The measurement and accumulation of perceived exertion in a progressive cycling maximal power test in children and adolescents

The purpose of the analysis presented here was to examine the linear properties of the commonly used Rating of Perceived Exertion scale (RPE; Borg 1970) in children and adolescent cohorts. Heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) data from two samples of boys and adolescents who performed a progressive cycling task were subjected to Rasch probabilistic analysts. The Rasch Analysis was aimed at clarifying the concept of RPE measurement (equal units/intervals along a linear continuum), and the process of subjective exertion accumulation using HR as a physiological criterion. The analyses resulted in somewhat different "quantitative semantics" locations on the linear continuum attributed to the differences of exertion accumulation perceptions in children and adolescents. The exertion perceived by the participants did not increase linearly as assumed in Borg's (1970) 15-grade quantitative semantics but rather exponentially as in his 1973 ratio scale (i.e., exponential scale of muscular effort intensity). Effort perceived by participants in progressive protocols was accumulated slowly during the first phases of the exercise task, hut much more quickly during the fast phases. Similarly, when RPE was used as a criterion, HR intervals in the upper limit (160-200 b/min) were smaller (i.e., HR increased "faster") than in the lower limit (100-120 b/min) of the scale. Similar analyses are required in different types of exertive tasks, and additional physiological indices should be integrated into the analysis to account for exertion accumulation variance in samples of participants who vary in age, gender physical condition status, task familiarity, and other characteristics.