Are You Lifting Heavy Enough?

When attending a session with a Physiotherapist or Exercise Physiologist chances are you’ll be prescribed a set of exercises as a part of your rehabilitation to help you achieve your goals.

The FITT acronym is commonly used when It comes to exercise prescription this refers to:

• F: Frequency refers to how often you are to do the exercise such as the amount of sets and reps, and how many days per week you should do the exercises
• I: Intensity refers to how hard the exercises while your doing them
• T: Time reflects the amount of time per day you should be doing the exercise
• T: Type refers to what the purpose of the exercise is and how it is relevant to your condition and goals

Most commonly it seems that it is the intensity component of exercise prescription that Physiotherapists and their patients struggle to get right so therein lies the question: Are you lifting heavy enough?

There are a number of ways you can measure the intensity of an exercise while you are doing it

Rate of perceived exertion (RPE):

The level of intensity one feels during physical activity or exercise scored on a scale of 0-10. This is based on physical sensations you feel during the exercise such as muscle fatigue, increased heart rate, breathing rate and sweating.

Reps in Reserve (RiR):

Reps in reserve is an estimation of how many more reps you feel you could have performed after completing a set of an exercise

An example of how RPE and RiR correlate with exercise intensity is shown in the table below

After performing a set of an exercise, try grading your rate of perceived exertion and how many reps you have in reserve to see what intensity you are working at. If you find yourself in the light intensity range then this may be a sign that the load in the exercise is too low. Make sure you let your Physiotherapist or Exercise Physiologist know so they can progress the exercise accordingly. Lastly it is also important to note that certain exercises, such as those performed in the early stages of injury, may be designed to be performed at a light intensity.