Are You Working To The Right Effort Level During Cardio?
Whether it’s hopping on the rowing machine for a warm up, pushing yourself with some running intervals on the treadmill or just trying to increase your daily activity, cardio has many benefits for the mind and body - but are you working hard enough for your goal?
Cardio has many benefits for the body including:
improved endurance and fitness
improved heart health
preventing risk of diseases including heart disease and diabetes
weight management
So how do we know if we are working at the right effort level when we hop on the treadmill? We’ve put together a simple guide for choosing your intensity levels…
The Talk Test
The talk test is a really simple way to determine whether you are working at the correct effort level.
Warm Up Level - for a warm up we would expect you to be working at light to moderate intensity, therefore being able to hold a conversation comfortably whilst moving.
Higher Intensity Work - When looking to push yourself more, you shouldn’t be able to hold a normal conversation, you should maybe be able to say a few words at a time, pausing to catch your breath when needed. If you are trying to push at a higher intensity and you can still chat easily, you will need to up the resistance or effort level of the machine.
2. RPE
RPE or ‘Rate of Perceived Exertion’ is another good way to determine your effort level although can be seen as unique to each individual so may not be as widely used.
The RPE scale goes from 1-10 with 1 being the lowest effort (as if you weren’t doing anything) and 10 being the highest effort level (you physically cannot do anymore).
For a warm up we would expect an RPE of 5-6 Moderate Intensity.
For sessions where you want to push harder we would expect an RPE of around 7-9 dependant on the style of session (for example, an interval session could range to an RPE of 9 when you are working and an RPE of 5-7 when you are resting).
3. Heart Rate Zones
Heart Rate zones are becoming one of the most popular ways to measure effort level and with the technology we all have available, you could say it’s one of the easiest ways, although it’s not always 100% accurate so you should always take it with a pinch of salt.
We would expect the following for both a warm up and intensive cardio:
Warm Up and Cool Down: 50-60% of maximum Heart Rate
Moderate Intensity: 70-80% of Maximum Heart Rate
Hard Intensity: 80-90% of Maximum Effort Heart Rate
To read more on heart rate zones we have a whole article giving more detail which you can read by clicking the link at the bottom of this article.
To sum up, there are a number of different ways to monitor effort level, the main thing to note is what effort level you should be aiming for during your warm up, main session and cool down. Looking for more information? You can contact our trainers by visiting our contact page.
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