| In cycling there are several ways to gauge how hard | | | | with heart rate. |
| you are working. The first and most common method | | | | Level Effort |
| is heart rate monitoring. The second, less common but | | | | 1 Very Light |
| just as effective, is perceived exertion. There is also a | | | | 2 Light |
| third called power monitoring but most cyclists do not | | | | 3 Moderate |
| have access to this kind of sophisticated equipment. | | | | 4 Hard |
| What many cyclists don't know is that heart rate isn't | | | | 5 Very Hard |
| as accurate a gauge as many people would like to | | | | 6 Maximal |
| think. In this post we will discuss why this is so as well | | | | A common way to judge perceived exertion is by |
| as why perceived exertion, in many instances, can | | | | creating a chart using the numbers of perceived |
| actually prove to be a more accurate gauge. | | | | exertion. Each time you workout you want to give the |
| Heart rate monitoring tells you just that, how fast your | | | | session a number coinciding with an exertion level from |
| heart is pumping. If you take a sedentary person off of | | | | the chart. It takes a few weeks of various exercises |
| the couch, put them on a bike and tell them to go at a | | | | to get the feel of each level, but once you get a |
| decent clip for five minutes, by the end their heart rate | | | | general idea the chart will become an invaluable training |
| will have raised drastically, even though they may not | | | | tool. |
| be working that hard. On the other hand you can take | | | | For example, when you write up your weekly training |
| a very fit athlete and have him pedal at 120 RPMs for | | | | schedule instead of putting just 1 hour Tuesday, 5 |
| five minutes at a decent resistance and his heart rate | | | | hours Wednesday etc. you can put 1 hours Tuesday |
| only increase slightly, even though he is putting forth a | | | | at level 4, 5 hours Wednesday at level 3. This method |
| great effort. To overcome this discrepancy many elite | | | | is a lot easier than monitoring heart rate but just as |
| cyclists prefer to use perceived exertion in conjunction | | | | effective in training. |