Make it a 10: just how tough was your last workout?

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Oct, 2004

You've probably used the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale to determine the intensity of your cardio workouts, but now it can be the measuring stick for your weight-training sessions, too. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse concluded that the RPE scale is an effective method for measuring the intensity of a weight-training session and, when used in conjunction with a training log, could give a uniform basis to tracking the difficulty of workouts--weights or cardio. Using this system, researchers suggest you could determine your next workout's RPE beforehand, making it easier to progressively increase the intensity to make continued gains in strength.

Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18(2):353-358, 2004.

Breakthroughs, buzz and bulletins--the latest on training, nutrition, health & beauty