Perceived exertion in isometric muscular contractions related to age, muscle, force level and duration

This research was concerned with studying the development and growth of perceived effort of long-term isometric contractions as a function of muscle group (biceps vs quadriceps), of subjects with different age groups (20-29 vs. 50-59 years old) on long-term muscular isometric contractions (5 minutes) at different levels of %MVC (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 %MVC). An experiment testing 20 subjects each performing 10 conditions (two muscle groups × five levels of %MVC) showed that the older age group reported Significantly higher perceived exertion at higher levels of %MVC and across time. Furthermore, subjects experienced a higher and faster increase in their perceived exertion when the level of %MVC and time increased.