Brady Holmer

And I think what's cool about having all these different metrics to define the zones is that, you know, if people don't really want to train using heart rate, or maybe they don't even have a heart rate monitor, they can use the talk test, they can use RPE, or maybe a combination of all three of these.

And they're pretty reliable.

I mean, they've all of these have been kind of well evidenced to correspond to the different zones.

But I think what's nice is that people can use these to train and it doesn't require a lot of

technical ability, a lot of experience.

And so this is, I think, you know, in my mind, the best way that people can think about kind of training intensities is using the zones as we define them here, or at least using those as a guide.

Yeah, I think the accuracy of the smartwatches is obviously there.

They've been, you know, validated against EKG and things like that.

But

as Levine mentioned, and as others have kind of drawn caution, they tend to get less accurate as the intensity of exercise increases.

They're not perfect, because you know, it's getting your heart rate reading from a sensor on your wrist versus your chest.

So I would encourage everybody to invest in a heart rate chest, you know, a chest strap monitor, it's less than $100 investment, it's going to give you

a lot more accurate data.

Some people find them uncomfortable, but most of them now are pretty comfortable.

And if you really want to train using heart rate, I would say invest in the chest strap.

But you know, the watches aren't totally off and they can be used as a good kind of reference as to where you are.

But like I said, in my experience, and I think the experience of others, the harder that you go, the higher the intensity goes, kind of the less accurate that they get.

Um, so if you want to use heart rate, great, it can be a good indicator, but, um, the talk test is a very good, I think, way to assess your exercise intensity, especially for people who are newer.

So I think one of the, not flaws with RPE, but one of the caveats is that you need a little bit of experience to really know where you're at, like how hard something is.

I mean, if somebody has never actually gone to a maximal intensity, um,