Systematic Differences in Mean Rating of Perceived Exertion and Session Rating of Perceived Exertion During Training...

Training load monitoring is an important part of evaluating training and competition. The rating of perceived exertion (RPE) is a useful subjective method of rating training intensity and training load. It has been assumed that the session RPE (sRPE), a single number representing the entire exercise bout, is a simple mean of the RPE during an exercise bout (xRPE). However, data showing a drift in RPE during the course of exercise bouts suggests that sRPE may be different than xRPE.

We collected a large volume (all observations = 1184, competition = 207, training = 976) of data from multiple modes of exercise, from a single laboratory, over a 30-year time period. xRPE was collected over ∼ 10% distance/time increments (including warm-up and cooldown), and sRPE was collected ∼30 minutes following the conclusion of the cooldown.

Across all observations (r = .95), competition (r = .75), and training (r = .94), xRPE and sRPE were well correlated. However, sRPE (6.1 [2.2] vs 5.3 [1.8]; 8.2 [1.2] vs 7.1 [1.0]; and 5.1 [1.9] vs 4.5 [1.4]) was systematically greater versus xRPE, particularly when RPE ≥ 5.

sRPE does not represent a simple mean of momentary RPE across an exercise bout. sRPE is greater than xRPE due to a temporal effect with terminal RPE values exerting a greater effect on sRPE and to the effect of glycogen signaling which persists following exercise after other drivers of RPE have normalized.