The Borg Scale

The Borg Scale is used to measure your sensation of breathlessness during various
activities. Monitoring your breathlessness can help you safely adjust your activity by
speeding up or slowing down your movements. It can also provide important information
to your health care provider.
We want you to look at the Borg scale as instructed by your nurse or therapist and choose
the number that best describes your level of breathlessness.
Important points to remember:

You should never go higher than 4 on the scale. If your breathlessness is

Somewhat Severe or worse, you need to stop what you are doing and rest.
If you are exercising and your breathlessness is only very, very slight (less than 1
on the scale), then you should work a little harder.
You should use the scale to make note of any changes that occur and report them
to your health care provider. For example, an activity that made you very slightly
breathless (1 on the scale) a month age now makes you moderately breathless (3
on the scale) or vise versa. We encourage you to keep a log and show it to your
health care provider.

SCALE
0
0.5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

SEVERITY
No Breathlessness At All
Very Very Slight (Just
Noticeable)
Very Slight
Slight
Breathlessness
Moderate
Somewhat Severe
Severe
Breathlessness
Very Severe
Breathlessness
Very Very Severe (Almost
Maximum)
Maximum

6 No exertion at all
7 Extremely light
8
9 Very light - (easy walking slowly at a comfortable pace)
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard (It is quite an effort; you feel tired but
can continue)
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17 Very hard (very strenuous, and you are very fatigued)
18
19 Extremely hard (You can not continue for long at this
pace)
20 Maximal exertion