Can self-reported tolerance of exercise intensity play a role in exercise testing?

INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE To examine the relationship between self-reported tolerance of exercise intensity, measured by the Preference for and Tolerance of Exercise Intensity Questionnaire, and the amount of time individuals persevered during incremental treadmill tests to volitional fatigue beyond the point at which they had reached their ventilatory threshold. METHODS The participants in study 1 were college age and physically active (14 women, 16 men). The participants in study 2 were 24 middle-aged women who were healthy but sedentary. RESULTS Tolerance was related to the duration after the ventilatory threshold, and this relationship remained after age, body mass index, and self-reported frequency and duration of habitual physical activity (study 1) or after age, body mass index, and maximal aerobic capacity (study 2) had been taken into account. CONCLUSION Self-reports of exercise intensity tolerance might account for variability in the extent to which individuals persevere during exercise tests. Identifying individuals predisposed to under- or overexertion could be of value in exercise testing and prescription.