How to Use the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion

The Borg Scale is a subjective evaluation of how hard your body is working at any given point during a workout. It does not require any equipment, just an honest assessment of how hard you're exerting yourself.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Use the Borg Perceived Exertion Scale

1. Use the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion as a general guideline. It is a self assessment tool used for your own personal benefit.
2. Look inward during your workout to get a Borg rating. It is how you feel about the workout you're performing.
3. Factor in all the physiological aspects of your workout to use the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion. How hard your heart is working, how hard your lungs are working, how much you're sweating, how your muscles feel, how your joints feel and how much energy you have to exert to keep going are all factors used in the Borg Scale.
4. Take into account all these factors of heart rate, respiration, soreness and fatigue and assign a point value to them.
5. Assign a point value of 6 to 20 of your perceived rate of exertion. That is your Borg score.
6. Find where your Borg value is on the scale to determine how hard you are working and whether you need to increase or decrease your output level. The Borg Scale or Perceived Exertion is distributed as follows. At the bottom of the scale is 6, meaning that there is no exertion. Between 7 and 8 is very light exertion. Eleven is a light level of exertion. As you go up the scale to 15, you reach a level of heavy resistance. By the time you reach 20, you are working so hard you cannot sustain it.
7. Know that most experts recommend staying at a level around 13 to 14. This is a moderate workout and will put you in the fat burning zone you're targeting. Athletes looking to condition and build endurance and stamina may go beyond that above 15, but the Department of Health and Human Services website has stated that 12 to 14 is the optimal level for most people (see Resources below).
8. Notice the correlation between Borg Scale score and actual heart rate. Even though the scale is subjective, there seems to be a strong correlation between how hard you think you're working and your actual heart rate.
9. Approximate your actual heart rate by multiplying your Borg score by 10. If you feel you're at 13, then your heart rate is about 130 beats per minute (13 x 10).

Tips & Warnings

• Resist the temptation to compare your Borg score to those around you. It is not a competition, but hopefully an honest self evaluation of your exertion.

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