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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Fit tip.

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Speaker 1: What are watts? So you may be using a piece

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Speaker 1: of exercise equipment and you're wondering what this reading is

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Speaker 1: for watts? What is that number? And you may hear

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Speaker 1: people talking about it in class. Here's your quick breakdown

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Speaker 1: of what it is and how you can use it

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Speaker 1: to help your workouts. Okay, So what is a unit

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Speaker 1: of power? Think of your lightbulbs right, A hundred watts,

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Speaker 1: two hundred watts. And when it comes to exercise, it's

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Speaker 1: a measurement of the power you are producing. It's how

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Speaker 1: much energy is needed to overcome inertia and make things

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Speaker 1: go right, or when you're on a stationary bike to

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Speaker 1: move that wheel. So it's pedaling your bike, it's running,

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Speaker 1: it's using the elliptical going up or downstairs. It's about

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Speaker 1: power and the more power you produce, this is the

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Speaker 1: great news, the harder you are working. Okay, So when

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Speaker 1: it comes to cardiovascular exercise, it's the power that you're

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Speaker 1: producing when you're training. And again just know that the

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Speaker 1: greater the power number, the greater the watts, the more

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Speaker 1: calories you are burning. Okay, So it is another way

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Speaker 1: to evaluate the intensity of your workout. Now as a

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Speaker 1: triathlete or even a runner, they're actually able to calculate

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Speaker 1: power now with certain gadgets and gizmos that go on

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Speaker 1: your shoe if you're running outside, which is really cool,

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Speaker 1: relatively new, but bikers have been using it. So when

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Speaker 1: it comes to power, it's a little better than heart rate,

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Speaker 1: just because heart rate can be affected by so many

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Speaker 1: outside factors fatigue, sleep, hydration, whether or not you're sick.

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Speaker 1: Watts is a real time value. It's instantaneous too, and

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Speaker 1: it's not influenced by outside factors. So if you run

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Speaker 1: to the top of a hill, you using heart rate,

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Speaker 1: it's a lagging indicator and you're gonna get that number

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Speaker 1: that's at the top of the hill seconds after power

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Speaker 1: instantaneous number, all right. So it's a great way to

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Speaker 1: measure the intensity of your workout, and most commonly right

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Speaker 1: now with cycling. Now, just one tip, why did you

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Speaker 1: is gear multiplied by revolutions per minute? All right? It's

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Speaker 1: equal to gear or force multiplied by velocity revolutions per minute.

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Speaker 1: So that means that if we're talking about a stationary bike,

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Speaker 1: and many of them have a weighted wheel thirty pounds

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Speaker 1: are more oftentimes, so you will get really high revolutions

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Speaker 1: and the wheel is doing the work, but you are

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Speaker 1: not producing a lot of power, so you're not burning

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Speaker 1: a lot of calories. So this goes to many classes

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Speaker 1: where they just push how fast you are going. But

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Speaker 1: if you're going really fast with little to no resistance,

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Speaker 1: the power you are putting out is low and the

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Speaker 1: cows you are burning is low. And the converse is

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Speaker 1: true as well. If your resistance is super high and

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Speaker 1: you're doing something that we call mashing and your revolutions

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Speaker 1: are low, same as true, your power output is going

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Speaker 1: to be relatively low. So ideally you want to have

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Speaker 1: some resistance and be going at higher revolutions. When both

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Speaker 1: of those are increased, your caloric expenditure is increased. And

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Speaker 1: final little tip, it is related to your weight. So

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Speaker 1: if you have someone who weighs two hundred pounds, especially

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Speaker 1: when it comes to biking indoors, because you're not riding

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Speaker 1: up hills or down hills, you are stationary. So a

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Speaker 1: two hundred pound rider leo'ld say a man and a

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Speaker 1: one fifty pound person who is riding. If they have

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Speaker 1: the same power output, that hundred fifty pound person is

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Speaker 1: a stronger cyclist and it does indoor cycling. Basically, the

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Speaker 1: advantage is to the heavier person it is easier for

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Speaker 1: them to put out higher power. Now some comes down

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Speaker 1: to fitness level, but all things being equal, the more

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Speaker 1: you weigh, the easier it is for you to put

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Speaker 1: out more power, just based on the amount of weight

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Speaker 1: you have to push against those pedals. All right, So

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Speaker 1: if you weigh the same as UH or I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: if your power is the same as someone significantly heavier

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Speaker 1: than you, UH, then you are a stronger cyclist and

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Speaker 1: vice versa. So there you have it. Use watts use

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Speaker 1: your power number as another tool to quantify your workouts

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Speaker 1: and to see your results over time. If during a

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Speaker 1: class you average a hundred watts for a forty five

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Speaker 1: minute class one day, and two months later you're now

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Speaker 1: averaging a hundred and thirty watts, you're getting stronger and

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Speaker 1: you're seeing results, And there you have it. Wats it's

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Speaker 1: another way to evaluate the intensity of your workout and

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Speaker 1: it's simply a unit of power. I am Tom Holland

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Speaker 1: this is fitness Disrupted. Please rate the show. You can

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Speaker 1: follow me Tom h Fit on Twitter and Instagram, and

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Speaker 1: you can email me right through Fitness disrupted dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I am Tom Holland Believe in yourself.

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Speaker 1: Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For

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