Intentional Stress: Workout of the Week

Perceived exertion guidelines for performing physical fitness to train resilience.

At least once a week, I plan an extremely challenging workout that I am going to start sharing in posts under this name. I’m lucky enough to be a coach at a local Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym where I also have functional fitness classes on top of running a local fitness group outside of the gym. Therefore, I usually use one of these workouts in one of those classes. 

Beneficial misery also loves company. 

The beauty is that all of these workouts get programmed based on perceived exertion. Giving a goal on how hard to subjectively go allows for a diverse group of people to uniquely get after it at the same time. I’ve had people from ten to seventy year olds putting in work alongside me while I was actively training to beat a world record in burpees (achieved but has since been beaten) and then bodyweight squats (submitted results and still pending). 

I always create a workout format with particular exercises that all have several modifications. Each participant then determines which exercise modifications they’re going to do and their perceived exertion level. Perceived exertion is essentially intentional effort. Rather than me tell you to give your best effort, having you set a particular exertion level ahead of a workout based on the structure and goals allows one to stay regulated and focused rather than overworked and stressed during any physical challenge. Perceived exertion is going to be unique to the individual and allows for an extremely challenging workout to be done for all ages and fitness levels side by side. 

I really like this pic to demonstrate the different perceived exertion zones. While biometric wearables that measure heart rate can be great for some applications/learning, I love the idea of gauging your own exertion based on subjective factors like the ability to talk or nasal breathe.

50-60%, active recovery. Think walking or performing movements comfortably. 

60-70%, you should ideally be able to carry on a conversation or maintain nasal breathing in and out of the nose.

70-80% exertion should still allow for nasal inhales but most likely have to exhale through mouth from time to time. For speaking, can say up to a sentence.

80-90% you’re starting to have to use mouth breathing just to keep up breathing rate while maybe squeezing in a nasal inhale here and there. Can’t say much more than a word or two.

>90% all mouth breathing and able to say one syllable if needed.

Perceived exertion is an excellent intention to consider in any workout based on your goals of the day. 

As mentioned, I’ll always give a format which will include a time structure and general goals for the style of workout. Every exercise will then have modifications to consider any/all abilities.

It’ll then be your choice regarding perceived exertion and modifications to enable you to successfully complete the workout, potentially learn a new structure, and set goals for the next time you do something similar.

For example, a recent workout was Tabata. Traditionally Tabata is 8 rounds of 20 min of intense work (>80%) followed by 10 seconds of rest. You can do the same exercise for all 8 rounds or alternate between two (which is what we did). Idea is to push yourself as close to as hard as possible and then focus on intentional breathing during 10 sec recovery. You should be struggling by rounds 6-7 if you’re doing it correctly. 

Ideally, one will modify the exercise before dialing back the exertion. That being said, it was hot outside and we did 5 different sets of Tabata following a pretty challenging buy-in workout prior to starting. Therefore, perceived exertion could have been dialed back at any point to prevent complete exhaustion/gassing out.

One can also complete any workout with the intention of making it an active recovery day which means doing any workout format at a comfortable 50-60% perceived exertion level.

I will begin sharing at least one of these workouts a week under this title and have this post tagged as a reference. Every workout will have perceived exertion goals with a structure aimed at a certain adaption such as power, stamina, endurance, or strength. All exercises will have modifications so anyone can ultimately determine how they want to approach the workout. 

There are many great free, downloadable timers. The one I use is called SmartWOD Timer as it has the various workout structures (AMRAP, For Time, Tabata, and EMOM) already available. You just have to modify the time within them.

Something is always better than nothing. These workouts will allow for participation from beginner to elite level athletes that are interested in potentially new workout ideas. I’ll also share my results to encourage others to share theirs too!