Psychological load related to training and competitions in athletes: validity and reliability of new differential RPE scales

The purpose of this PhD thesis was to begin the validation process of two RPE-based scales that separate the psychological load of a training session from the physical one. Five different studies were conducted with more than two hundred semi-professional and élite athletes. The two new differential RPE scales, the perceived mental exertion rating scale (M-RPE) and the perceived physical exertion sclae (P-RPE), results valid compared to the criterion measure, able to discriminate different mental and physical training loads in field and in laboratory environment, and very reliable with athletes on the field. Finally, the ecological validity of the two scales was tested in a pilot study in which 4 professional and semi-professional teams were monitored differentiating the perceived effort experienced by athletes during training and competitions. The results of this multiple research studies support the use of differential RPE scales in the daily practice of monitoring the training loads of individual and team sports athletes. Finally we provided reliable and ecologically valid measures of physical and mental loads in different types of training and competition.