Active Aging Week: Fitness facts

Instructions to the Borg Scale

During the workout we want you to rate your perception of exertion, i.e. how heavy and strenuous the exercise feels to you and how tired you are. The perception of exertion is mainly felt as strain and fatigue in your muscles and breathlessness or aches in the chest.

Use this scale from 6 to 20, where 6 means “No exertion at all” and 20 means “Maximal exertion”:

9  Very light. As for a healthy person taking a short walk at his or her own pace.

13 Somewhat hard. It still feels OK to continue.

15 Is hard and tiring, but continuing is not terribly difficult.

17 Very hard. It is very strenuous. You can still go on, but you really have to push yourself and you are very tired.

19 An extremely strenuous level. For most people this is the hardest exercise they have ever experienced.

Try to appraise your feeling of exertion and fatigue as spontaneously and honestly as possible. Without thinking about what the physical load is. Try not to underestimate, nor to overestimate. It is your own feeling of effort and exertion that is important, not how it compares to other people’s. Look at the scale and the expressions and then give a number. You can equally well use even as odd numbers.