Concurrent muscle hurt and perceived exertion of children during resistance exercise.
OBJECTIVE
Rating of muscle hurt (RMH) and RPE were concurrently measured for 10- to 14-yr-old females (n = 50) and males (n = 50) performing unilateral biceps curl (BC) and knee extension (KE) isotonic exercise.


METHODS
BC and KE exercises were counterbalanced within subjects. Three counterbalanced, 10 repetition sets (30%, 50%, and 70% one repetition maximum (1-RM)) were performed for both exercises. RMH and RPE were obtained for active muscles using the Children's OMNI-Hurt Scale and the Children's OMNI-Resistance Exercise Scale of Perceived Exertion, respectively.


RESULTS
For both females and males, RMH ranged across sets from 1.5 to 6.0 during BC and 3.2 to 6.7 during KE. RPE ranged from 3.4 to 8.3 during BC and 5.0 to 8.9 during KE. Ratings expressed as percent scores were lower (P < 0.01) for RMH than for RPE at the 30%, 50%, and 70% 1-RM during BC and KE for females and males. Regression coefficients for weight lifted as a function of RMH ranged from r = 0.67 to r = 0.87 (P < 0.01) for BC and KE. Correlations between RMH and RPE ranged from r = 0.19 to r = 0.82 across sets for both genders.


CONCLUSIONS
Female and male children can concurrently and differentially rate their perceived intensity of muscle hurt and exertion during upper and lower body resistance exercise using numerical category metrics (i.e., OMNI scales) having construct-specific pictorial and verbal descriptors.
Center for Exercise and Health-Fitness Research, Department of Health and Physical Activity, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. rrobert@pitt.edu
Robert J
RJ
Robertson
Fredric L
FL
Goss
Deborah J
DJ
Aaron
Elizabeth F
EF
Nagle
Michael
M
Gallagher
Irene R
IR
Kane
Kathryn A
KA
Tessmer
Mark A
MA
Schafer
Sarah E
SE
Hunt
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000293:injuries*; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D055070:Resistance Training