You overshot… again

Your coach is telling you your RPE is wrong… again.

Isn’t that so annoying?  You thought you had a pretty good set, you thought you stayed in the pocket (wtf is the pocket anyway?!).  Your check in comes back, and your coach is telling you that your RPE is wrong, you over shot….again.  You think you hit RPE 7, while your coach is telling you that your RPE is probably closer to and RPE 8.5 or 9, what’s going on here? 

What even is RPE anyway? 

RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion.  It is a psychophysiological scale of 1-10 that tries to quantify one’s perceived effort on any given set or rep.  For our purposes, it is used as a prescription tool in resistance training to regulate relative intensity, more specifically; proximity to failure on a given set.    For simplicity, an RPE of 10 means that you had 0 reps in reserve (RIR), and RPE of 9.5 means that you had 0 RIR, but you might be able to do a bit more weight, RPE 9 means you had 1 rep in reserve and so on.  Some might also describe an 8.5 as maybe being able to do 2 more reps, and an RPE of 8 as definitely being able to do 2 more reps. 

Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)	Reps in Reserve (RIR)
10	0
9.5	0, more weight
9	1
8.5	1, more weight
8	2
7.5	2, more weight
7	3
6.5	3-4
6	4-6? Things can get messy quickly
5.5	Easy warmup weight

The further you are from failure, the less accurate things will be, this is why for RPE 6 we say anywhere from 4-6 reps because a lot can happen in the next 2-3 reps.  Some of you may have experienced this in your training, most commonly in the benchpress, where a weight is moving like an RPE 7 and then suddenly, it’s an RPE 10.  It is much easier to tell when you have 1 rep in the tank, verses 3-4 reps in the tank.  RPEs, and subsequently the information gained from them, tend to be more accurate the closer we get to 1RM, and ratings will be less accurate the further you are from a 1RM.  As an example, during a hard set of 8-12 reps in the squat, there is more room for error due to the build-up of metabolic stress, respiratory distress, technical breakdown, ability to grind, will power, etc. 

So, if there are negatives to using RPE like lifter error, inaccurate RPE rating, overshooting, undershooting, subjectivity, inexperience, ego lifting, etc. why would we use RPE anyway? The goal of using RPE is to get the external load (the weight on the bar), closer to the intended internal load (the training stimulus).  The goal is to put the right weight on the bar, for the right number of reps, at the right RPE.   

Advantages of using RPE as a Training Tool

We’ve all had those weeks where life is just giving us hell.  You’re studying for exams, your boss is overloading you with work, you’re not sleeping well, you and your significant other are having troubles, you aren’t eating enough, when you are eating your food choices are poor, but… you are looking forward to the gym because of the cathartic dopamine spike you receive from lifting heavy circles.  Your Coach programmed a heavy double today and this will be the heaviest weight you have touched in a while.  You get under the bar for your first warm up and everything just feels ehhhhhh.  You keep working up and normal warm up weights are not moving as fast as usual.  You get to your last warm up and it just flat out feels heavy.  At times like these, RPE is a very valuable training tool. 

As much as we might want to always be killing it in the gym, it is important to realize that the accumulated stress of life may catch up with us occasionally.  As a wise Panda once told me, by definition the vast majority of your training sessions will be average.   It is important to understand that stress is stress is stress is stress.  Exam stress is stress.  Work stress is stress.  Relationship stress is stress.  Lack of sleep is stress.  Caloric deficits increase the difficulty of recovering from stress.  Eating Taco Bell creates gastrointestinal stress.  Training for powerlifting is literally putting mechanical stress on the body and creating metabolic stress inside the body. 

Godfather Mike T uses the sink metaphor.  There is only so much fluid volume that a sink can hold.  There are bigger sinks and smaller sinks, sinks with slower running taps than others, sinks that drain faster than others, but if the sink continues running and is not unplugged in time, at some point it will overflow. 

