POSTING CAN BE INTENSE SOMETIMES
Intensity is a professional term that represents the physical and physiological challenge applied to the body and its systems. As the intensity of a physical activity increases, physiological systems are required to work more and also perform at a higher quality of work. Percentage is used as a unit in science to represent quality.
A person laying down in the Anatomical Position and breathing is considered as being in the state of physiological rest. We distinct rest from sleep and eternal rest, two states of existence that are confused with actual rest. Rest can further be defined characterized as a state of existence in which the minimum physiological work must be conducted to be alive.
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Accordingly, while a person is at rest, the challenge on their body is minimal, thus is defined as zero percent (0%) intensity, even though the work conducted is greater than zero. As percentage as a unit suggests, intensity is a relative scale that addresses the state of rest as its relative zero, as opposed to an absolute zero used in absolute scales.
As a person's body and systems are challenged to their greatest extent, physical and physiological capacities reached their maximal values and abilities. Just as minimal challenge at rest is represented as 0% intensity, maximal challenge is represented as 100% intensity. Thus, as a person's body transitions from rest to maximal effort, intensity increases from 0% to 100%. Anything in-between can be regarded as sub-maximal intensity.
Furthermore, anything that is not rest, is exercise by definition. The true question is how intense is the physical activity. For example, a person sitting and working on their computer are exercising as matter of definition, yet it is clear that it is not the same as running a marathon.
In other posts, we have established that energy is the tool that allows work to be conducted. Since an increase in intensity requires more work from the body, it immediately means an increase in energetic costs and demand. The longer and more intense the activity, the greater the energetic investment/cost.
Since intensity is specific and relative to every person's systems' abilities, and is not influenced by another person's body's ability, two different people can be physically active at the same intensity, yet their heart rate, respiratory rate, stroke volume, tidal volume, cardiac output, minute ventilation, and movement speed can be different.
Lastly, research shows that physiological phenomena occur at certain intensity percentages, not certain speeds or extent of work. This principle is important to achieving people's goals by making sure that they are at the intensity needed to influence the body a certain way, to induce a certain adaptation/response.
Accordingly, students studying exercise prescription learn which intensity percentage will result in which physiological result. Examples of such goals include warm-up, increased fat catabolism ("burning fat"), and improved VO2 (aerobic fitness; a.k.a. cardiorespiratory fitness/output).
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