The Ins and Outs of RPE: Part 4: Heavy Singles
We are finally on the last article of our “The Ins and Outs of RPE” series. If you missed parts one, two, or three, make sure you read those first. In part four, we are going to look at why I program heavy singles on a pretty regular basis.
This is a concept that I picked up from Reactive Training Systems and Barbell Medicine. They both perform heavy singles regularly in their programming, and it got me thinking about my own programming. As I started to implement heavy singles into my own training and then into the training of others, I saw some immediate benefits that we will talk about today.
Now when I am talking heavy singles, I am referring to doing one rep at an RPE of 7-9. I am not talking about doing a full-on max out teeth grinding single. Most singles I program are at either a 7 or 8 with an occasional nine sprinkled in as we get closer to testing maxes.
A single at this weight is heavy enough to make you focus and perform but not heavy enough that it is too physically demanding. A single at eight will allow you to work some heavy weight without causing too much stress on the body.
As we talked about in part one, we are not great at assigning RPE until we are three reps or less away from failure. This would be an RPE 7, so by pushing to an RPE of 7 or 8, we can be confident that this weight is an accurate display of our strength for the day.
Using RPE to perform heavy singles makes them much more manageable than percentages because of the autoregulating capabilities as we discussed in previous blogs (Parts one, two, & three). It is very easy to overshoot singles and to have variable performance so using percentages makes this process very hard and takes away from the progress tracking capabilities we will discuss later.
Now that we have talked about exactly what a heavy single is let's look at why they are important.
Regularly performing singles is important for three reasons:
They are a skill you need to practice.
They allow us to make sure we are working the proper intensity that day.
They will enable us to track progress efficiently
First, let's look at the skill of doing a heavy single.
Singles are a skill you need to practice. To successfully do a heavy single, everything needs to be spot-on. You need to be focused and your technique needs to be on point. As the weights get heavier, those little technique flaws come out. You also need to be able to brace maximally and create way more tension then you would on higher rep work. The ability to put all of your strength into one push or pull not only takes practice but has a large neurological component that you need to train. More or less, you need to get your nervous system use to producing the amount of force you are asking it to
Furthermore, practicing singles helps a great deal psychologically. You get more exposure to heavy weights, and these weights become less intimidating. Your mental state before a big lift goes a long way in determining the outcome of that lift. If you enter a lift with doubt or fear, chances are you will not be successful. By practicing heavy singles regularly and being successful regularly, you will build your confidence in handling heavy weights and be ready to attack the lift no matter what's on the bar.
Lastly, singles are an extremely sport-specific skill so if you compete in powerlifting or if you just enjoy watching your max strength go up, then you need to practice that skill in order to get better. In a meet you will be doing singles so why wouldn't you practice doing singles in the gym? It doesn't get more sports-specific than that.
Next, we will look at how singles let you know where you are on that day, so your back off work is at the proper intensity.
Our strength varies from day to day, and starting your training with a heavy single will allow you to see exactly where your strength is at on that particular day.
We talked earlier about our accuracy when determining the effort of a lift if we are within three reps of failure and how a heavy single was heavy enough to correctly see where your strength was without causing too much stress on the system. Based on this information, we can accurately calculate an estimated one-rep max for the day and can base your rep work off this number instead of a max you did weeks or even months ago. We could also drop down a certain percentage from your single to hit rep work or you could use your single RPE and weight used to prescribe the intensity of the back off sets . Whatever option you go, using heavy singles combined with RPE allows a coach to more accurately predict the stress of each workout.
Lastly, heavy singles allow you to track progress.
When performing singles at a similar effort each week, you can see if you are making progress. Over weeks, you should see this number trend upwards, and if it isn't you know you may need to change something up or assess your programming and fatigue management (which we will dive into more next week!). If you are not using RPE, you will not know if you are actually getting stronger each week. If one week you hit 200 lbs and the next week you hit 210 lbs you do not know if you actually got stronger unless there is an RPE attached to it. If the 200 lb lift was an RPE 7 and the 210 lb lift an RPE 9, I don’t know if you actually have gotten stronger. However, if you have four weeks in a row with singles at an RPE 8 and the weight is progressing you know you are getting stronger.
Hitting these heavy singles also allows us to pretty accurately estimate a one rep max by using the table we introduced last week and can be seen below. Because the singles are only one rep just like a 1-rep max and are close to a 1-rep max, they provide a very accurate estimation.
Photo taken from here
Now that we have gone over what a heavy single is and why they are important, I would encourage you to implement some into your training and let me know how it goes!