Quantifying internal workload during training drills in handball players: comparison between heart rate and perceived exertion based methods

Abstract

Aim: Monitoring internal workload is widely used in team sports. The association between the rating of perceived exertion-based (s-RPE) and heart rate (HR)-based methods needs further investigations regarding exercise modalities in handball. This study compared sRPE and HR-based responses during commonly used handball-training drills. Methods: Twelve professional male players were monitored in 6 separate occasions during two small-sided games (SSGs), two match-play periods (MPs) and two interval runs (IRs). The s-RPE and two HR-based methods were used to quantify workload. Pearson correlations were applied to determine relationships between quantification methods, and one-way ANOVA was used to compare workloads between exercise modalities for each method. Results: Nearly perfect correlation was observed (p < 0.0001, r = 0.93–0.99) between both HR-based methods for each exercise modality. Relationships between s-RPE and HR-based methods revealed trivial to small correlations. The perception of effort reported in response to SSGs and MPs sequences were much lower than IRs. Conclusion: s-RPE and HR-based methods do not seem to be interchangeable. They should be considered as complementary to understand psychophysiological workload. The s-RPE quantification of training drills might help coaches to better design their training session particularly during intense periods.