What is the Exercise Load Feature on My Garmin® Device?

The load of an exercise session is a numeric score that is calculated on a Garmin device indicating the degree of its impact on your body. It is based on estimated excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. Garmin measures load for individual exercise sessions and also compiles load measurements for calculating weekly Training Load and Training Status.

Compatible Garmin devices provide views of your training load on a per-activity basis and as the combined impact of recent activities. This later perspective is the key to effective training strategies.

• Exercise Load: describes the strenuousness of a single activity.

• Acute Load: tracks the combined physiological impact of your recently recorded activities.

This is achieved by using a weighted moving average designed to reflect the strain placed on your body on a weekly basis. Record a new activity, and the resulting load is added in full to your current acute load. The influence of that activity then gradually expires during the next 10 days, and the combined total load is normalized to reflect a 7-day window.

Older devices utilized a 7-day load perspective, which simply combined impact of all activities recorded in the past 7 days.

Exercise Load and EPOC

After you complete a workout, your body continues to use oxygen at a higher rate than it would at rest (the "afterburn" effect). This phenomenon is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. Since the oxygen your body consumes relates directly to the amount of energy it uses, EPOC is an excellent measure of Exercise Load. It quantifies how much work your body has to do to get back to normal.

Using Exercise Load for Training

Exercise Load is useful for measuring the intensity of different workouts compared to one another. In general, higher load numbers equal more impactful training, but there is a value in having a balance or higher and lower load score for recovery purposes.

How is Exercise Load Calculated for a Multisport Activity?

When completing a Multisport activity, Exercise Load will accumulate as you complete each activity. Because Exercise Load is a cumulative measurement, the Exercise Load value shown for each individual activity within the recorded Multisport will include the Exercise Load for that activity plus all activities before it. The final activity of your Multisport recording will display the cumulative Exercise Load for the entire Multisport activity.