Cardio Strain vs. Muscular Strain

Bevel measures Strain in two distinct ways: Cardio Strain and Muscular Strain. Each focuses on different aspects of your workouts to give a complete picture of how your body is responding.

• Focuses on heart rate data during cardiovascular exercise. During strength training, heart rate contributes only to the cardio portion of Strain, while muscular effort is tracked separately.

• Reflects how much Stress your cardiovascular system experiences.

• Higher-intensity cardio sessions typically result in higher Cardio Strain.

• Uses your Apple Watch’s accelerometer to calculate exercise intensity.

• Incorporates strength training inputs such as sets, reps, weight, total load, and volume when available.

• Measures how much your muscles are being stressed during strength or resistance training.

• Workouts can produce high Muscular Strain even without a large heart rate increase.

• When you log sets, reps, and weight, Muscular Strain is expected to be higher than workouts based on heart rate data alone, as it reflects true muscular load.

Strain is not just about how hard you’re working, but also how effectively the exercise impacts your body.

• For example, your hardest cardio session may leave you feeling more “exhausted” than a heavy strength session, but that doesn’t mean the strength workout isn’t effective.

• Cardio and strength training Stress different parts of your body, and Bevel’s Strain metric accounts for both to give a comprehensive view of your total Strain.