Segmented session perceived exertion and affective responses to self-paced treadmill exercise

Purpose To compare session ratings of perceived exertion (sRPE) and affective responses (sAR) with segmented session responses, which involve separate ratings for the first and second halves of exercise, for self-paced treadmill exercise. Methods Thirty recreationally active participants (15 men, 15 women; 20.3 ± 1.6 year) attended 2 treadmill exercise sessions. Session 1 involved a VO 2 max test. RPE (OMNI Scale) and AR (Feeling Scale) were rated at the end of each stage. Session 2 involved 20 min at self-paced intensity. Adjustment of speed was allowed at 5-min increments. RPE and AR were rated at the end of each 5-min. 20-min post-exercise, Session and Segmented Session RPE and AR were rated in random order. Repeated-measures ANOVA were used to compare acute exercise with Session and Segmented Session values. Results Both sRPE (4.6 ± 1.5) and mean Segmented—sRPE (4.1 ± 1.5) were similar to mean acute RPE (4.4 ± 1.4) although mean Segmented—sRPE was significantly less than sRPE ( p = 0.002). In addition, both sAR (2.8 ± 1.6) and mean Segmented—sAR (2.8 ± 1.4) were similar to mean acute AR (2.8 ± 1.5). Conclusion Session and Segmented Session RPE/AR provided estimates of the global exertional or affective responses to self-paced treadmill exercise that represented the average of acute exercise responses. These post-exercise ratings may provide additional information regarding the perceptual and affective memory of different segments of the previous exercise and may be useful for tracking exercise programs.