Protocols for moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity exercise for undergraduate practical teaching

Background: In academic teaching, we need exercise protocols with moderate and vigorous intensity for observing cardiorespiratory changes in different grades of exercise. Aim: We aimed to formulate exercise protocols with moderate- and vigorous-intensity for apparently healthy adult subjects for undergraduate practical teaching to be used in the observation of cardiorespiratory changes in different grades of exercise. Methods: We hypothesized that 50 m brisk walking (to and fro, four times in a clinical physiology classroom) is moderate-intensity exercise and spot jogging with full effort and verbal encouragement for 1 min is vigorous-intensity exercise. We measured heart rate (HR) immediately after moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity exercise and compared it with the standards where attainment of 50%–70% of maximum achievable HR (HRmax) is moderate-intensity exercise and 71%–85% of HRmaxis vigorous-intensity exercise. Results: Data of 85 participants (male = 59, female = 26) with mean age 19.56 ± 1.13 years were analyzed. The percentage of HRmaxachieved in the moderate-intensity exercise was 58.19 ± 7.55, and vigorous-intensity exercise was 78.19 ± 8.48. About 85.88% of participants were within 50%–70% of HRmaxin the moderate-intensity exercise and 72.94% of participants were within 71%–85% of HRmaxin the vigorous-intensity exercise. Conclusion: A brisk walking for a distance of 50 m can be considered as moderate-intensity and a spot jogging with full effort for 1 min can be considered as a vigorous-intensity exercise for observing cardiovascular changes in different grades of exercise. These protocols can be used for physiology practical teaching in a small practice room without using any instrument in resource-limited settings.