Can young swimmers guide their pace through the rating of perceived exertion?

Abstract

Currently, the most widely used methods for evaluating internal training load rely on heart rate data as a tool to measure exercise intensity. However, there are limited practical methods available for evaluating training load in swimming. Therefore, assessing indirect methods such as the rating of perceived exertion, a psychophysiological tool to assess the subjective perception of effort during exercise, becomes practical and useful. This study aims to link swimming intensities based on rating of perceived exertion values to identify key performance markers such as velocity, stroke length, stroke rate, and heart rate-based methods to verify if the rating of perceived exertion production is a reliable method to prescribe intensity in swimming. Eight (4 male, 4 female) well-trained swimmers (age 15.8 ± 2.3 years) performed nine bouts of 200 m, three in each of the front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke at ratings of perceived exertion of 5 (strong), 7 (very strong) and 9 (extreme) in the CR-10 Borg Scale. Significant effects were observed for rating of perceived exertion in velocity, stroke rate, stroke length, mean and maximum heart rate, while effects of swimming stroke were observed on velocity, stroke rate and stroke length. These findings suggest that producing ratings of perceived exertion of 5, 7 and 9 may be a suitable approach for swimmers to guide their pace in practice settings.