Exercise Intensity - How Hard Should I Be Exercising?
Dateline: 07/11/00
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EXERCISE INTENSITY - HOW HARD SHOULD I BE EXERCISING?
You should perform cardiovascular (heart and lungs, etc) exercise at lower intensities for longer periods to burn fat. You should exercise at a moderate to intense level for shorter periods of time for aerobic fitness. These are two competing theories people have when it comes to cardiovascular exercise like the treadmill, stairmaster, aerobics class, walking, running, etc. Beginners and those suffering from certain health conditions will most likely start out at a low intensity and gradually build themselves up to greater intensities. What about those who have no restrictions and have advanced past the beginner level? Let us look at each theory and explore their advantages and disadvantages. You will need to know how to tell how hard you are exercising to put this information to use. Did you know people think you shouldn't even perform cardiovascular exercise at all? I will talk about these theories as well.
Lower Intensity (never pushing it, always able to talk normal)/Longer Periods
The advantages are:
-
Beginners and people with health conditions can exercise safely, burn fat, improve their endurance, increase bone density, and strengthen their heart safely.
- Less risk of injury for beginner, intermediate and advanced exerciser.
- Easier to monitor intensity.
The disadvantages are:
-
Your heart, other muscles and bones will adapt to the low amount of intensity and will eventually not progress as much without increased intensity.
- You may get bored working out at the same amount of intensity all the time.
- Takes more time away from other things.
Higher Intensity (pushing your limits in a safe manner, may not be able to talk normal periodically)/Shorter Periods
The advantages are:
- With sufficient intensity, you can get more done in less time.
- You can increase your cardiovascular endurance and strengthen your heart, muscle and bones at a much faster pace and do it on a continual basis with increased intensity.
- Increasing your intensity and then decreasing it periodically throughout your workout may keep it more interesting for you.
The disadvantages are:
- There is a greater risk of serious injury from falls, strains, sprains, etc.
- You may be exercising so intense that it could be harder for you to check your pulse, etc.
The main reason for these two conflicting theories is the burning of the fat. Most people today really don't care about strengthening their heart and increasing their aerobic endurance. At lower intensities your body will use a higher percentage of fat for fuel than carbohydrates. People believe that they will burn more fat by exercising at a low intensity for a longer period of time (usually 45min to an hour). This is just not true in most cases. Lets just say I burn 55% of calories burned performing low to moderate intensity exercise for thirty minutes are from fat, and 45% of calories from performing moderate to high intensity during exercise for thirty minutes are burned from fat. If I find that I burn 840 calories performing on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity and 1260 calories at an intense level, I have burned 462 calories from fat performing at a moderate intensity and 567 calories from fat with high intensity. So you see that by gradually increasing your intensity, you can burn more fat and continue to strengthen your heart and build aerobic endurance.
You should remember that this is a gradual process, and you shouldn't push yourself too fast. You might want to try interval training. If I was exercising on a stairmaster, I could go on level 4 for 45 seconds (hypothetically, this is very intense for me) and switch back to level 2 for one minute. I would switch back and forth like this throughout my workout and so on. I would do this after I had a good warm up.
Cardiovascular exercise causes you to lose too much lean muscle.
If you don't eat enough calories, this will inevitably be true for you. If you increase your caloric intake, you won't see as much muscle loss. I experienced quite a bit of weight and muscle loss playing competitive basketball in college. It was no wonder considering I was playing three hours of basketball everyday but only eating three meals. I transferred to a school my senior year that kept the cafeteria open throughout the day. I made sure I was eating every 2-3 hours and what do you know. I retained a lot more muscle and weight. Your increase in calories should come from healthy food and not all from one sitting.
Cardiovascular exercise is dangerous and shouldn't be performed at all!
This is a ludicrous statement and should be ignored in my opinion. All forms of exercise and daily activities are dangerous in some way or another. Weight training alone cannot strengthen the heart or improve ones aerobic endurance (playing with your child continuously without feeling like you are going to faint) as efficiently as cardiovascular exercise.
For additional information on cardiovascular/aerobic exercise, you can read the following articles.
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