The workout high

Sachin kalra

Exercise intensity refers to how hard your body is working during physical activity. Your health and fitness goals, as well as your current level of fitness, will determine your ideal exercise intensity. Exercising at the correct intensity can help you get the most out of your physical activity.  

When you are doing aerobic activity, such as walking or biking, exercise intensity correlates with how hard the activity feels. Exercise intensity is also reflected in your breathing and heart rate, whether you are sweating, and how tired your muscles feel. Intensity can be monitored in several ways. The easiest way is your perception of how hard the exercise is and how hard you are breathing. Typically, exercise intensity is described as low, moderate or high.

Low level

Some of your daily physical activities can be categorised as low intensity exercise. Taking your dog for a walk, going for a leisure stroll in the park or indulging in some light gardening are all examples. To measure perceived exertion, observe your breathing patterns and other outward effects, like sweating. Low intensity exercise increases your heart rate, but not to the point that you have to breathe heavily.

On a scale of 1-10, low intensity exercise would rank within 4 to 6. Your heart rate during this type of activity would fall between 40-60% of your maximum heart rate (220-your age). You should feel comfortable enough that you can continue the activity for a long period of time.

Moderate mode 

Experts often recommend moderate exercise for improved health and weight loss. Brisk walking, cycling with moderate resistance, water aerobics, yoga are all moderate intensity activities. When you are participating in moderate intensity exercise, you should feel like you are working but not working so hard that you need to quit in the next few minutes. On a perceived exertion scale of 1-10, you should feel like you are working at a level of 6-7. The benefit of moderate activity is that it allows you to maintain your calorie burning session for a longer period of time. To stay healthy, adults aged 19-64 should try to be active daily and should do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, and strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).  

High zone

Running, speed walking, hill walking, climbing stairs and jumping rope are all examples of high intensity activities. A high intensity workout, which is defined as exercises which push your heart rate up to 70% of its maximum or more, is where your heart is working at maximum efficiency. On a perceived exertion scale, you feel like you are working at a level of 8-9. High intensity workouts have been proven to increase metabolism and burn more calories. Experts have found that people who participate in high intensity interval workouts are more successful at losing weight and burning fat. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time exercising, remember that you can get maximum results in a shorter period of time by increasing the intensity of your workout. 

(Kalra is a Chandigarh-based 

fitness expert)