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What is the correct terminology for intensity and effort in exercise?
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[QUOTE="Sean Jackson 01, post: 5485781, member: 595422"] Hello all, Great site...such a cool resource. I am a fitness coach...as in any profession basing what we do on solid science is vital...and exercise practice goes "some way" to doing this...but it has its flaws. Hopefully a coach will talk about work, power and torque etc correctly, and have his clients utilizing the terminology correctly as well. However, two terms in particular seems to be used totally incorrectly. I was hoping to tap into your physics minds to better understand the physics around these terms. I look forward to learning some cool stuff ;) The terms in question are "intensity" and "effort" Let me explain... As a exercise practitioner I might teach you a movement such as a back squat. [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultWZbUMPL8']Back Squat Example Link - Youtube (SFW) [/URL] There are three variables I see here 1 - What I currently call (likely incorrectly) effort 2+3 - And the inverse correlation between weight and the number of repetitions of this movement it takes to exhaust the available energy in the system (the body) So in its most basic form, this may be the weigh and reps you can move before exhausting all the energy available (what's often referred to as working to fatigue or working to "Reps Max") REPS - WEIGHT 1 - 100 kg 5 - 87.5 kg 10 - 75 kg So if we remove all of the names etc we are working with one variable that is constant (100% us of all available energy) and two other variables that are inversely correlated...weight goes up - reps to fatigue go down. In fitness this is referred to as intensity...and it would appear this is being used colloquially...as my understanding of intensity in physics is its a bit of a reach to apply intensity to this situation. The second term is when you program for an individual to not work to maximum effort. For example...I might get you to execute 5 reps of squat, but instead of 87.5 kg which would fully fatigue your energy (mainly the ATP energy system) I might get you to work at 70% of this. This tends to be called effort...i.e. I want you working to 95% effort, or 70% effort...again not a particularly well picked term. So I might ask you to work to 75% intensity (i.e. 75% of your maximum 1 rep weight) but instead of 100% effort (using all energy is system - going to full fatigue) which would be 10 reps, I might get you to work at 70% of this effort, namely 7 reps. From a physics point of view, we are now playing with what was a constant (100% usage of system energy). Can anyone talk intelligently about what to call these terms that are currently probably incorrectly called intensity and effort. I don't imagine there is currently a discrete term that covers this, however much as the term intensity has tried to be hijacked...I'd be open to understanding a physics principle that works in a similar way...3 variables working together in work and system energy usage. I look forward to your thoughts. Sean [/QUOTE]
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