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Starting your fitness journey can feel like stepping into a world where everyone speaks a different language. Terms like "progressive overload" and concepts like "heart rate zones" might sound intimidating or confusing, but understanding how to measure your workout intensity is actually one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a beginner. Think of measuring intensity as having a GPS for your fitness in that it tells you exactly where you are and helps guide you toward your destination safely and efficiently.
Understanding your training intensity serves as the foundation for making real progress in your fitness journey. When you can accurately gauge how hard you're working, you create the perfect conditions for progressive overload, which is simply the gradual increase in challenge that forces your body to adapt and improve. Without some way to measure your effort, progressing appropriately becomes like trying to throw darts at a dartboard while blindfolded.
Tracking intensity provides you with a valuable record that you can look back on over weeks and months. This data helps you verify that you've been training within your intended ranges and allows you to spot important patterns in your workouts. When you suddenly feel more wiped out than usual after training, logged intensity data can reveal whether there were unusual spikes in effort or too many hard days clustered together that might be pushing you toward overtraining. Without proper tracking, identifying these trends becomes pure guesswork, making it much harder to adjust your program before problems develop.
Having a systematic approach to monitoring your efforts also serves as an early warning system for potential issues. Instead of wondering why you feel more fatigued than normal, you can look at your training logs to understand what might be happening with your training load. Keep an eye out for our upcoming article on essential components of your training log, which will provide you with more guidance for tracking your fitness progress effectively.
Measuring exercise intensity can be very simple and there are a variety of accessible methods available, ranging from completely equipment-free approaches to high-tech monitoring systems. For beginners, four methods stand out to me as particularly practical and effective: Rate of Perceived Exertion, Reps In Reserve, the Talk Test, and heart rate monitoring. I will give examples for all of these as we go, so if you don’t know what any of these mean or how they work, you will by the end of this article.
Low-tech options like Rate of Perceived Exertion and Reps in Reserve require nothing more than your honest assessment of how you feel during exercise and can be used in your training log. The Talk Test gives you a quick objective measure of if you are working hard enough to exceed ventilatory threshold (more on this later). It is typically used for monitoring within the session rather than a tool for tracking, though you could create sessions for yourself with the intensity written as ‘above conversational pace’ or ‘below conversational pace’. These low tech measures are simple but provide incredibly valuable insights into your training stress and can be used immediately without any special equipment. They aren’t as precise as other objective methods of measurement like a one-repetition max or heart rate monitoring, but they are still useful, especially for beginners who just want a barometer for intensity. For those who have access, heart rate monitors offer objective data that proves especially useful for cardiovascular training and high-intensity interval work, giving you concrete numbers to guide your training decisions as you go. We’ll talk about that later at the end of the post.
Rate of Perceived Exertion, usually just abbreviated RPE, functions like your body's internal speedometer for exercise intensity. This subjective measurement uses a simple scale from 1 to 10, where 1 represents the minimal effort of something like sitting still while 10 represents the absolute hardest work you're capable of performing like a one-repetition maximum lift or an all-out sprint where you couldn't possibly do another rep (at maximal weight) or go any faster (tying your best time).
Most of your regular training for both resistance training and cardiovascular training should hover around a 6 or 7 on this scale. These intensities allow you to work at a challenging but sustainable level without burning out or accumulating excessive fatigue that interferes with your daily life or following workouts while still meeting the physical activity recommendations from health departments. During easier recovery weeks your RPE might trend more toward the 4-6 range, giving your body time to adapt and recover from previous training stress. When you reach training peaks or testing phases, intensities might climb to 7-9, with strength assessments like one-repetition maximum tests hitting that full 10 rating.
RPE tends to be less precise for beginners since most exercise-related activities feel challenging when you're new to fitness. Almost everything can seem difficult simply because your body isn't accustomed to the physical demands of structured exercise and graded difficulty. However, the broader your experience with different training intensities becomes, the more accurately you can rate your efforts using this system. This doesn't diminish its usefulness for newcomers though!.
Even with less precision initially, RPE tracking provides valuable information for managing your training. For example, if you consistently report higher RPE scores during sessions designed to be moderate or easy, this pattern suggests you might need an easier week or you should at least consider reducing training loads. When your RPE readings consistently hit 7-8 during workouts programmed for 5-6 intensity, it's a clear signal to reduce weights for resistance training, or train at lower heart rate zones for cardio for several sessions or an entire week.
For this to be effective you must track your exercise with some kind of log. We recommend either going old-school and logging by hand or some kind of computer or app based tracking. On the computer something like Excel or Google Sheets is really helpful since their column and row structure makes it simple to log sets, repetitions, training load or heart rate and things like RPE. You can track RPE for individual sets of an exercise, but it’s also not a bad idea to track session RPE too. Basically, session RPE would be a number you assign to the workout at the end of the session. This is great for tracking intensity of your training for weeks and months. Session RPE is what you would look back on in your log to look for those intensity spikes we mentioned earlier that may cause excessive fatigue.
