Validity of ratings of perceived exertion as an index of exercise intensity in swimming training.

Abstract

The validity of ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), proposed by Borg (1962), as an index of exercise intensity in swimming training was discussed based on the following four experiments. Experiment I: VO2 and heart rate (HR) were measured and RPE was asked in ten female and seven male physical education students with different levels of swimming skill performing submaximal and maximal work in tethered swimming. The increases in HR and RPE with increase in %VO2max were fitted well by straight lines with high correlation coefficients of r = 0.957-0.999 and r = 0.893-0.988, respectively. RPE was increased in a linear fashion with increase in HR except for a few subjects. The correlation coefficients for linear regression for individuals were 0.862-0.987. Experiment II: Swimming velocity and HR were measured in four groups with different levels of swimming skill. The breast stroke in a 50-m pool for 5 min at three RPE ratings, i.e., very light (RPE 9), somewhat hard (RPE 13) and very hard (RPE 17) was requested of these groups. In good skilled well trained college swimmers, %HRmax was fairly higher than the RPE at the RPE 9 and RPE 13 levels but coincided with the RPE at the RPE 17 level. In skilled trained physical education students, the HR increased with a corresponding increase in RPE. But in the group with low or lower levels of swimming skill, the HR kept about the same values in spite of the increase in RPE. Experiment III: Two male and six female low skilled physical education students took the swimming training in the swimming pool for 2.0-2.5 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 2 weeks. The students also received the swimming training in the sea which lasted for 2 hours each in the morning and in the afternoon for 6 days. The same RPE test, as mentioned in Experiment II, was done before, during and after swimming training. Mean swimming velocity during and after training was slightly higher than that before training at the RPE 9 and RPE 13 levels, and was much higher at the RPE 17 level. Before training, the HR was fairly higher than the RPE at the RPE 9 and RPE 13 level. But during and after training, the HR was much closer to the RPE at the RPE 9 and RPE 13 levels. Experiment IV: Two male and three female lower skilled middle-aged swimmers performed the same RPE test as mentioned in Experiment II.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)