Relationship between RPE and Blood Lactate after Fatiguing Handgrip Exercise in Taekwondo and Sedentary Subjects

Purpose: To get information on the effort during vigorous exercise there are different ways and, the most popular, is the scale to measure subjective exertion or the rating of perceived exertion (RPE), such as the Borg scale. This scale is an effective methods to quantify and monitor the intensity of the exercise The aims of this study were to investigate the association between RPE, blood lactate concentration and maximal voluntary handgrip (MVG) force, after fatiguing exercise in athletes and non-athletes. Method: Twelve right-handed male taekwondo athletes (age: 27 ± 5 years) and 12 matched controls (age: 26 ± 5 years) were recruited. Peak force was measured and, after a subsequent rest, subjects were asked to reproduce 30% of their MVG for 4 s, then relax for 2 s, and then repeat this sequence for 10 minutes. Blood lactate was measured at rest (pre), at the end (0 min) as well as 3 and 10 min of the recovery. The RPE for the work performed were measured at the end of fatiguing handgrip exercise with Borg scale (range: 6-20). Conclusion: The results of this study show significant correlation between RPE and blood lactate peak (p<0.01), RPE and MVG post exercise (p<0.01) and between RPE and Δ blood lactate (blood lactate post-blood lactate pre; p<0.01).