The American College of Sports Medicine recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity cardiovascular exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise per week, or any combination of the two. So what does that mean? Cardiovascular exercise simply means anything that gets your heart rate up. The intensity refers to how hard you are working. You should also try to fit in 2-3 non-consecutive days of resistance training in. So, lifting weights, resistance bands, body-weight exercises all fit into that category.
Intensity Check
The easiest way to determine cardiovascular exercise intensity is by investing in a heart rate monitor and having a professional calculate target heart rate customized for your specific goals. This way you take the perception and guessing out of some questions like: "Am I working hard enough?" or "Is this too much?"
Without a heart rate monitor, rate of perceived excretion (RPE) or the talk test can be simple ways of evaluating how hard you are working. For reference, I've listed a RPE chart below. Generally, you'll want to be working anywhere around an 11 to 16, with ranges from 11 - 13 considered moderate and 14-16 vigorous. Using the talk test, if you can talk but can't sing along with your favorite song then you are working out at a moderate intensity. If you can only utter a few words before gasping for air, that's vigorous exercise and you may want to back off a little if your goal is to go farther! Keep this in mind: If you increase your intensity you should decrease the amount of time you work, or vice versa.
Borg's Category Ratio
6 No exertion at all
7 Extremely light
8
9 Very light
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17
18
19 Extremely hard
20 Maximal Exertion
Intensity Check
The easiest way to determine cardiovascular exercise intensity is by investing in a heart rate monitor and having a professional calculate target heart rate customized for your specific goals. This way you take the perception and guessing out of some questions like: "Am I working hard enough?" or "Is this too much?"
Without a heart rate monitor, rate of perceived excretion (RPE) or the talk test can be simple ways of evaluating how hard you are working. For reference, I've listed a RPE chart below. Generally, you'll want to be working anywhere around an 11 to 16, with ranges from 11 - 13 considered moderate and 14-16 vigorous. Using the talk test, if you can talk but can't sing along with your favorite song then you are working out at a moderate intensity. If you can only utter a few words before gasping for air, that's vigorous exercise and you may want to back off a little if your goal is to go farther! Keep this in mind: If you increase your intensity you should decrease the amount of time you work, or vice versa.
Borg's Category Ratio
6 No exertion at all
7 Extremely light
8
9 Very light
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17
18
19 Extremely hard
20 Maximal Exertion