It is important for athletes to know how much effort they are exerting during exercise for several reasons:
1) Avoiding sports injury – over training or training above ones limit is a sure recipe for injury.
2) Over training or Under training both cause a lessening of your ability. The trick is to train just right.
3) A weekly training program should be tailored in such a way that on the one hand is not too easy but on the other hand does not pose a too difficult challenge for an athletes certain ability level. If one knows exactly how much effort they are putting into a training cession, then they can build an effective weekly program.
Training at an appropriate effort has many advantages for an athlete
There are two very easily applied, free, non – invasive ways to measure effort during exercise. These are the Borg scale and the Talk test.
Borg scale
The Borg scale is a 15 point scale (between 6 and 20) that measures the intensity of an aerobic physical effort. The easiest effort is given a score of “6″ while an effort so difficult one has to stop is deemed “20″.
Amazingly enough, the Borg scale is so accurate that it has been proven that there is an excellent correlation between the subjective perception one has of an aerobic effort and the true effort he/she is exerting as measured by objective means. What this actually means is that if one feels how hard an effort is for him/her they do not really need anything more in order to achieve any physical goal. The Borg scale is actually as accurate as combining a high tech heart rate monitor and a measurement of ones own anaerobic threshold (lactic acid threshold).
The Borg Scale:
6 – 20% effort
7 – 30% – Very, very light effort (rest)
8 – 40%
9 – 50% – Very light (easy walking)
10 – 55%
11 – 60% – Fairly light
12 – 65%
13 – 70% effort – Somewhat hard, steady pace. This is getting close to the anaerobic threshold
14 – 75% – Exercising somewhere between 13 and 14 by the Borg scale should be just under the anaerobic threshold
15 – 80% – Hard effort
16 – 85%
17 – 90% – Very hard
18 – 95%
19 – 100% effort – Very, very hard. The person is exercising “all out”
20 – Exhaustion
How is the Borg scale used in training?
It does not take too much effort to get acquainted with the Borg scale and train by it. Training between 13 – 14 should be close to ones personal anaerobic threshold
Advantages of the Borg Scale:
A) By using the Borg scale and not an external heart rate monitor, one gets more in touch with their bodies and this might help plan further training and prevent injury.
B) The Borg scale prevents the need for an external measuring device.
C) The Borg scale helps one to use generalized training programs and tailor them for themselves.
Talk test
Another easy to use method to test for the difficulty of an exercise is the “talk test”. An easy exercise allows you to sing while performing it (for instance strolling down the park). During a moderate level of exertion you can talk comfortably and during a difficult exercise you can just breath and smile… There should be no pain in your chest or during breathing.
