METs and vigorous activity guidelines w/ intervals

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Trying to meet the 75min vigorous (ideally 150 min) exercise via rowing. If you’re doing that with METs, that’s >6 but a few things:

  • According to metscalculator.com that’s rowing at 100w+ (7 METs) or 150w+ (8.5 METs) but I mean my UT2 (Zone 2 for rowing, about RPE5-6) is around 150w. Is that going to count towards vigorous minutes?

  • Let’s say I abandon that and just focus on hard intervals (4’on/4’off, 4-6 sets)… is only the working portion (50% of workout) contributing towards that 75 min vigorous activity? Or the whole session? Moderate is a lot cleaner cause it’s usually 1x45’ (no rest), what about with intervals?

2

I don’t think METs accurately predicts exercise intensity for most individuals. Training below the aerobic threshold (zone 2) should be moderate intensity conditioning, whereas above would be vigorous for most. I would use RPE, HR, and/or power output (relative to max) for this.

Yes, only the working portion of the conditioning would contribute towards your weekly conditioning volume if you’re resting completely. Admittedly, this is made-up and different people will say different things. I generally don’t count complete rest periods towards conditioning volume though.

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