Perceived exertion is a way to understand how hard the body is working during physical activity. It considers overall feeling of strain, which is influenced by information from the senses, heart, and lungs. The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a scale developed by Borg in the 1970s and 1980s. It uses numbers from 6 to 20 to represent a range of heart rates from 60 to 200 beats per minute. The scale also has words that describe how hard the activity feels, placed symmetrically around the middle value of “13” or “somewhat hard.” Studies have shown that RPE is closely associated with heart rate and how much oxygen the body is using. While the RPE scale increases steadily with more effort, it’s important to note that people’s perception of work intensity may not always follow a straight line. There are other scales and methods for measuring perceived exertion, including ones that look back at the overall effort of a training session.
Borg, G. (1970). Perceived exertion as an indicator of somatic stress. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2, 92 98.
Borg, G. A. V. (1982). Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 14, 377 381.