Aside from bulking up fast, burning calories and all, there’s something more to exercising than just hitting the gym hard. It’s the case that if you aren’t doing it well, it could lead to more devastating consequences for your health.
So whether you want to bulk up fast, shed some weight, or engage in a high-intensity workout for the fun of it, there’s the part that says you must play safe. And this is what we’d be considering in this article. All you need to know about strenuous exercises, the inherent dangers and benefits are laid out simply and understandably.
Strenuous Exercise Succinctly Explained
These are also called high-intensity exercises. Stemming from this is the fact that what determines if an exercise routine can be designated as strenuous or rigorous is the intensity of the exercise. In plain words, how hard you work out plus the duration of the exercise makes it strenuous.
Generally, three categories make up the intensity of any exercise session. They are low category; moderate category and strenuous exercises.
An exercise is considered strenuous when you engage 70 to 85percent of your heart rate. Examples of such exercises include:
- Running
- Jumping rope
- Cycling at 10mph or faster
- Walking briskly uphill with a heavy backpack
- Water jogging or running
- Playing basketball
- Running stairs
- Playing squash
When compared with low and moderate exercises, what strenuous exercises do is that it helps you to reach your fitness goals faster than low and moderate exercises.
Low and moderate exercises, on the other hand, are exercises that are easy to sustain for a longer period. You only use below 70 percent of your heart power. Examples of low and moderate exercises include:
- Bicycling at less than 10mph
- Walking briskly
- Shooting baskets in basketball
- Mowing the lawn or raking leaves
- Walking the stairs
Low and moderate exercise can become strenuous if the tempo is turned up and that is quite easy to do. It just takes determination.
Let’s consider the benefits of strenuous exercises
- Higher calorie burn
A high-intensity workout uses more oxygen which helps to burn calories faster. Apart from this, your body retains the excess oxygen to be able to continue with the calorie-burning process even when you stop working out. This helps to improve your metabolism level in the short run.
- Improved heart health
Strenuous exercises impact directly on the heart. It helps to improve blood flow in the body as the heart gets to pump blood faster. This is good for the heart as the possibilities of cardiovascular diseases are eliminated. Other cardiovascular benefits of strenuous exercises include; increased aerobic capacity; blood sugar regulation and diastolic blood pressure.
- Lower risk of mortality
When you engage in high-intensity workouts, the chances are that you would live six to seven years more than your usual life expectancy. Strenuous exercises are good for the heart, it also helps to burn calorie and aids weight loss, so, the chances of living longer is guaranteed.
- Fast weight loss
When you engage in strenuous exercises, the high-calorie burn rate and increased metabolism go a long way in facilitating weight loss at a quick level. Although you will achieve this with low and moderate workouts, it will only take longer.
- Improved mood
Studies show that when you participate in vigorous workouts, it helps to boost your mood.
How to measure the intensity of exercise
- Through your heartbeat rate
This is one way to know if you are engaging yourself in strenuous exercise. You can track your heartbeat rate. For a forty years old person, your heart should beat at 126 to 153bpm during a vigorous exercise.
- The talk test is also effective
Your inability to continue the conversation also signals that you are engaged in a strenuous exercise. If you still find it easy to talk with some breathlessness, you are not exercising at a high intensity. To get there, just increase the pace of your exercise. Another method of checking your exercise intensity is through the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) which monitors your heartbeat, breathing, muscle fatigue, and exertion level.
However, before you indulge in strenuous exercise, consider the following safety tips:
- Be sure that you are medically fit to carry out the exercise; check with a doctor to know about the present state of your medical condition.
- Always stay hydrated
- Never neglect your recovery time so as not to get thrown off-balance while working out
- Build up the intensity at a slow pace; you can begin with low exercises then double up the process gradually.
