Use of Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) to Prescribe Exercise Intensity for Wheelchair-Bound Children and Adults

Abstract

Seventeen individuals (ages 11–30 years), all wheelchair users, were classified as active or sedentary. Peak mechanical power, heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were determined during continuous, incremental all-out arm ergometry. Subjects were asked to wheel on an oval track at prescribed speeds, and one month later they repeated this task. All subjects could distinguish among prescriptions, as judged from HR and wheeling velocities. However, the active subjects chose higher speeds (by 0.8–1.3 m/s), a wider range of speeds, and could better distinguish among sequential RPE levels than did the sedentary subjects. All subjects chose wheeling velocities higher than expected from their originally established HR-on-RPE regression. One-month retention was high and similar between groups. Individuals who use wheelchairs can discriminate among wheeling intensities as prescribed using the RPE scale and have excellent retention for at least one month.

Regulating exercise intensity using ratings of perceived exertion during arm and leg ergometry

“…Since palpating HR during arm crank exercise often results in exercise interruption, such a validation suggests that using RPE to regulate intensity is a practical alternative, allowing the individual to monitor exercise intensity while exercising continuously. The present ®nding is in disagreement with that of Ward et al (1995) in which it was reported that HRs are consistently higher during the production than the estimation trial in wheelchair-bound children and adults. The dierences in HR may be attributed to a dierence in the exercise equipment used between the two trials.…”

“…As such, the use of RPEs for exercise prescription during arm crank exercise becomes especially attractive because this approach can ensure a continuous attainment of the exercise stimulus. Interestingly, the only study conducted thus far using upper body exercise has shown the occurrence of a consistently higher HR during the production compared to the estimation trial in wheelchair-bound children and adults (Ward et al 1995). This result casts some doubt as to the eectiveness of the RPE system for regulating exercise intensity during upper body exercise.…”

The validity of predicting maximal oxygen uptake from a perceptually-regulated graded exercise test

“…This has been demonstrated for treadmill running (Dunbar et al 1992;Eston et al 1987;Glass et al 1992;Kang et al 2003;Smutok et al 1980), cycling (Buckley et al 2000;Dunbar et al 1992;Eston and Williams 1988;Kang et al 2003), arm and leg ergometry (Kang et al 1998); rowing ergometry (Marriott and Lamb 1996), wheelchair exercise (Ward et al 1995) and cycling in children and adolescents Eston and Williams 1986;Williams et al 1991;Robertson et al 2002). Research also shows that practice tends to improve the ability to reproduce a given exercise intensity when regulated by ratings of perceived exertion (Buckley et al 2000;Eston and Williams 1988;Eston et al 2000).…”

The Scope of Pediatric Physical Therapy Practice in Health Promotion and Fitness for Youth With Disabilities

“…The reference standard for determining aerobic capacity is an incremental exercise test (often on a treadmill or stationary bicycle) conducted in the laboratory with peak oxygen consumption and peak HR recorded. 73 In our experience, most youth with disabilities require training to use a perceived exertion scale with accompanying information on their HR levels to ensure valid ratings of exertion to gauge exercise intensity. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) or shuttle-run tests have been developed specifically for youth without disabilities, youth with intellectual disabilities, visual impairments, or other disabilities with mild physical impairments, 65,66 and youth with CP [24][25][26] and SB.…”