Five Factors for Measuring Exercise Improvement

Disclaimer : This information is not guaranteed to be accurate and I am not liable if you make any decisions or take any actions, in terms of medical treatment, health decisions, exercise, behavior or anything else based on the information presented.  I am not telling you any decisions to make even if I use terms like "you" but am using the word "you" as part of a writing style to simplify writing.  Any suggestions for what "you" should do are not for you personally to do but what someone might do as part of a exercise or nutrition program which might help some people's health and make other people's health worse.  You should not do any activity that will make your health worse even if "you" should do it according to the program described.  If the information is wrong and you believe it is true, act on it and it causes you problems, I am not responsible because I have warned you the information is not guaranteed to be accurate.

 As attributes

1 Strength

2 Flexibility

3 Speed

4 Endurance

5 Comfort

In order to know if you are improving in fitness in regards to an exercise, you can not measure improvement in any one of those five factors without measuring the other four factors.  If the other four factors are held constant and the remaining factor improves then you know you have improved.  But if one factor improves at the expense of at least one of the other four then you do not know you have improved.

Quantities for measuring concentric Strength, Speed and Endurance 

1 Position along a path as a function of time

Range of motion

Speed and Flexibility

2A Scalars components of External Torque as a function of time multiplied by linear or angular Speed as a function of time.  

Speed and Strength

or

2B Scalars components of External Torque as a function of time multiplied by linear or angular Speed as a function of position along a path.  

Speed and Strength

A increase in speed with the same torque is considered an improvement when the other factors are the same

A increase in torque with the same strength is considered an improvement when the other factors are the same

Linear speed being directly proportional to the rotational speed.

Linear Speed equals rotational speed times radius of rotation

The External Torque is directly proportional to the force the muscle resists

Torque = Force X Lever Arm length

Where the perpendicular component of the force is multipled by the component of the lever arm length that is perpendicular to it

The Power equals the Force resisted by an object times the component of the Velocity of the object resisting the force in the direction the force is being resisted

Power = Force * Velocity

Both External Torque and Linear or Angular Speed are directly proportional to percent maximum muscle power as a function of muscle length relative to resting muscle length during concentric contractions.  This is not a exact mathematical relationship and is a over simplification.  There is not a single amount of power for a specific muscle length that can not be exceeded but rather many maximum power values each as a function of length and speed or length and force.

3A Total Distance Traveled such as how far someone walked, swam or ran

Endurance

or

3B Total number of repetitions times number of repetitions per set also called training volume

Endurance

or 

3C Total Duration

Endurance

4 Subjective Experience of Pain, Fatigue or Intensity of perceived effort at last moment in time of exercise

Comfort

5 Recovery time to be able to repeat exact same exercise at the same pain, fatigue or perceived effort

The time value at which - Time values below that recovery time repeating the same exercise would hurt more than the previous time and time values above that recovery time would hurt less if repeating the same exercise

For Example if someone completes all sets of a exercise and rates a pain value of 5 on a scale of 0 to 20.  Then if they would also rate it at 5 if they repeated it 24 hours later but would rate it at 7 if they repeated it 12 hours later and rate it at 3 if they repeated it 36 hours later then the Recovery time value for the same amount of pain is 24 hours.  That is repeating it in an identical manner with the same intensity and duration.

Comfort and Endurance

Explanations of using quanties for measuring concentric Speed, Strength and Endurance

Measuring improvement in concentric Endurance through decreased recovery time

A decrease in recovery time for the same amount of pain means an improvement in Endurance for that exercise if the other factors are the same

If someone who weighs the same can jog 1 mile once every 48 hours at the same speed and has a pain rating of 5 at the last second of the jog but before they could only jog 1 mile once every 72 hours at the same speed and same body weight in order to have a pain rating of 5 at the last second of the jog then their endurance has improved

Measuring Improvement in concentric Endurance through increased duration

If someone who weighs the same can jog 1.1 miles once every 24 hours at the same speed and has a pain rating of 5 at the last second of the jog but before they could only jog 1 mile once every 24 hours at the same speed and same body weight in order to have a pain rating of 5 at the last second of the jog then their endurance has improved

If someone can only lift 5 pounds 10 times along the same path in one minute in order to have a pain rating of 5 on their last repetition once every 24 hours but now can lift 5 pounds 20 times along the same path in two minutes with a pain rating of 5 on the last repetition once every 24 hours then their endurance has improved.

Measuring improvement in concentric strength through increased external torque

If someone can only lift 5 pounds 10 times along the same path in one minute in order to have a pain rating of 5 on their last repetition once every 24 hours but now can lift 6 pounds 10 times along the same path in one minute with a pain rating of 5 on the last repetition once every 24 hours then their strength has improved.  Multiplying the force by M is the same as multiplying the torque by M when the length and direction of the lever arm and the direction of the force is the same.

