Game in the Brain

Intensity Units and Recovery

The GURPS Effort Levels model or simply the Heart Rate Zones (I use fitibit Charge HR and a Basis 1B to know mine). Is a great use for working out and for discerning physical stress. In the article I equate the Peak levels as Wear and Tear levels: where there is actually some damage and in game terms risk of serious damage.

Now Recovery Rate is something only we know, from the soreness and how quickly we healed up from when we were younger and now. Recovery rate depends on the amount of stress we endure from day to day (both emotional, mental, and physical).

Stress is something affecting the body and forcing the body to adapt or simply react to it. This causes changes and thus causes the use of resources as well as the wear and tear of everything. BUT living things recover and the thing is we recover at different rates because of:

  • Stress Overhead (using the accounting term).   
  • condition of the body (age and how well we’ve taken care of it over time)
  • DIET and REST
To use this as a System to Exercise is we need to create our own Easy to measure Units. here we USE algorithms vs intuition (thinking Fast and Slow). As a gamer we can easily make our own Mechanic  or Algorithm. 
This mechanic is based on the Effort Level. We use the Intensity as a measure of quality and we try to cash in Activiy measured in the Effort Level for Intensity Units. 
Effort Level

 Units
High Intensity (min)

 2 Intense mins
Intense

 1 Intense min
Serious

 10 for 1 intense (min)
Moderate

 20 for 1 intense (min)
Light

 40 for 1 Intense unit
Intensity per Recovery Rate.
So between Recovery Rates, we try to Cash in as much Intensity Units as we can. 
Example, I fully recover in 3 days from an amount of exercise I can sustain, lets try a 30 minute Intense run. So I can plug in X intensity units per 3 days. 
Moderate is x2 more intense than Light
Serious is x2 more intense than Moderate
Intense is x10 more intense than Serious (this is the level most people might unintentionally hit the wall). 
High Intensity is x2 more than Intense. 
Who can tell our Intensity? 
Thats us again unless we have a heart rate monitor Iwown 7 has the cheapest at 50usd right now when everyone (Fitbit, Basis, Garmin, Jawbone etc…) else has bracketed theirs at 150usd. 
Then we make a Level System and Try to Climb Up. Note that this level is 50% more than previous level and this depends on our individual situation. Some people
 

Level

 intensity 10
1

 15
2

 23
3

 34
4

 51
5

 76
6

 114
7

 171
8

 256
9

 384
10

 577
11

 865
12

 1,297

Mine is about 4, near 5 in an 3 day recovery time frame. 

Intensity over Time.
Our Intensity Per Time. Ideally measured in Months or Quarters can help measure our progress. 
In a month I get about 600 Intensity Units. Thats the equivalent of XPs. There is some tangible gains in the initial but as I’m hitting this higher levels and had set backs of Injuries. Thats ok. I wish People can be more resilient to Level Loss in RPGs as their are about Injuries.

Last Words.
  • This is just a sample of what kinda goes through my mind, I never really track it I let the tracker do the tracking. 
  • Its important to set values to intensity and an amount of exercise PER RECOVERY period. 
  • Think in sustainable Habits! Since the increment is by Recovery period this tells to OBJECTIVELY to take it easy and not to push to hard. If you are afraid of Injury then you know its better to under perform than to take a LEVEL LOSS from an injury. 

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