Expert: Brandon Briggs, MS - 6/13/2008

Question
I was wondering if high-intensity exercise is really better for you than low-intensity?  It seems like you hear in the news more often about someone having a heart attack, or dying, after doing some high-intensity exercise, like say running.  You even hear of people that have heart attacks after something like jogging.  You never hear of that happening with someone doing low-intensity exercises.  You hear of people in perfect health, who've been healthy all their life, never had a heart condition, are skinny, exercise every day, and all of a sudden have a heart attack after doing some high-intensity exercise.  It's scary, and it makes you think if doing high-intensity exercise is really any good for you, and if it's worth it to do.  It seems like there's more risk associated with it.  Even if you look at people living past 100 around the world, most of them never did any kind of high-intensity exercising, but rather low-intensity exercises on a daily basis.  Why then do people continue to do high-intensity exercising?  Isn't it detrimental to your health?  What should you really do then?  Thanks very much for your help.

Answer
Exercise intensity depends on the individual. What may be a low intensity for me could be a high intensity for someone else. The reason most people exercise at the wrong intensity is they don't understand their parameters. For instance they don't know the correct target heart rate or RPE rating to exercise. Exercising at the wrong intensity can be detrimental to your health, because it can place unnecessary stress on your heart and joints. My advice is to plan your intensity based on your target heart rate. If you are not sure what that may be seek help from a qualified exercise professional. Using RPE or rating of perceived exertion is also a great way to determine intensity. The Borg RPE scale is a 6-20 scale. Think of a rating of 6-7 as an equal intensity of sitting in a chair watching TV, and a 19-20 as complete exhaustion. Recommendations are exercise at a 12-14 rating, this represents moderate intensity. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that we get at least 30 min of moderate intensity exercise most days of the week. Take a look at the RPE scale here www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/measuring/perceived_exertion.htm

Hope this helps, and please feel free to contact me for further information about this topic.

In Good Health,

Brandon