We know exercise is good for us as the health benefits of it are hard to ignore. Most moderate activities will improve your life by helping prevent or lose weight gain, improves mood, boosts energy, promotes better sleep, puts the spark back into your sex life and is just plain fun. For most people, exercise is safe unless a person has a medical condition where the risks outweigh the advantages physical activity provides.

When exercising, how can you judge how much effort you’re putting into or how hard your workout is? There is a way to assess the exertion you are doing using broad categories or what is known as categorization, called “perceived exertion.” 

Using perceived exertion is a great tool when you are first beginning an exercise regimen to get yourself in better shape.  It is also a method of helping you to exercise safely so that you are not straining muscles, your heart, breathing or any other aspect of your body beyond what it is capable of doing at that time. 

As your fitness improves, you will find that your perception of an activity changes.  What once used to be challenging, has become much easier.  As an example, you may have originally started out being able to walk at a light intensity for only 10 minutes but a month later, 10 minutes is easy and you are walking at a moderate intensity for up to 20 minutes with no problems. 

Below are the different levels of perceived exertion.  If you’re new to exercise, start off at a level you feel comfortable at aiming for a moderate pace.  To avoid injury, it is always best to work up slowly to more vigorous activities.  Higher-intensity activities will raise your chances for muscle or joint injury butworse, could cause an issue with any serious heart problems you may have.  Always discuss with your doctor your plans for starting an exercise program to get their approval and advice.

Levels of perceived exertion

·         Light intensity - If the intensity is light it will feel easy and you can breathe easily and are warming up but not sweating, and are able to talk or sing with no problems.

  ·         Light to moderate intensity - If the intensity is light to moderate it will feel like you’re working but not too hard and you are breathing easily, sweating lightly, and still find it easy to talk or sing

  ·         Moderate intensity - If the intensity is moderate it will feel like you are working and your will be breathing faster and starting to sweat more – you will be able to talk but not able to sing.

·         Moderate to vigorous intensity - If the intensity is moderate to vigorous you are really working hard and you will be huffing and puffing, sweating and able to talk in short sentences but concentrating more on exercise than conversation.

  ·         Vigorous intensity - If the intensity is vigorous you are working very hard to the point of becoming exerted and you will be breathing hard, sweating and finding it difficult to talk.