That Escalated Quickly—Planning to Ignore RPE Can Backfire

Abstract

Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) are routinely assessed in exercise science and RPE is substantially associated with physiological criterion measures. According to the psychobiological model of endurance, RPE is a central limiting factor in performance. While RPE is known to be affected by psychological manipulations, it remains to be examined whether RPE can be self-regulated during static muscular endurance exercises to enhance performance. In this experiment, we investigate the effectiveness of the widely used and recommended self-regulation strategy of if-then planning (i.e., implementation intentions) in down-regulating RPE and improving performance in a static muscular endurance task. 62 female students (age: M = 23.7 years, SD = 4.0) were randomly assigned to an implementation intention or a control condition and performed a static muscular endurance task. They held two intertwined rings as long as possible while avoiding contacts between the rings. In the implementation intention condition, participants had an if-then plan: “If the task becomes too strenuous for me, then I ignore the strain and tell myself: Keep going!” Every 25 ± 10 s participants reported their RPE along with their perceived pain. Endurance performance was measured as time to failure, along with contact errors as a measure of performance quality. No differences emerged between implementation intention and control participants regarding time to failure and performance quality. However, mixed-effects model analyses revealed a significant Time-to-Failure × Condition interaction for RPE. Compared to the control condition, participants in the implementation intention condition reported substantially greater increases in RPE during the second half of the task and reached higher total values of RPE before task termination. A similar but weaker pattern evinced for perceived pain. Our results demonstrate that RPE during an endurance task can be self-regulated with if-then plans. This finding is particularly important given how frequently RPE is used in exercise science as a correlate of physiological processes that ultimately limit performance. Unexpectedly, participants with implementation intentions reported higher RPE than control participants. This suggests that strategies to self-regulate RPE might have ironic effects that hamper performance, maybe by increasing attention to RPE. This implication is important for exercise physiologists, athletes and coaches.

Validity, Reliability, and Application of the Session-RPE Method for Quantifying Training Loads during High Intensity Functional Training

“…However, if the critical element of a monitoring strategy (i.e., the surrogate measure of effort/load) is not able to be reliability reported, we contend that the monitoring strategy is largely invalid [35] within this current study of HIFT. However, identifying strategies such as attentional focus [36] or implementation planning [37] to assist HIFT participants in improving the reliability of their rate of perceived exertion during HIFT may rectify this issue.…”

Implicit Theories about Athletic Ability Modulate the Effects of If-Then Planning on Performance in a Standardized Endurance Task

“…On the other hand, two similar studies focusing on time-to-failure in a rod-holding task found no effects of if-then planning on performance. In one study [31], planning to ignore perceived exertion did not alter performance and actually increased exertion. Such a null-finding also emerged in the second study [18] in which participants planned to ignore perceptions of pain (as in the ball-holding study)-although functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during task performance showed lower lateral prefrontal cortex activity among participants in the implementation intention condition, indicating lower activation in an area that is critical for effortful self-regulatory control.…”

“…We recruited an all-male sample of N = 66 participants (age: M = 25.8 years, SD = 3.2) to minimize gender-related variance in endurance performance [31,50]. This sample size allows us to detect medium-to-large differences (d = 0.70; a typical effect size of implementation intentions is d = 0.65, see [19]) between the goal and the implementation intention condition in two-sided t-tests (α = 0.05).…”

“…We used the "hot rings task" (HRT; [31]) to measure static muscular endurance performance. Participants were instructed to hold two aluminum bars connected by intertwined rings for as long (time-to-failure) and with as few contacts between the rings (errors) as possible.…”

“…First, we wanted to improve upon previous research designs. In previous studies, all participants received the same if-then plan that targeted either perceived exertion [31] or pain [18,30]. These studies did not take into account whether these sensations were in fact limiting the performance of individual participants.…”