How to Use the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion

By an eHow Contributor The Borg Scale is a subjective evaluation of how hard your body is working at any given point during a workout. It does not require any equipment, just an honest assessment of how hard you re e!erting yourself. "ifficulty# $asy

Instructions
Use the Borg Perceived Exertion Scale %. % &se the Borg Scale of 'erceived $!ertion as a general guideline. It is a self assessment tool used for your own personal benefit. (. ( )ook inward during your workout to get a Borg rating. It is how you feel about the workout you re performing. *. * +actor in all the physiological aspects of your workout to use the Borg Scale of 'erceived $!ertion. ,ow hard your heart is working, how hard your lungs are working, how much you re sweating, how your muscles feel, how your joints feel and how much energy you have to e!ert to keep going are all factors used in the Borg Scale. -. Take into account all these factors of heart rate, respiration, soreness and fatigue and assign a point value to them. .. . /ssign a point value of 0 to (1 of your perceived rate of e!ertion. That is your Borg score. 0. 0

+ind where your Borg value is on the scale to determine how hard you are working and whether you need to increase or decrease your output level. The Borg Scale or 'erceived $!ertion is distributed as follows. /t the bottom of the scale is 0, meaning that there is no e!ertion. Between 2 and 3 is very light e!ertion. $leven is a light level of e!ertion. /s you go up the scale to %., you reach a level of heavy resistance. By the time you reach (1, you are working so hard you cannot sustain it. 2. 2 4now that most e!perts recommend staying at a level around %* to %-. This is a moderate workout and will put you in the fat burning 5one you re targeting. /thletes looking to condition and build endurance and stamina may go beyond that above %., but the "epartment of ,ealth and ,uman Services website has stated that %( to %- is the optimal level for most people 6see 7esources below8. 3. 3 9otice the correlation between Borg Scale score and actual heart rate. $ven though the scale is subjective, there seems to be a strong correlation between how hard you think you re working and your actual heart rate. :. : /ppro!imate your actual heart rate by multiplying your Borg score by %1. If you feel you re at %*, then your heart rate is about %*1 beats per minute 6%* ! %18.