Perceived exertion threshold predicts the second ventilatory threshold in elite mountain runners

Abstract

Gold standards methodologies for accessing physiological transition thresholds (PTT) are expensive or invasive measures, as ventilatory and metabolic analyses. Rating of Perceived exertion (RPE) has been appliedwith athletes during physical evaluation and/or daily training since is a simple and low-cost tool which measures the internal load of the athletes. The use of DmaxRPE seems to be a promising methodology to use in training, although, the effectiveness of this methodology has never been previously evaluated. Then, the aim of the present study was to assessthe efficacy of Ratings of Perceived Exertion threshold identified by the Dmax method (DmaxRPE) for predicting second physiological transition thresholds in elite mountain runners. Twelve elite male mountain runners’ athletes (age 34.08 ± 6.68 years; height, 1.76 ± 7.76 m; weight, 73.65 ± 9.16 kg; VO2max, 68.49 ± 5.03 ml·min-1·kg-1) with 10.0 ± 7.1 years of experience in long-distance races underwent anincrementaltest on a treadmill. There were no differences between DmaxRPE, ventilatory threshold (VT) and heart rate deflection point (HRDP) (P>0.05). However, significant differences were observedbetween fixed 5.8 RPE score and the DmaxRPE, VT, and HRDP methods (p < 0.05). In addition, strong associations were observed between VT and DmaxRPE for HR (r = 0.79; p < 0.05) and %HR (r = 0.87; p < 0.05). Bland-Altman plots showed low bias and good agreement between DmaxRPE and VT. The results suggest that DmaxRPE is a valuable tool for predicting VT and should be used in future studies since it is a low-cost and easy-to-apply method.