Summary • Athletes adapt at different rates, therefore it is important to quantify the dose/response relationship to ensure that exercise prescription is customised. • There are different methods that can be used to quantify external training load, internal training load, or a combination of both. • Heart rate monitors make it easy to measure heart rate during exercise and this provides an objective measure. • Techniques involving heart rate are useful, but it is important to consider the factors that can affect the heart rate work load relationship or the results may provide inaccurate information. There is also the practical concern about the heart rate monitor malfunctioning or not being available for a training session. • A simple practical method, the session RPE, measures the training load with acceptable accuracy, based on subjective scores after each training session.
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