurance. On the other hand, intense workouts with a high CM% have a positive effect on the development of strength, muscle mass and power.

Can I change the methods of measuring the intensity of exercise?

Every athlete's body is different and it is not a truism. Each of us will react differently to:

  • training,
  • diet,
  • supplementation,
  • leisure.

Even if we use exactly the same methods, the result may be different. Therefore, it is worth changing load assessment methods on a regular basis. Not all of them will work in every discipline. It is important that the given solution allows the use of the full span of the scale.

Category:

ABC of exercises