What is Intensity?

You hear it all over the place, it's the new craze. Read any magazine, from Muscle and Fiction to Runner's World and you'll see the word intensity. But what exactly is it? Can you define the word intensity?

Some define intensity based on how sweaty you are or how loud you're screaming in the gym. Runners define intensity based on how high the heart rate is. The problem is that neither of these are strong correlates to what intensity actually is. For example, just because your heart rate was high during a run doesn't mean the run was intense. There are lots of things that effect heart rate. Your heart rate can sky rocket with you not even doing any work at all, does that mean sitting in that chair was intense? Nay.

The problem is that intensity needs to be measurable. Can you measure strength? Yes. Can you measure flexibility? Yes. Can you measure speed? Yes. So how does one measure intensity? Lucky for us, a very intelligent group of exercise physiologists have defined intensity as being exactly equal to average power. (Seriously, the mathematical equation they used was intensity, followed by three bars, average power, which means they are exactly the same.) So what does this mean for us? Simple. Intensity IS power.

So what is power? Again, it must be capable of being measured. Power, scientifically (yay!) is work divided by time. Work equals force times distance. So, in essence, intensity EQUALS the load you move multiplied by how far you moved it divided by the time it took.

The last thing I want to point out is that intensity is the shortcut to all things good in life. So what are you waiting for? Ramp up the intensity.