Comparison of central and peripheral perceived exertion threshold with critical power

Abstract

Recent literature in the area has proposed a perceived exertion threshold (PET) which represents an intensity at which theoretically there would be no increase in the subjective perception of exertion. This intensity presented a high correlation with critical power (CP); there was no significant statistical difference between them. Thus, the aim of this study was to estimate the PETcentral, and compare it with PETperipheral and CP. Sixteen subjects of both sexes took part of this study. Four predictive square-wave tests were performed to estimate CP, PETcentral and PETperipheral. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to compare CP, PETcentral and PETperipheral. The correlation among the variables was verified by Pearson’s correlation. There was no significantly difference between CP, PETcentral and PETperipheral. Furthermore, all the correlations between intensities were high. Thus, PET seems to be a practical method to determinate the metabolic transition point between intense and severe domains.