Building on the concept of RPE, Reps in Reserve (RIR) provides a really useful way to gauge intensity during resistance training without getting bogged down in percentage calculations of your one-repetition maximum (1RM). If you are an absolute beginner you may not have 1RM data for all of your lifts, or you may be exercising at home with limited weight, so this could be a useful tool when used in conjunction with RPE. RIR has you ask yourself a straightforward question after each set: "How many more good-quality repetitions could I have performed before reaching complete muscular failure?" If you finish a set of squats and honestly assess that you could have completed three more reps with proper form, you worked at an RIR of 3 ( RPE of 6-7). If you barely managed to complete your final rep with good technique, you were at RIR 0 or 1 (RPE of somewhere closer to 8-10).
This method is useful for beginners who haven't established their maximum strength levels yet or anyone who finds percentage-based programming intimidating. Instead of calculating whether you're lifting at 75% or 85% of your one-rep max, you simply focus on how close you came to your limit during that specific set. Most effective resistance training occurs in the RIR 1-4 range where you're challenging yourself enough to stimulate muscle growth and strength gains while leaving sufficient reserve to maintain proper form and recover adequately between sessions. An RIR of 3-4 works well for building training volume for muscle growth and dialing in technique, while RIR 1-2 provides the higher intensity needed for significant strength development.
To implement RIR effectively, complete your set with consistent tempo and full range of motion, then honestly evaluate how many more reps you could have performed. If you consistently finish sets feeling like you had many more reps available beyond 3-4 for muscle building or 1-2 for strength building, consider increasing the weight by 2.5-5 pounds or adding repetitions to your set next session. Conversely, if you frequently reach failure before your intended RIR target, reduce the load slightly or decrease the planned repetitions. Like RPE, your ability to accurately estimate RIR improves with experience, but even beginners can use this tool to ensure they're applying appropriate challenges while avoiding the excessive fatigue and increased injury risk that comes from constantly training to complete muscular failure. An example of what this might look like in a program would be Leg Press 3 sets of 10 performed at 4 RIR with an RPE of 6. This would be the very definition of something that is moderate intensity for the average person.
The Talk Test offers another highly accessible method for gauging exercise intensity, specifically during cardiovascular activities. This probably isn’t something you would use for tracking because it’s meant to monitor within a session. This approach evaluates whether you've surpassed your ventilatory threshold by using your ability to speak as an indicator of how hard your cardiovascular system is working.
To understand how this works, let's take a quick look at the concept of ventilatory threshold in simple terms. Imagine your body has an internal sensor that helps your energetic systems determine how it primarily produces energy during exercise. Below this sensor’s threshold, you're using oxygen efficiently, mostly burning fat for fuel, and you can maintain this effort comfortably for extended periods. Once you cross this threshold at higher intensities, your body starts relying more heavily on carbohydrates for quick energy and produces more carbon dioxide as a byproduct, causing you to breathe noticeably harder to expel the excess CO2. This point, where breathing becomes more labored and holding a conversation becomes difficult, represents your first ventilatory threshold (VT1). This is also the point that lactate accumulation starts ramping up but your body can still keep up, unlike your second ventilatory threshold (VT2) which is the point where conversation is no longer possible and your body can’t keep up with lactate clearance (feel the burn!). Fun fact: This idea of fat burning as a primary fuel source is where the ‘fat burning zone’ myth comes from. We can explore why it’s not truly accurate in another article, and it also gets covered in our course.
While you don't need to literally talk or sing during your workout, paying attention to your breathing patterns and conversational ability helps determine whether you're applying appropriate stress to your cardiovascular system. Your natural breathing rhythm serves as a reliable indicator of exercise intensity without requiring any special equipment or complex calculations. If you are trying to do a really simple easy workout, you probably won’t exceed VT1. For example, if you have a basic fitness base and are in good health you shouldn’t be exceeding VT1 for walking on the treadmill and stair climbing on a low setting on the Stair Master. On the other hand, high-intensity interval training will cause you to far exceed your ventilatory threshold.
This concept of the Talk Test connects to the concept of zone based cardio training, which represents different training intensities based on heart rate (but also the talk test for lower zones). A great example is Zone 2 which is a sustainable intensity level that builds aerobic fitness effectively. Zone 2 roughly corresponds to exercising just below your first ventilatory threshold for most people. At this intensity, you should be able to maintain a conversation, though it might require slightly more effort than normal. For example, if I were talking to you on the phone while doing zone 2, you would be able to tell I was exercising but it would still be very easy to understand me. This moderate effort zone is incredibly valuable for building your aerobic base and improving overall cardiovascular health. To connect this to RPE, you’d probably be around a 3 or 4. Remember that this is relative too! For example, someone more fit will have a faster pace at an RPE of 3-4 than someone who is just starting out. A beginner might be moving very slow in comparison to keep their RPE in that range while also staying below VT1 assuming they are attempting to stay in Zone 2.
