What is RPE?
If you’ve been strength training for any amount of time, you may have heard of the term RPE. Today we’ll be discussing a general overview of RPE and how to understand this prescription technique conceptually.
RPE (rate of perceived exertion)
RPE was originally based on the Borg scale, a scale from 6-20, and later simplified to its current scale of 1-10. RPE is subjective, meaning it is up to the lifter to decide how they’d rate their set on the scale. An RPE 10 means maximum effort, and an RPE 1 means no effort at all.
Reps in Reserve and RPE
One issue with the traditional RPE scale is that some people rate their perceived exertion inaccurately. Beginners might not quite know what an RPE 10 feels like, because they might not have enough experience. This means that they may underestimate their effort and inaccurately rate their exertion. Additionally, upper-beginner (a term I am now coining) to intermediate lifters may underrate their exertion. As an example, they may rate a set as an RPE 7 when it was actually an RPE 8 or 8.5.
Instead, utilizing a reps in reserve based RPE scale allows us to think about RPE a bit differently. While this version of the scale is still subjective, it may be more easily understood conceptually.
We can begin to think about the RPE scale such as:
RPE 10 = “I couldn’t do any additional reps”
RPE 9 = “I could do 1 more rep”
RPE 8 = “I could do 2 more reps”
RPE 7 = “I could do 3 more reps”
RPE 4-6 = “I could do 4-6 more reps”
RPE 1-3 = “This was super easy”
For example, if you’ve got a set of 6 squats at RPE 7, this usually means choosing a weight where you’ve got 3-4 reps left in the tank. If you get to the end of your set and you feel like you could’ve done 6-7 more reps, then that’s not an RPE 7, and you should increase the load. RPE may be preferred over prescribing percentages as it allows for more self selection, which can potentially allow for a more accurate and proper desired training stimulus.
Do you have any questions about programming? As always, feel free to send me and email, and thanks for reading! See you next Friday.
-Jory
