W9 - Perceived Exertion

Question 1

What is perceived exertion?

Answer 1

• Subjective (individual) intensity of effort, strain, discomfort and/or fatigue experienced during physical exercise
• Used for quantifying, monitoring and regulating physical exertion
• Easily administered and cost-effective tool for intra/inter-individual comparisons of subjective feelings

Question 2

What are the 3 different parts of the global model of perceived exertion?

Answer 2

Stimulus, organism and perceptual response

Question 3

Provide examples organism perceived exertion

Answer 3

• physiological - ventilation, body temperature, sweating, muscle pain
• psychological - mood, anxiety, motivation
• performance - audience, strategy, environment

Question 4

What are some examples of perceptual response?

Answer 4

differentiated: respiratory metabolic, peripheral, nonspecific
undifferentiated: overall perceived exertion

Question 5

When and who created the Borg scale?

Describe the Borg scale:

Answer 5

Gunnar Borg (early 1960s): 6-20 category scale
- Came up with the RPE scale
* 6-20 lab based exercise testing on perceived exertion
* valid and reliable in adult populations
* HR is 10x the RPE

Question 6

What is the relationship between RPE, HR and Vo2Max?

Answer 6

Power output increase from left to right
- RPE tracks HR essentially (linear relationship) with HR, which has a linear relationship with PO

Question 7

What is construct validity?

What is reliability?

What is familiarisation?

Answer 7

• Construct validity: Does the RPE scale measure what it claims to measure? Does it have any relationship with physiological markers of exercise intensity?
  ○ Is it a valid measure for exercise intensity? - YES, high RPE is associated with a higher exercise intensity
  
  • Reliability: What is the variance in ratings if repeated? - may be affected by how familiar a person is with the RPE scale…
  • Familiarisation: Is the individual familiar with the exercise mode or the scale - important to expose people to increase their ability to rate their RPE

Question 8

How does exercise modality influence a person’s RPE?

Answer 8

For a given relative intensity of exercise, modality specific training leads to
– Lower RPE values for cycling after cycling training
– Lower RPE values for running after running training (but RPE at the lactate threshold is comparable)
* As a person gets use to an mode of exercise, their RPE will decrease

• as cadence increases the RPE also increases linearly

Question 9

How do we differentiate RPE?

What is it influenced by?

Answer 9

Might there be a dominance of a differentiated RPE (e.g. central or peripheral factors) when forming overall RPE?
* Influenced by:
– exercise modality
– exercise type
– level of training
e.g.: arm exercise, is where the main source of peripheral exhaustion, but does not fatigue the CV system
* Need for differentiated RPE

Question 10

What teleo-anticipation?

Answer 10

‘Teleo-anticipation’ implies effort perception may be a feedforward system where exercise intensity is refined based upon afferent feedback (Hampson et al., Sports Med., 2001)
- How long can I keep up a certain workload, in respect to the specific input method

Question 11

Describe the application of RPE: prediction of maximal physical capacity

at what RPE does the relationship become linear with Mean o2 uptake?

Answer 11

1. Prediction of maximal physical capacity
   ○ Maximal exercise tests are physically demanding and may not be safe in clinical or elderly populations
   Sub-maximal linear workload-RPE relationship can be extrapolated to provide predictions of maximal capacity, via extrapolation

• at an RPE 11

Question 12

Describe the application of estimation of RPE:

How can RPE be used in a medical basis?

Answer 12

○ Exercise intensity prescribed at an RPE elicited during an exercise task of a fixed intensity (%VO2peak or % peak power output)
○ Participants self-regulate exercise intensity to ‘produce’ the required intensity via adjustments in speed, gradient or resistance
- People are able to estimate to estimate and produce PO based on RPE very efficiently (mainly when familiarised)

RPE can be used to prescribe the exercise intensity of CV and resistance training, but not effective as a primary prescription method
- Good tool when used in addition to CV ability

Question 13

Explain the application of: prescription of time to exhaustion:

Answer 13

Linear relationship with exercise time and RPE
- RPE rating can be used to predict how much longer people can exercise for (in constant load exercise)
- Regardless of condition all people follow a similar trend (around 14-15)

Question 14

What is the application of: longitudinal monitoring of training load:

How does this differ in endurance vs resistance training?

Answer 14

Endurance training
* Exertion of session – Rate from 0-10, e.g. 6
* Duration – in minutes, e.g. 60
* Session RPE: 6 x 60 = 360 - overall load of session
Resistance training
- Multiply exertion with number of repetitions rather than time
- e.g.: 15 reps, RPE of 9 = 15x9

Question 15

What is the practical application of familiarisation?

What are some considerations?

Answer 15

• Estimation of VO2max in three trials
  
  • Error between trials smaller with more practice
    Variation in T1/2 to T2/3:
    Means that Vo2Max rating become more accurate as well as RPE estimations
  • Familiarisation can improve accuracy when self-regulating exercise
  • Large inter-individual differences in ratings between individuals, people rate RPE differently
  • ‘Audience’ effect when assessing RPE in a group environment
  • Dependent on who is in the lab: e.g.: male vs female asking for a person’s RPE