Table 1.

PARA-SCI Classification System. Modified from Martin-Ginis et al. (2005)⁵

	Nothing at all	Mild	Moderate	Heavy
How hard are you working?	Includes activities that even when you are doing them, you do not feel like you are working at all.	Includes physical activities that require you to do very light work. You should feel like you are working a little bit but overall you shouldn’t find yourself working too hard.	Includes physical activities that require some physical effort. You should feel like you are working somewhat hard but can maintain the effort for a long time.	Includes physical activities that require a lot of physical effort. You should feel like you are working really hard (almost at your maximum) and can only do the activity for a short time before getting tired. These activities can be exhausting.
How does your body feel?
Breathing & heart rate	Normal	Stays normal or is only a little bit harder and/or faster than normal.	Noticeable harder and faster than normal but not extremely hard or fast.	Fairly hard and much faster than normal.
Muscles	Normal	Feel loose, warmed up, and relaxed. Feel normal temperature or a little bit warmer and not tired at all.	Feel pumped and worked. Feel warmer than normal and starting to get tired after a while.	Burn and feel tight and tense. Feel a lot warmer than normal and feel tired.
Skin	Normal	Normal temperature is only a little bit warmer and not sweaty.	A little bit warmer than normal and might be a little sweaty.	Much warmer than normal and might be sweaty.
Mind	Normal	You might feel very alert. Has no effect on concentration.	Requires some concentration to complete.	Requires a lot of concentration (almost full) to complete.