ACSM metabolic equations are available
for five primary activities (ACSM
2000; Heyward 2002). Here we will discuss
four of them: walking, running, cycling
or leg ergometry, and stepping.
There are two reasons to use the metabolic
equations: (1) to calculate a VO2
for a given workload or work rate and
then convert VO2 into caloric expenditure
per minute, and (2) to calculate a
workload or work rate intensity from a
VO2 value (Swain & Leutholtz 2002). In
the equations below, VO2 is calculated
in milliliters per kilogram per minute
(ml/kg/min), and 3.5 is a constant that
refers to resting oxygen consumption.