RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion

RPE

Fitness conditioning is improved ONLY IF you increase your exertion during the aerobic/anaerobic exercise. Each day estimate how hard you feel your exercise workload is. This feeling should reflect your total amount of exertion and fatigue, combining all sensations and inner feelings of physical stress, effort and fatigue. Focus on the entire body. Try not to underestimate or overestimate your feeling or exertion. Be as accurate as you can.
The RPE Scale gives a quantitative identification of the feeling of fatigue.It indicates a subjective sensation of effort. These feelings of fatigue are very highly correlated with heart rate,

RPE SCALE:

6 - 7 very, very light exertion 8 - 9 very light exertion 10 - 11 fairly light exertion 12 - 13 somewhat hard exertion 14 - 15 hard exertion 16 - 17 very hard exertion 18 - 19 very, very hard exertion20

Training zone is 12-16 on the scale. You must be working at this level to be receiving cardiorespiratory benefit from the exercise. This intensity approximates an intensity of 60-80% of the Target Heart Rate Range using the Heart Rate Reserve method discussed in another fitness article.