How hard are you exercising? Well, isn't the sweat pouring off my face enough?

Actually, no. Sweat indicates when your body is working to cool itself down, but the amount of sweat doesn't always show how hard you have been exercising.

There are three common ways of measuring the intensity of your workout — the talk test, perceived exertion and target heart rate.

Why is intensity important?

Monitoring the intensity of your exercise is important for many reasons. Any measure will let you know if you are working too hard, or not hard enough. If your exercise intensity is too high, this can lead to overtraining, which can lead to injuries, problems sleeping and general burnout. If, on the other hand you are not working hard enough, you will take longer to meet your fitness goals.

It is also important to measure the intensity of your exercise if you are recovering from an injury or illness.

Intensity is crucial for improving your aerobic capacity and general performance.

How to test your exercise intensity

• The talk test — this is the easiest. No matter how hard you are exercising you should still be able to talk, not a full conversation, but at least broken sentences. If you are too short of breath to talk, then you are working too hard. If you can have a full conversation, you are not working hard enough!
• Rating of perceived exertion — on a scale of one to 10, most people should be working between three and five. Full intensity would be on a scale of 10.
• Target heart rate — with the advent of heart rate monitors this has become a very popular method of measuring the intensity of your training. Most people should be working between 50 and 80 percent of their maximum heart rate. If you do not have a heart rate monitor then you can measure your pulse yourself, either at the carotid pulse in the neck or at the radial pulse in your wrist. To measure your carotid pulse, place your fingers towards the front of your neck around the level of the Adam's apple. Your radial pulse is just below your thumb on your wrist. Once you have found your pulse, count the number of beats over 10 seconds. Try to do this within 10 seconds of stopping exercise. Then multiply your 10 second heart rate by 6 to find your heart rate per minute. Heart rates can also be affected by stress, caffeine, medications and fatigue, so this is only a guide.

What to do with your measure of intensity

Any exercise programme should contain periods of high intensity and periods of lower intensity. For example, if you have exercised particularly hard one day, then you should have what is called a recovery day in between. Work out a programme according to your fitness or event goals which gives you a wide range of exercise intensity and you will improve your fitness much faster.