Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the ins and outs of RPE (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4) and the idea of using heavy singles in your training. One of the biggest problems with hitting heavy singles when using RPE is that it is hard to gauge exactly where you should end every day. On any given day, your daily max can fluctuate as much as 10%, and you don’t want to undershoot the single and not get the desired training effects. You also don’t want to overshoot and cause unnecessary fatigue.

This is where the idea of a daily minimum comes in. The daily minimum is a concept introduced to me by Greg Nuckols and Omar Isuf in their book The Bulgarian Manual. Your daily minimum is a weight you could hit no matter how crappy you feel. At first, this will probably be 80-85% of your max, but as you become better trained could go up towards 90% of your max. Your daily minimum should feel like an RPE between 6 and 8. When first starting, I have people use 82% of their max as their daily minimum and adjust it from there as needed. If you perform your daily minimum a few weeks in a row and each time it flies up and is easier than a six, it is time to move your daily minimum up. If you come in and you work up to your daily minimum, and it feels like an RPE of 9 for a few weeks in a row, you may have overshot your daily minimum.

On any given day, your daily max could fluctuate as much as 10%, but your daily minimum will be consistent from day to day. Because your daily minimum is a number that you could hit no matter what, you can be sure that working up to your daily minimum will not lead to overshooting your single regardless of how crappy you are feeling. This makes using your daily minimum to gauge what you should go for on your daily max work out quite nicely.

Let’s take a look at how to do this. Usually, you are assigned a single at eight as your daily max. You will want to get to the gym and start warming up over 4-6 sets and work up towards your daily minimum. Once you get to your daily minimum, pay close attention to how it feels. You will want to perform your daily minimum and decide on an RPE. This could lead to one of three situations:

You perform your daily minimum, and it feels incredible. You rate it an RPE of 6 or maybe even a little less. This is a good sign that today will be a good day and to push it a little. Jump about 10% to hit a single at RPE 8
You perform your daily minimum, and it feels alright. You rate it at an RPE of 7. This would be a day you play it safe and make a little smaller jump. Jump about 5% to hit a single at RPE of 8
You perform your daily minimum, and it feels horrible. You rate it an RPE of 8 and move on.

Now you’ve established your daily minimum and have used it for a few weeks; you can start to look at your performance and adjust your daily minimum accordingly. Let’s look at a few different scenarios:

You consistently hit your daily minimum and make it look easy. The RPE is always six or lower. When you take your 10% jump sometimes, you hit your 8, but sometimes you have to add even more weight to get to your 8. This is a good sign that you have gotten stronger, and it is time to move your daily minimum up.
Your daily minimum gives you trouble for a few weeks in a row. It has felt like an eight over and over again, and one week it even felt like a 9. This is a good sign that your daily minimum is too high and should be lowered. This is also a sign that you may be going backward and would be a good time to re-evaluate your programming and make changes to try and get things moving forward again
Your daily minimum is consistently between and RPE of 6-8. This is a good sign that your daily minimum is accurate.

Let’s take a real-life look at this in action. Say your best squat is 225 lbs. If we start by saying your daily minimum is between 80-90% of your max, then that gives us a daily minimum of 180-200. According to the RTS RPE percentage chart, a single at an eight should be 92% of your max, which would be 205 lbs. For this reason, if you have no idea what your daily minimum is, start at 82% of your max so that if you feel good, you hit the prescribed single at 8. In this case, that would be 185 lbs. So, you come in and work up to 185 lbs and a few scenarios could happen

185 feels like a six so you jump 10% to 205
185 feels like a seven so you jump 5% to 195
185 feels like an eight, so you stop there and move on to your backoff sets.

Now you do this for a few weeks, and 185 is continuously feeling like a six or less. You’ve been taking that 10% jump, but it hasn’t been enough to get you to your prescribed 8. Some weeks you even have to jump an extra 5% to get to your prescribed eight; this means you’ve gotten stronger, and it is likely your max has gone up. Adjust your daily minimum. up by 5% and keep doing your thing

On the flip side, if you come in and 185 continually feels like an eight and maybe even a nine, then you should adjust your daily minimum down 5% and take a look at your programming. This is a good sign that whatever you are doing is not working and it is time for a change.

Establishing a daily minimum will not only make finding your daily max easier, but it is also a great indicator of progress. While your daily max will fluctuate from day to day if your daily minimum is trending upwards, you know you are on the right path. So now we have looked at the ins and outs of establishing a daily minimum, and how to use that number to guide that training, I would encourage you all to apply this to your training and let me know how it goes!

Daily Minimum