Walter Staiano, Andrea Bosio, Helma M. de Morree, Ermanno Rampinini e Samuele Marcora (2018). The cardinal exercise stopper: muscle fatigue, muscle pain or perception of effort? Progress in Brain Research, 240, 175-200.
The ability to sustain high-intensity aerobic exercise is essential for endurance performance. Is cessation of high-intensity aerobic exercise due to muscle fatigue, muscle soreness, or increased perception of exertion?
Study participants performed a cycle ergometer test at constant load and high intensity.They were pushed to provide the maximum effort possible. The results show that at the moment when the athlete voluntarily stops pedaling (theoretical moment of maximum exhaustion) he or she actually still has a high exercise capacity. This means that from a physiological point of view, when the athlete perceives himself as exhausted, in reality he can still produce about twice as much power as that which led him to exhaustion. The data highlights that the factor that prevents the continuation of the exercise, when you stop during an intense effort, is not the lack of strength to continue at that intensity or the perception of pain in the muscles. The reason for stopping or decreasing the intensity during a high intensity effort lies in the perception of the effort.
A trick to continue at the same intensity is to distract the mind with a thought that sustains this effort for a few seconds or a few meters, that is the decisive moment of the race because those who do not think in this way will stop or slow down excessively while we continue.
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