The Ins and Outs of RPE: Part 3: Common Misconceptions and Downfalls
In the last two weeks, we started to dive into the topic of RPE. In part one, we looked at the benefits of using RPE over a percentage-based system. In part two, we looked at the history and origin of RPE and how to get better at the skill of using RPE. This week we will look at what RPE is not, some common misconceptions surrounding RPE, as well as some downfalls of using RPE.
After introducing hundreds of athletes to RPE for the first time and implementing RPE in almost every program that I write, I have found a couple of common pitfalls in learning and correctly understanding RPE. These things pop up so often I thought it would be useful to go over a few things RPE is not.
First, RPE is not a percentage. RPE is based on the effort you give on the set and NOT the weight on the bar. Many times, when people switch from percentage-based training, they want to equate RPE to percentages because that is what they are most familiar with. Unfortunately, this does not work since your performance can vary on any given day. You cannot think of RPE 6 as 60%, RPE 7 as 70%, RPE 8 as 80%, etc. because the percentage of your one-rep max you use for the same RPE will depend on the number of reps you are doing. The following chart shows the average percentage of ones one rep max the average person uses on a day they are feeling 100%. This chart does not mean you should be using that exact percentage at your prescribed RPE. It is just to give you a ballpark number. Your actual weight could easily be 10-15% higher or lower than the number provided.
Photo taken from here
I have found that even this chart makes people overshoot or undershoot their RPE’s as they get caught up in trying to hit the percentage listed. With beginner lifters who have never done percentages or RPE, I do not even show them this chart. While I am not the biggest fan of this chart in the hands of clients, it does have good use in being able to help us calculate a pretty accurate estimated one rep max. This is one of the things that makes RPE so useful as a tracking tool that we had discussed in more depth in part 1 .
Another common error I see is that people don’t take the rep range into account. They will see an RPE of 8 and an RPE of 9 in the same workout and use more weight for the nine then eight regardless of reps. For example, they will have one rep at an RPE 8 and four reps and an RPE 9 and use more weight on the set of 4 than the single. But, when we think this out, that does not work. If you do a weight for one rep and rate it an RPE of 8, it means you could only do two more reps. That means if you did as many reps as possible, you’d probably get three reps at an RPE of 10. To then go on to add more weight and do four reps means your single at eight was not really an 8. Something that makes this click for a lot of people is that the last rep of each set should feel the same at the same RPE. If you have 1@8 and 5@8, the single and the 5th rep of the 5@8 should feel the same. The weight you use will be different because you are doing four extra reps for the 5@8. I think this happens for a few reasons. First, as we discussed above, when people think that an RPE is a certain percentage (the RPE 6 = 60%, RPE 7 = 70%, etc. example), this leads to the idea that an RPE 9 should always be heavier than an RPE 8. The second reason we will discuss below.
The next problem that is super common is athletes predetermining their weights for the day. This defeats one of the main benefits of RPE, and that is its ability to auto-regulate your training. If you are predetermining your weights, then you are not allowing RPE to do its job. You must go by effort and not a predetermined weight. For some people having a goal weight for the day can be helpful, but for others, it will be detrimental. If you are predetermining your weights, depending on your personality, you will find yourself continually undershooting or overshooting your RPE. If you are constantly undershooting your RPE, having a goal weight could be helpful, whereas, if you always exceed your RPE setting a goal weight could make you chase something that is not there. Knowing your personality and your tendencies and being honest with yourself about them is another huge component of making RPE work effectively. In a perfect world, we would have target weights for the day and use RPE to fine-tune that weight up and down for the day.
The last problem I commonly see is people trying to equate certain weights to certain RPE’s. This happens on two levels. Sometimes I see people who try and use the same weight for every set that is a particular RPE. For example, they see an RPE 8 and say 200 lbs is my weight for RPE 8, and every set that is an RPE 8, they use 200 lbs. This leads to the two problems discussed above where reps we do not take reps into account, and weights are predetermined. More commonly, people will have certain weights they want to use whenever prescribed a certain weight and RPE. For example, every time they have 1@8, they use 200 pounds, or every time they have 5@8, they use 180 pounds. This leads to all the problems described above in predetermining weights with the added detriment of holding your progress back! If you are always trying to hit the same weight, you’ll never get the chance to push the weight when you feel good.
With all these problems, we have to remember that RPE is based on effort and not weight on the bar. In a perfect world, we would learn to dissociate the weight on the bar from the effort given. This is not entirely possible, but we must give it our best effort.
One big misconception when it comes to RPE is that RPE is about your feelings. People will argue that beyond a certain point, everything “feels heavy,” and I agree, but RPE isn’t about that. RPE is about your effort or exertion relative to your maximum effort. It’s about effort. It’s about exertion. It’s about performance, not emotion. We will come back to this idea as we start to look over the downfalls of using RPE.
