Strenuous Exercise: Meaning, Symptom & Benefits


Are you someone who doesn't like to go to the gym every day or hates waking up early every day just to exercise? If yes, then you are in for some good news. As per some studies, you don’t have to exercise daily to be in shape and stay healthy. Even a few days of exercise in a week is enough as long as it is strenuous exercise. Is your interest piqued? Read on to know strenuous exercise meaning, its benefits, and more.


What is Strenuous Exercise?

A strenuous workout meaning is highly subjective and depends on how a particular activity feels for an individual. If you are a fit person you may find something like a brisk walk simple and not a challenge, and on the other hand, for a couch potato, even a brisk walk is vigorous. Your heart rate determines if the exercise is hard for you or not. In general, the heart beats faster when you do more strenuous activity.

Despite strenuous exercise being more of individual perception, it is categorised into three:

  • Low
  • Moderate
  • Strenuous

For an activity to be termed vigorous, the body needs to be at up to 85% of its maximum heart rate. Moderate or low exercise is any activity done by utilising less than 70% of the maximum heart rate.


Strenuous Exercises Examples

Examples of strenuous exercise include jogging, running, aerobic dancing, jumping rope, single tennis, cycling at a speed faster than 10mph. Swimming, fast dancing, gardening with heavy digging, shovelling snow are some of the daily activities that can also be termed strenuous activities. Some of the other strenuous exercise examples are playing sports that involve a lot of running like soccer, basketball, hockey, and martial arts.


How to Measure a Strenuous Workout?

There are some specific markers that indicate that you have hit the highest level. These are:

  • Talk test: This is one of the easiest ways to determine if you have reached your maximum activity level. When you are doing strenuous exercise, you cannot speak in complete sentences but only a few words at a time.
  • Heart rate: Another reliable way to know if you are doing strenuous exercise is by monitoring the heart rate. Exercising between 70 to 85% of the maximum heart rate is considered vigorous activity.
  • RPE, Rate of perceived exertion: It measures the intensity of exercise that is subjective. When defining RPE, pay attention to the heart rate, the exertion level, muscle fatigue, and breathing. The exertion level is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with maximum effort rated as 10 and zero exertion as 1. As per RPE, an activity that exceeds 7 is considered vigorous. For example, running without taking breaks is graded as 8 on the RPE scale.


Strenuous Exercise Benefits

Engaging in physical activity that is vigorous has many advantages, and some of them are:

  • Reduces the chances of chronic diseases: It is well-known that leading a sedentary lifestyle is one of the main reasons for developing chronic diseases. One of the strenuous exercise benefits is reducing the chances of developing cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, and more.
  • Boosts mental health: Physical activities, including simple exercise like walking, has benefits as it increases the flow of blood to the brain. Some studies show that vigorous exercise reduces the chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
  • Better mood: Exercise produces happy hormones, which improve the mood. Even a moderate level of physical activity is known to have a positive effect on mood.
  • Weight reduction: If you are looking to shed your excess fat quickly and effectively, then including strenuous exercises is a great way. It improves cardiorespiratory fitness, reduces abdominal fat, and improves insulin metabolism.


Strenuous Exercise Symptoms

Strenuous exercise has many wonderful benefits like boosting mood, improving overall strenuous increased energy levels. But everything else, here too moderation is important. Too much exercise or too intense can lead to injuries and also leave you drained of energy. The strenuous exercise meaning here is overtraining or doing too much physical training with no time for rest and recovery. That results in stress on the joints, muscles, and bones, causing soreness and fatigue. While it is common to feel some amount of tiredness after a strenuous workout, it should not cause pain or complete burnout, or exhaustion.

However, strenuous workout meaning is different as the limits are different, so when you are pushing yourself, don’t be too hard on yourself. Irrespective of the strenuous exercise causes, here are some of the strenuous physical exercise symptoms that are commonly seen.

  • The body is overly sore.
  • Only one side of the body is sore.
  • You are working out too much, missing on other aspects of life.
  • You are pushing yourself too hard
  • Need longer period of time to recover
  • Getting sick more often
  • Having trouble sleeping
  • Unable to perform at the previous best level.


How to Add Strenuous Exercise to your Workout

Whether you are doing a Lower Body Workout, Fast Weight Loss program, abs workout, or a simple Walk Exercise, it is important to add vigorous activity into your routine. Luckily, the activities that you are currently doing can be performed at a higher intensity, and that can become your strenuous workout program. A HIIT workout is a great way to add it where short bursts of strenuous physical exercise are done at maximum heart rate. Playing a fast sport like basketball or football is another way to add it to your routine. Swimming or running at 10 mph for 30 seconds followed by brisk walking for 1 minute and alternating this for up to 30 minutes is an example of strenuous exercise.


Know your Limits

Know your body and its limits as doing more than it can handle is dangerous. Overdoing Strenuous exercise causes injuries and instead of giving you benefits, it makes you more tired and irritable. When you start feeling this, it is time to step back, improve your stamina and strength, and get back to vigorous activity.


After knowing what is a strenuous exercise and its benefits, it is clear that Including strenuous exercise in your workout is a great way to improve your overall health. It is also a time saver as you are working out fewer days than usual. However, while it provides many benefits, it may not suit everyone. Talk to your healthcare provider before you set out to work at this level.

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