Heart rate monitors provide objective measurements of how hard your cardiovascular system is working during exercise, removing the guesswork from intensity assessment. This method is best with some form of monitoring device, though you can also use manual methods by finding your pulse on your wrist or neck, counting beats for 15 seconds, and multiplying by four to get your heart rate per minute (or counting for 30 seconds and multiplying by two for slightly better accuracy).
Modern options for heart rate monitoring include smartwatches with optical sensors and specialized monitors that use chest straps. Chest strap monitors generally offer better accuracy overall compared to wrist-based devices, especially during high-intensity intervals or activities with significant arm movement. The importance of measurement precision depends largely on your fitness goals and experience level.
For recreational exercisers, being in the general neighborhood of accurate heart rate readings is good enough for determining whether you're working within specific heart rate zones. You just need a rough idea to gauge if you're exercising hard enough or too hard for your intended workout. As you advance in your fitness journey and your training becomes more sophisticated, measurement accuracy becomes more important because even small deviations can mean the difference between optimal training intensity and either insufficient stimulus for your goal or excessive stress that prevents proper recovery between sessions which leads to not hitting your ideal intensity in those following sessions.
Heart rate zones provide a valuable framework for organizing training intensities based on percentages of your maximum heart rate and it’s arguably one of the most practical ways to use heart rate data from a monitor. You can estimate your maximum heart rate using the simple formula:
Maximum Heart Rate=220−Your Age
For example, a 30-year-old would have an estimated maximum heart rate of 190 beats per minute (BPM), which is from 220−30=190. While this is just an estimate and individual variations exist, it provides a solid starting point for zone-based training. Even though it is not the most accurate, it tends to be the most accessible for beginners. It is worth mentioning that it is least accurate in seniors.
Heart rate zones vary based on what organization you are referencing but generally they break down roughly like this even though a lot of organizations compress these into 2-3 zones:
Zone 1 (Very Light): 50-60% of maximum heart rate represents very light activity suitable for warm-ups, cool-downs, and active recovery sessions. This zone helps prepare your body for more intense work or aids in recovery between harder training sessions. This would be well under the ventilatory threshold.
Zone 2 (Light): 60-70% of maximum heart rate corresponds to light to moderate intensity where you can comfortably maintain conversation as mentioned earlier. This zone is excellent for building aerobic base fitness, improving fat-burning capacity, and developing the foundation for more intense training. Most of your cardiovascular training should occur in this zone. For most people this will still be under the ventilatory threshold or overlapping with it like we mentioned earlier.
Zone 3 (Moderate): 70-80% of maximum heart rate represents moderate to vigorous intensity where talking becomes more challenging but still possible in shorter sentences. This zone improves aerobic power and endurance while still being sustainable for longer periods. This is the zone where talking becomes more challenging and you’ll likely cross VT1.
Zone 4 (Vigorous): 80-90% of maximum heart rate indicates vigorous intensity where conversation becomes very difficult or impossible. This zone develops anaerobic power and speed but requires more recovery time between sessions due to the higher stress placed on your system. At this point you are likely exceeding VT2, in other words: Outright failing the Talk Test and you will likely be feeling a much more significant burn due to your body not being able to keep up with lactate clearance.
Zone 5 (Maximal): 90-100% of maximum heart rate encompasses maximum effort that can only be sustained for short periods. This zone is used primarily for high-intensity interval training and peak power development.
These zones help guide training decisions based on your specific goals. Zone 2 work builds the aerobic engine that supports all other fitness activities. Zone 3 improves your ability to sustain moderate efforts for longer periods. Zones 4 and 5 develop high-end power and speed but should be used sparingly and with adequate recovery to prevent overtraining.
Measuring exercise intensity provides you with the tools to train smarter, make consistent progress, and avoid the common pitfalls that derail many fitness journeys from either overuse injuries or frustration. Rate of Perceived Exertion and Reps in Reserve develops your ability to listen to your body’s internal effort signals. The Talk Test connects breathing patterns to exercise intensity in an intuitive and practical way. Heart rate monitoring delivers more objective data that eliminates subjective bias from our other subjective intensity assessments.
Each method brings unique advantages to your training, and you'll likely find yourself using different approaches depending on the type of workout you're doing and the equipment available.
These four methods we discussed represent some basics of intensity measurement available to fitness enthusiasts and beginners that I thought would be a good starting point. Future articles will explore additional methods such as percentage based training for different resistance training goals, heart rate recovery, and many others. Remember, for the purposes of the tracking and measurement mentioned in this article the goal isn't to become obsessed with numbers but to help you build habits around basic monitoring to help you develop the awareness and tools necessary to make your fitness journey both effective and sustainable.
The Truth About Cardio and Weight Loss: What Every Beginner Needs to Know - This is where we debunk the practicality of the fat burning zone
How Strong Is Strong Enough? A Different Perspective on Measuring Strength - This article piggy backs nicely on some of the broader concepts we discussed like REP and RIR
Why Fitness Assessments Matter: Even If You're Just Working Out for Health - We get into some basic assessments that you can do on yourself. Based on your results you can apply then apply these intensity measures from this article to your training.
