The Effects of Conditioning and Gender on Ratings of Perceived Exertion During Physical Exercise

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if gender played a factor in perception during physical exertion, and whether those perceptions were influenced by conditioning level. Sixteen male and sixteen female volunteer subjects, ranging in age from 21 to 35, constituted the sample for this study. The Bruce protocol for a Symptom­-Limited Graded Exercise test was the instrument utilized to evaluate heart rate during the maximal physical exercise program. A ventilatory analyzer measured each subject\u27s maximal oxygen consumption. Borg\u27s Rated Perceived Exertion Scale was employed for subjective evaluation of an individual\u27s perception of effort. The t-test compared mean scores of RPE during test 1 and test 2, and was utilized to determine significant difference. Analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc tests were used to determine if there were differences between males and females, or between the conditioned and non­conditioned subjects. The Pearson product-moment was employed to determine correlation between heart rate and RPE values. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant RPE difference at the alpha value .05, between males and females, and between conditioning levels of those subjects