Effects of Training Status and Exercise Intensity on Differentiated and Undifferentiated Ratings of Perceived Exertion

Abstract

PURPOSE: To examine the effect of aerobic training status on components of the differentiated perceived exertion model in young women performing weight bearing and non-weight bearing aerobic exercise. METHODS: Subjects were 18-25 yr old women (19 untrained, 22 trained) who underwent two graded exercise tests (GXT) separated by 48 hours. The first GXT used a treadmill and employed a modified Bruce protocol and terminated at VO2max. The second GXT used a cycle ergometer where the initial power output was 50 W and was incremented by 25 W every three minutes until fatigue or inability to maintain pedal cadence (50 rpm). RPE-Overall (O), -Legs (L), and -Chest (C), as well as respiratory metabolic measures were recorded each minute. Individual regression analyses were used to identify RPE-O,-L, and -C at 40, 60, 80% VO2max. Six separate two way (training status (2) x intensity (3)) ANOVAs with repeated measures on intensity were computed. RESULTS: The following data for the sample were observed: RPE-O, -L, -C range = 0 to 10, mean VO2max untrained = 33.40 ml/kg/min, mean VO2max trained = 43.3 ml/kg/ min. The six separate ANOVAs yielded no significant difference between the untrained and trained groups for RPE-O, -L, and -C (Table 1). However, there were main effects for intensity (p<0.05) for all analyses, suggesting that RPE-O,-L, and -C increased significantly as % VO2max increased (Table 1).Table 1: Mean RPE responsesCONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that RPE is a valid tool to track relative exercise intensity and that it can be applied as differentiated or undifferentiated responses regardless of training status.