Learning the Borg scale from verbal instructions alone or while riding a maximal test made no clear difference to ratings during a 30-s all-out cycle sprint: 30 recreationally trained young men in three groups of 10 (instructions only; the same instructions given during a maximal graded test, with the top of the scale set at its last stage or at a 30-s sprint straight after) gave similar ratings, slopes and intercepts. Small, old, no numbers in the abstract

Gearhart and colleagues compared three ways of teaching the 15-category Borg scale before a 30-s maximal cycle sprint against a resistance of 0.10 × body mass (kg). One group of 10 had verbal instructions only (a memory anchor).

Two groups had the same instructions delivered while riding a maximal graded test: the low anchor was set during light pedalling, and the high anchor at the final stage of the test in one group and at a 30-s sprint right after it in the other. Ratings were taken at 8, 13, 18, 23 and 28 s of the experimental sprint.

The authors report that ratings, and the slopes and intercepts of their regressions over the sprint, were similar across the three groups, and conclude that memory anchoring and combined exercise-and-memory anchoring give similar ratings in short, high-intensity cycling in young recreationally trained athletes.

n = 30 recreationally trained men, 10 per group. Age, fitness and cycling background are not in the abstract.