The biggest downfall to using RPE is it is difficult to rate or choose weights for low-RPE sets. While this is true and there is no way around it, as we mentioned in part 2, the consequences of being off on low RPE sets is less than being off on high RPE sets. The further we get from an RPE of 10, the less accurate we become at judging RPE. However, the weights also get lighter and lighter and the overall stress to our system becomes less. This means it is not as important to be spot on with weight selections at low RPE sets. Even so, on sets below an RPE of 6, I would still go about prescribing a percentage of the one-rep max. We could use a percentage for things like warmups or power work. For power and speed work, there are specific percentage ranges you want to be working in anyways.
The next biggest complaint usually goes something along the lines of “RPE isn’t for me. I am just not good at judging RPE” I hope we did a lot to squash this in part 2 as we described how to build to the skill of RPE. Usually, people saying this have not given themselves enough time to learn and get comfortable with RPE. RPE also requires an honest assessment of the effort given. Depending on your personality, some people have a hard time giving themselves an honest assessment. This is where knowing your personality comes into play and learning when to call it and when to push it! RPE requires you to know yourself, know your tendencies, and be honest with yourself. All excellent skills that carry far out of the weight room. A good strategy, if you are having trouble transitioning, is to give yourself percentage ranges as well as RPE and then to slowly transfer to just RPE as you become more comfortable with it. RPE is a skill and takes practice to perfect, but I would argue it’s a skill worth having. RPE is there whether or not we measure it, so we might as well measure it. Because what gets measured gets managed.
Lastly, it is common to hear that RPE is not great for beginners because the undershoot all their RPEs. I would argue that this is not a huge problem. First of all, beginners don’t have a one-rep max and probably shouldn’t be performing a one-rep max in their first couple of months of training anyway, so they need a way to pick weights. I would argue RPE is the best solution. When first starting, it is probably best that the client undershoots their RPE as they learn the skills involved with lifting. This will give them time to find and perfect their technique, it will give the opportunity for small wins with lots of room to push each week for small continual PRs, and as they get stronger and stronger and RPE becomes more and more important, they will be getting better at RPE all along the way. If someone new takes 12 weeks to finally hit a five at a true RPE 8 and they hit 12 PRs along the way and fall in love with the process along the way, I would call that a win.
Now that we have gone over some common misconceptions surrounding RPE and the downfalls of using RPE. Here are some general tips regarding RPE:
To go up from one RPE to the next at the same rep range, you will want to add about 5% to the bar. This is on average some people will need to add more than 5% to the bar to go up one RPE some people will need to add less
For example, if you are doing 200 lb for five reps and rate it as an RPE of 7 and your next set is 5@8 you will want to add about 5% to the bar or 10 lbs to get to 210 lbs
We can use this same logic when moving from one rep range to the next. To move one rep, you will need to take or add about 5% to the bar. Since 1 RPE = 1 rep
For example, if you have 1@8 followed by 3@8, you will need to take about 10% off the bar
If you have 1@8 followed by 3@9, you will need to take about 5% off the bar
If you have 1@8 followed by 4@8, you will need to take about 15% off the bar
If you have 1@8 followed by 4@9, you will need to take about 10% off the bar
Again, these are just averages so you may have to take a little more or a little less off the bar
This is also a good way to see how you are doing on your singles. I find when first starting beginners have the most trouble judging singles. If you do 1@8 and then take 10% off the bar for your 3@8, and the three was way easier than an eight, your 1@8 was probably too light! This is another way to practice the skill of RPE!
Try not to pick a number for your top set before you get there. If your warmup feels off, ride it out until the last few sets and let that determine your top set. We will talk about this more in next weeks article
It is better to do too many warmup sets than too few
If you do a set that was supposed to be an RPE 6 and you go up, and your next set still feels like a six, the first set was not a 6. Remember, the farther we get from 10, the worse we are at judging, so if as you work up a heavier set and it doesn’t feel any harder, then keep going up.
For example, if you have 4@6, 4@7, 4@8 as your workout and you do 200 and call it a six then add 5% and do 210 and call it a seven and then add 5% and do 220 and it isn’t an 8 you will want to go up again and adjust the 210 to being a 6 and 220 to being a 7.
Your weights at any given RPE can fluctuate as much as 10-15% on any given day
Reps in reserve fits into the RPE concept very well, but RPE allows us to assign intensity on exercises where reps in reserve does not work very well, such as moving exercise such as farmers walk or conditioning exercises.
RPE is based on what is normal for you, not someone else. If your warmups always feel slow to a certain point, that is no reason to panic and adjust the weights. You must learn about your tendencies.
Now we have looked at why we use RPE, how to apply RPE to your training, how to get better at using RPE, common misconceptions surrounding RPE, pitfalls of RPE, and some general tips on RPE. Next week we will look a little deeper into one of the significant benefits of using RPE and a big part of our training at Resilient Training Lab which is daily singles. Daily singles allow us to track progress effectively and to practice the skill of doing singles. Tune in next week to read more!