Generally speaking, exercise intensity can be categorized into either light, moderate, or vigorous. Light intensity means your breathing is relatively normal, moderate intensity means your breathing is a little faster/heavier, and vigorous intensity means your breathing is heavy.

The simplest way to help us determine our exercise intensity (and keep ourselves honest about how hard we're working!) is called the “Talk Test.”

Light intensity is when you’re able to sing during an exercise. If you can sing, that means it’s not physically hard for you to do. [Let's try this out...]

If you can’t sing, but you can still talk and mostly carry on a conversation during an exercise, just taking a breath after a sentence or so, you are working at a moderate intensity. [Let’s try this out...]

If you need to stop every few words to catch your breath during an exercise, you’re working at a high, or vigorous, intensity.

If you’re more data-driven or want to be more precise, then measuring intensity via heart rate is a great option. We all have a heart rate range that is specific to us that will indicate what intensity we are working at. First, we'll need to know your resting heart rate. [Let's measure your pulse and then calculate this together...]

There are certain situations in which heart rate is not going to be an accurate tool to measure intensity. One such situation is if you're taking a commonly-prescribed type of medication known as a beta blocker. Beta blockers blunt the heart rate response to exercise, so heart rate won’t change as much when you’re exercising, even if you’re working hard. Other medications such as calcium channel blockers and antiarrhythmics can also slow down heart rate as well. 

Exercise intensity in these scenarios is best measured using a “Rating of Perceived Exertion” scale, or RPE for short.

If you rate yourself at a 5-6 out of 10, this suggests you are working at a moderate intensity level. If you rate yourself at a 7-8+ out of 10, this suggests you are working at a vigorous intensity level.

Although the RPE scale is a valuable tool to measure intensity for individuals taking medications that may blunt heart rate response to exercise, remember that anyone can use it. Especially if you’re exercising and don’t have a means to measure heart rate at the moment (or want to talk or sing to yourself!), using the RPE scale is a great option.

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