25 years of session rating of perceived exertion: Historical perspective and development

Carl Foster*, Daniel Boullosa, Michael McGuigan, Andrea Fusco, Cristina Cortis, Blaine E. Arney, Bo Orton, Christopher Dodge, Salvador Jaime, Kim Radtke, Teun Van Erp, Jos J. De Koning, Daniel Bok, Jose A. Rodriguez-Marroyo, John P. Porcari

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) method was developed 25 years ago as a modification of the Borg concept of rating of perceived exertion (RPE), designed to estimate the intensity of an entire training session. It appears to be well accepted as a marker of the internal training load. Early studies demonstrated that sRPE correlated well with objective measures of internal training load, such as the percentage of heart rate reserve and blood lactate concentration. It has been shown to be useful in a wide variety of exercise activities ranging from aerobic to resistance to games. It has also been shown to be useful in populations ranging from patients to elite athletes. The sRPE is a reasonable measure of the average RPE acquired across an exercise session. Originally designed to be acquired ~30 minutes after a training bout to prevent the terminal elements of an exercise session from unduly influencing the rating, sRPE has been shown to be temporally robust across periods ranging from 1 minute to 14 days following an exercise session. Within the training impulse concept, sRPE, or other indices derived from sRPE, has been shown to be able to account for both positive and negative training outcomes and has contributed to our understanding of how training is periodized to optimize training outcomes and to understand maladaptations such as overtraining syndrome. The sRPE as a method of monitoring training has the advantage of extreme simplicity. While it is not ideal for the precise recording of the details of the external training load, it has large advantages relative to evaluating the internal training load.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)612-621
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
Volume16
Issue number5
Early online date28 Jan 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Human Kinetics, Inc.

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Fitness-fatigue model
  • RPE
  • Training dose
  • Training intensity
  • Training monitoring

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