Monitoring the training intensity and recovery with a psychometrics approach: a gender comparison with young athletes

Aim — The purpose of present study was verify if the RPE-training session differs between females and males during the track and field training and if biological maturity (BM) has interference on this response. Methods: Seventyfive athletes (13-15 years old) have participated of study, with 38 male 37 female. Five training sessions of track and field were prescribe and monitoring by RPE-training session (intensity) and Total Quality Recovery (TQR) (recovery). Results: There was no statistical difference between males and females on 75-meters run, long jump and shot put. Otherwise, for training of 250 and 1000-meters females related higher RPE-values than males 3.68 ± 0.79, 3.26 ± 0.56, p < 0.01 and 4.14 ± 0.94, 3.72 ± 0.89, p < 0.05; respectively. Even when controlling the effect of biological maturity the same results were observed to 250-meters F1,73 = 2.060; p = 0.002 and 1000-meters F1,73 = 0.997; p = 0.036. There was no difference for TQR between genders. Conclusion: The comparison the RPE-training session of females and males indicated there were difference to 250 and 1000-m training sessions, females have more RPE-training sessions than males. Additionally, there were no differences between genders for recovery parameters, even controlling BM.