February 6, 2012
One of the most common fitness questions is how intensely someone should exercise in order to reap all of the benefits of a cardiovascular workout.
One of the easiest ways to monitor your exercise intensity, no equipment required, is using your rate of perceived exertion (RPE). When you use a scale such as this, you take into account both the physical and mental perception of how the exercise is making your body feel.
The American College of Sports Medicine, the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world, redesigned the original RPE scale, to a scale from 0-10, with zero being no effort at all and 10 being very, very stong (maximum effort).
Between 5 and 7 the efforts are strong and very strong. This is a good range to aim to be in throughout the majority of the following treadmill workout.
Please note that in the following workout, the speeds are simply guidelines (if you are not comfortable jogging/running, ensure you are walking at a fast pace).
The first five minutes should serve as a warm up. Then use your perceived exertion to guide you through the workout, increasing or decreasing the speed accordingly.
Gauging your personal perceived exertion level should be completely independent of the given pace at which you are walking/running; it all depends on how you are feeling as you are working at a given intensity. Your goal for the workout is to achieve the recommended perceived exertion levels.
Perform the following workout 2-3 times each week for the next four weeks. You will begin to notice that you will need to increase your speed to be able to reach the suggested perceived exertion level.
I encourage and recommend that you increase your speed as you improve - this helps your body to obtain the maximum benefits of the exercise session. This indicates that your cardiovascular system is improving and your body is becoming more efficient at the exercise.
Minutes 1-5, incline 1.0, speed 3.5, Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) 3-4
Minutes 5-10, incline 1.0, speed 6.5, RPE 5-6
Alternate the following every 2 minutes for 12 minutes: incline 1.0, speed 2 min at 6.0 and 2 min at 7.0, RPE 6-7 at first speed and 7-8 at second speed.
Minutes 22-27, incline 5.0, speed 4.0, RPE 6-7
Minutes 27-30, incline 1.0, speed 3.5, RPE 3-4
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