So, the main advantage of using RPE to prescribe load is to account for life outside the gym, fatigue levels, wear, and tear, then adjust training load appropriately for the day.  When life stress is high, performance might be depressed, and training using RPE will help us reduce load to account for this.  Hopefully we will get some extra sleep, food, relaxation, or planned rest, that will allow us to recover and adapt and come back stronger the following week.  It is plausible that if we don’t account for these things, we will continue to not recover as well, and negative performance will feed forward on itself, spiralling into the never ending pit of overshooting because you think you should be able to lift the biggest weights you’ve ever lifted, even though you have not earned the right do so given your lifestyle outside of the gym.  If it is just one bad week, since you used RPE appropriately, this should help manage the workload, in theory allowing you to recover and adapt so that you can get back on track with your progression in the following week. 

On the flip side of things, if you are handling life outside of the gym, you’re on a break from school, work stress is manageable, your relationship is going well, your social life is great, you are sleeping 9 hours per night, your nutrition is on point, it is probable that training using RPE will allow you to lift heavier weights than you originally thought or planned, and from session to session or week to week you will be recovering and adapting to training, rather than simply surviving training.  Remember that your systems need to repair and recover first before they adapt to the workload that you are placing on them.   This will in turn lead to higher and higher weights on the bar, and the stimuli of lifting heavier weights will feed forward on itself.  You must earn this outside the gym, but also inside the gym by living in the pocket.  Don’t force the issue, let the gainz come to you. 

RPE is a valuable training tool for both when things are going poorly, and when things are going well. 

One of the simplest reasons that RPE is such a valuable training tool is that it allows one to program and maintain training variables in order so see how one responds to a dose of training from week to week. 

As an example, if your training prescription for your priority 1 Comp Squat is:

x1 RPE 8

3x8 67%

You can use the same prescription the following week, pay attention to the response, and adjust accordingly.  If the athlete is recovering and adapting, indicator set load and E1RM should increase, increasing the load for the backoff sets as well, therefore increasing the absolute training stimulus, while the training prescription stays the same on paper.  The relative training stimulus is the same.    This will allow the athlete and coach to really monitor and see how things are going.  If the athlete is not recovering from the dose, the absolute load and E1RM will come down, lowering the training dose for that session.  In theory, the athlete should be able to recover from this lighter session, and performance should recover by the following microcycle.  If not, the coach or athlete can make training adjustments if they choose to or see how performance responds the following week. 

I would also argue that the ability of a coach or athlete to manipulate training load using RPE is a very valuable tool as well.  If an athlete is experienced at using RPE, it becomes easier to prescribe heavier and lighter sessions, weeks, or manipulate load progression over a training block.  I try to teach my clients that you need to earn those RPE 8-9 top sets at the end of a training block, you need to learn to stay in the pocket first.  Too much over shooting and you get busted back down to RPE 6-7 indicator sets across the board. 

Defining RPE: 

RPE is also valuable as a prescription tool for all the random exercises that you do not have a 1RM for.  With all the different combinations of SBD variation we can come up with, programming for powerlifting can be really fun.  There are so many different bars, implements, training tools, exercises, and drills, that it would be unreasonable to have a 1RM for every single exercise.  If you are experienced at using RPE, you can prescribe any exercise, rep scheme, and RPE, and you should be able to be pretty accurate with your load selection and E1RM for that exercise.  No, E1RMs are not 100% accurate, they are estimates, and they tend to inflate the further you get from a 1RM and the further you get from failure.  They are a good enough estimate, they are great for tracking progress over time and across rep ranges, and they are very practical.  This allows us to prescribe highly specific exercises, (e.g. 3-1-0 Tempo Close Grip Low Incline Pin Press or something) , without needing to know a 1RM, and without needing guess what % of your Bench 1RM you should be able to use for this novel exercise. The load will adjust to the lifter. 