Measuring improvement in concentric speed

If someone weighing the same body weight can only jog 1 mile at 5 miles per hour every 24 hours in order to have a pain rating of 5 on the last second of the jog in 12 minutes but now can jog 1 mile at 6 miles per hour with a pain rating of 5 on the last second of the jog in 10 minutes then their speed has improved.  I mentioned in order to measure speed you must also measure endurance and that endurance can be measured by the training volume, the duration or the distance traveled.  In this case the duration is the same but the distance traveled has increased.  The path of each step and the force exerted in each step has probably also changed in order to increase the speed.

If someone weighing the same body weight can only jog 1 mile at 5 miles per hour every 24 hours in order to have a pain rating of 5 on the last second of the jog in 12 minutes but now can jog 1.2 miles at 6 miles per hour with a pain rating of 5 on the last second of the jog in 12 minutes then both their speed and endurance has improved.

If someone can only lift 5 pounds 10 times along the same path in 60 seconds in order to have a pain rating of 5 on their last repetition once every 24 hours but now can lift 5 pounds 10 times along the same path in 40 seconds with a pain rating of 5 on the last repetition once every 24 hours then their speed has increased.  I mentioned in order to measure speed you must also measure endurance and that endurance can be measured by the training volume, the duration or the distance traveled.  In this case the duration is the same but the volume has increased as well as the total distance traveled because although the path length is the same the number of times the path is completed has increased.

If someone can only lift 5 pounds 10 times along the same path in 60 seconds in order to have a pain rating of 5 on their last repetition once every 24 hours but now can lift 5 pounds 15 times along the same path in 60 seconds with a pain rating of 5 on the last repetition once every 24 hours then their speed and endurance has improved.

Quantities for measuring improvement in eccentric strength, slowness of speed and endurance

1 Same scalars as for concentric strength with one exception

Flexibility, Endurance, Comfort

2 The exception is the relationship between speed and external  torque.  A decrease in speed with the same torque is considered an improvement. 

The percent maximum power someone is at increases as the speed decreases when the external torque and other factors are the same for eccentric contractions

Strength, Slowness of Speed

Explanations of using quanties for measuring concentric Slowness of Speed, Strength and Endurance

Measuring improvement in eccentric slowness of speed

If someone could only do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 24 hours through a particular path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the reverse bicep curl but now they can do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 10 seconds one time every 24 hours through the same path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the reverse bicep curl then they have improved their eccentric slowness of speed

Measiring improvement in eccentric strength through increased external torque

If someone could only do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 24 hours through a particular path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the reverse bicep curl but now they can do a 60 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 24 hours through the same path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the reverse bicep curl then they have improved their eccentric slowness of speed

Measuring improvement in eccentric endurance through higher training volume

If someone could only do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 24 hours through a particular path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the reverse bicep curl but now they can do two consecutive 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds once every 24 hours through the same path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the second reverse bicep curl then they have improved their eccentric endurance

Measuring improvement in eccentric endurance through reduced recovery time

If someone could only do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 72 hours through a particular path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 but now they can do a 50 pound reverse bicep curl in 5 seconds one time every 48 hours through the same path in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 then they have improved their eccentric endurance

Quantities for measuring Isometric Strength and Isometric Endurance

1 Speed is zero

Speed is still a measured quantity and is measured at zero

2 External Torque

Strength

3 Duration

Endurance

4 Position

Flexibility

5 Subjective Experience of Pain, Fatigue or Intensity of perceived effort at last moment in time of exercise

Comfort

6 Recovery time to be able to repeat exact same exercise at the same pain, fatigue or perceived effort

Comfort and Endurance

Explanations of using quantities for measuring Isometric Strength and Isometric Endurance

Measuring improvement in isometric strength through increased external torque

If someone can only hold 10 pounds in a certain position for one minute in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 24 hours but now can hold 20 pounds in the same position for one minute with a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 24 hours then their strength has improved

Measuring improvement in isometric endurance through increased duration

If someone can only hold 10 pounds in a certain position for one minute in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 24 hours but now can hold 10 pounds in the same position for two minutes with a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 24 hours then their endurance has improved

Measuring improvement in isometric endurance through decreased recovery time

If someone can only hold 10 pounds in a certain position for one minute in order to achieve a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 72 hours but now can hold 10 pounds in the same position for one minute with a pain rating of 5 in the last second of the hold once every 48 hours then their eccentric endurance has improved

Copyright Carl Janssen 2022