Question What is "work quantity tolerated" ? Any help appreciated.

[Miss Violet Smith]

I went to the gym recently and did some tests.

Apparently I have excellent VO2 max (more than 40) for being a woman of my age and with my activity level.

I also had excellent "work quantity tolerated". Does anyone know what that is? The number was around 18.

Any help and explanations would be very much appreciated.

 

[JayKosta]

I think the term 'work quantity tolerated' is a measure of how intense and for how long you are willing to push yourself. Some people are willing and able to tolerate the discomfort of hard exercise more than others.

It would be interesting to know how the rating number (18) was derived. Perhaps it comes from the length of time and the heart rate bpm that you were able to maintain.

Part of my exercise is using an elliptical trainer for a 30 minute session and tracking the 'calories burned' number. I start at lowest intensity level at a comfortable pace, and then each minute increase the intensity by 1 unit and strive to maintain the pace. At some point I can not maintain the pace or tolerate more intensity, so I reduce intensity to recover and then adjust further up/down to find the max intensity at which I can complete the 30 minute session. For me (an old guy) this is a very heavy workout, and I need at least 1 low-level easy day before doing it again - without that rest I have not recovered adequately to achieve a similar number of calories burned - I'm just too tired ...

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

I think the term 'work quantity tolerated' is a measure of how intense and for how long you are willing to push yourself. Some people are willing and able to tolerate the discomfort of hard exercise more than others.

It would be interesting to know how the rating number (18) was derived. Perhaps it comes from the length of time and the heart rate bpm that you were able to maintain.

Part of my exercise is using an elliptical trainer for a 30 minute session and tracking the 'calories burned' number. I start at lowest intensity level at a comfortable pace, and then each minute increase the intensity by 1 unit and strive to maintain the pace. At some point I can not maintain the pace or tolerate more intensity, so I reduce intensity to recover and then adjust further up/down to find the max intensity at which I can complete the 30 minute session. For me (an old guy) this is a very heavy workout, and I need at least 1 low-level easy day before doing it again - without that rest I have not recovered adequately to achieve a similar number of calories burned - I'm just too tired ...

Thank you for your very kind and thoughtful reply. I think you're right that the calculated number reflects the intensity of the exercise and the length of time one is willing to endure it; I was quite comfortable and chatted with the instructor up to the end of the test (about Remco Evenepoel, actually). But I should go back and ask how the exact number (17.7) was obtained.

That elliptical trainer workout sounds very impressive, also fun - I think I will give it a try and see how many minutes I can manage!