Unfortunately, the only way to get better at using RPE as a training tool, is to train and use RPE as a training tool.  Funny right, the only way to get better at training is to train.  On top of that, you need to spend some time (not all) training to failure, or very close to it.  Then spend some time training and “leaving a rep or 2 in the tank.”  In its simplest form, using RPE to prescribe load and reps is an attempt to quantify this idea of leaving a rep or 2 in the tank because of the value of staying shy of failure.  So, if we are new to using RPE, how do we gauge RPE?  How do we get better at using RPE.   Well, first it might be valuable to define different scenarios where the way we were using RPE as a tool might change.  I have tried to simplify this down to 3 categories: Game Day RPE, Technical RPE, Variation RPE. 

Game Day RPE, formerly known as “gun to your head” RPE, is pretty simple.  On game day there is only one thing that matters, and that is executing the lift within the rules and receiving white lights.  If your technique breaks down, oh well, just stand up.   All we really care about is standing up or locking out the weight, RPE is valuable in this scenario because it can help us gauge are next attempts, or we can use Game Day RPE in training on your top priority competition lifts for the week.  Using weekly competition singles at RPE 6-8 has become popular in a lot of powerlifting training and programming, this is an example of when you might use Game Day RPE in training.  You are simply using RPE to quantify the number of reps that in you have in reserve no matter what.

Technical RPE is where you are rating your RPE based on the number of reps you have in reserve with perfect technique.  While technique is individual, everyone has their own flaws or compensation patterns that occur when weights are heavy enough and/or proximity to failure is close enough.  If you want to try to improve one of these errors, simply never let your body commit that error.  Use loads and rep ranges that allow you to lift weights with your ideal technique.  The idea here is that if we only practice with our desired technique, then our body will forget how to execute our former compensation pattern, and when weights are heavy enough our technique won’t change, the bar will just slow down.  An example of when you might use this in training is if you are trying to correct a technical flaw that you might have in one of your lifts.  You should rate all your RPEs based on perfect reps in reserve.  You could do this on your down sets of your priority competition lift, or on another day of training, or for a specific period of time further out from competition. 

While specificity is important to create adaptation and develop strength, one of the tools we have at our disposal is variation.  Novelty in training (within reason) can help athletes develop over the long term.  Varying Volume, intensity, frequency, tempo, exercise selection, and rest periods are all different ways to create novel stimuli in training.  Variation RPE is mostly referring to our exercise selection, or tempo.  Using different grips, tempos, pauses, bars, and training implements allows us to create some variation within an individuals training.  Variation RPE refers to executing perfect reps according to the variation.  If you have Safety Squat Bar 3-2-1 Tempo Pause Squats, every rep should be executed with a perfect 3-2-1 tempo pause, and your RPEs should be rated based on the number of perfect 3-2-1 tempo pause squats you have in the tank.  If you cannot execute the perfectly on your last rep, rate it RPE 10.  No one cares what you can SSB 3-2-1 tempo pause squat against chainz with reverse bands on a transformer bar with the sun in your eyes.  They care what you lift on meet day.  However, your coach cares that you execute your tempo squats perfectly to see if they create training transfer and actually improve your competition squat.  This goes for your other lifts as well, no one cares what you can close grip 3 count pin press, but your coach cares that it makes you better at comp benchpress when executed perfectly.  No one cares what you can fake rolling stop pause deadlift, but your coach cares that you execute your 1” 2 count pause deadlifts with a completely motionless pause immediately off the floor for a full 2 count, to confirm that it makes you better at the competition deadlift. 

I know that we started this ramble talking about the struggles of being accurate when it comes to using Rate of Perceived Exertion as a training tool.  Before we discuss some strategies for rating RPE more accurately, I wanted to define RPE, describe some advantages and disadvantages of using RPE, and discuss some different ways one might apply RPE as a training tool in their own programming and training.  In the next part of this series, I will attempt to outline some practical strategies for those chronic over shooters and ego lifters out there.