Evidence That Rating of Perceived Exertion Growth During Fatiguing Tasks is Scalar and Independent of Exercise Mode

Abstract

Introduction: The relationship between the percentage of a fatiguing ambulatory task completed and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) appears to be linear and scalar, with a relatively narrow “window.” Recent evidence has suggested that a similar relationship may exist for muscularly demanding tasks. Methods: To determine whether muscularly demanding tasks fit within this “ambulatory window,” we tested resistance-trained athletes performing bench press and leg press with different loadings predicted to allow 5, 10, 20, and 30 repetitions and measured RPE (category ratio scale) at the end of the concentric action for each repetition. Results: There was a regular, and strongly linear, pattern of growth of RPE for both bench press (r = .89) and leg press (r = .90) during the tasks that allowed 5.2 (1.2), 11.6 (1.9), 22.7 (2.0), and 30.8 (3.2) repetitions for bench press and 5.5 (1.5), 11.4 (1.6), 20.2 (3.0), and 32.4 (4.2) repetitions for leg press, respectively. Conclusions: The path of the RPE growth versus percentage task fit within the window evident for ambulatory tasks. The results suggest that the RPE versus percentage task completed relationship is scalar, relatively linear, and apparently independent of exercise mode.

Competition Between Desired Competitive Result, Tolerable Homeostatic Disturbance, and Psychophysiological Interpretation Determines Pacing Strategy

“…Several studies have shown that RPE grows in a systematic manner in relation to the percentage of a task completed. 25,28,29,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89] This suggests a scaling of RPE to the overall level of homeostatic disturbance, regardless of the precise nature of the disturbance. The rate of RPE growth during an event appears to be tightly regulated, as blinded changes in inspired (O 2 ) cause a rapid change in muscular power output while the rate of RPE growth barely changes.…”

“…Data included are for ambulatory tasks such as walking, running, and cycling, as well as for lifting weights to failure with different levels of resistance. 21,25,28,51,53,54,64,72,80,88,[93][94][95][96] Hazard score (momentary RPE × fractional distance remaining), which seems to be able to inform athletes when to change power output during an event. 82,84,95,96 An extension of this technique, the summated Hazard score, has been shown to allow appreciation of how taxing an event feels.…”

“…In concert with the effect of a preexercise template, there is no effect on power output at the beginning of the time trial, but there is a rapid and progressive decrease in power output throughout the course of the glycogen-depleted time trial. 87 Figure 5 -Schematic responses of 10-(upper panels) 79 and 20-km (lower panels) 88 cycle time trials where one or more bursts, as if the rider were trying to "break away from the peloton," were inserted. In both cases, during the burst the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) grew at a higher rate than in the control (self-paced) trial and slowly recovered after the burst, consequent to a reduction in power output.…”

Mental fatigue impairs the number of repetitions to muscular failure in the half back‐squat exercise for low‐ and mid‐ but not high‐intensity resistance exercise

“…In a study by Meyer et al. (2022), the authors found that the perception of effort increases in a scalar manner relative to the percentage of maximal subject capacity in a physical task (i.e., the maximum number of repetitions or total distance), which means that mental fatigue might have a negative effect independently of the physical task performed. It corroborates recent findings of dynamic resistance exercises that show a reduction in the number of repetitions performed to failure in mentally fatigued individuals (Gantois et al., 2021; Queiros et al., 2021).…”