Using an RPE Scale for Percentage-based Training
When your back = this tree.
If you’ve been working out regularly for even one month, you’re likely familiar with the issue of weights feeling heavier on some days than others. Some days, you pick up a barbell and put it right back down, because you must’ve made a mistake and grabbed the wrong one. You double check the bar only to see the correct weight, and indulge yourself in a moment of despair. How dare gravity play you like that?! The gall! Go visit another planet and leave my barbell alone, would you? When gravity rudely but inevitably ignores your sincerest requests, self-defeating thoughts start creeping in. My body feels terrible... Should I even bother trying to squat today?
The good news is - as you probably realize - this is very much a shared experience. None of us get to escape the ebb and flow of regular stressors and energy-affecting variables (sleep, nutrition, work, family, school, health - the usual culprits) that dictate whether or not we feel like a +100 or -10 when we start a workout. While 1RM testing has been repeatedly shown as a valid and reliable assessment of strength, there’s also evidence of up to 18% variability in 1RM* performance on any given day. That’s a pretty significant statistic to validate the foreboding “Did I trade my legs for a bowl of jello?” feeling that hits us all too often.
When the unloaded barbell feels like 10 million pounds.
So... how do I apply this information?
Knowing that each of us walks into the gym on any given day looking at the same workout card, but dotting individual points across a spectrum of Feeling from fresh cloud to zombie, we have to be cognizant of modulating our effort and intensity accordingly. We all know about scaling options, but many of us view scaling as a linear progression - once you master ring rows, you progress to lower ring rows, then assisted pull ups, then negatives, then strict, then kipping; Once you hit a #400 deadlift, #350 should always feel doable.
Right?
In reality, #350 and kipping pull ups feel completely different from one week to the next. Let’s say that again: You cannot expect your body to have a robotic, identically repeatable response to the same movement and weight each and every day. We all know this (because we’ve experienced the frustration), but do we internalize it? Instead of settling for poor quality movement, do we turn bad days around by taking ownership of those tough moments and adjusting on the spot according to expectations that are true to work at our current capacity? Some days, in order to preserve technique, prevent potential injury, or simply be able to pick the weight off the floor - we have to scale back. This is not only fine, this is to be expected - and both your longevity and progress as an athlete depends on how you handle it.
Let’s take a look at the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale used by Mike Robertson (founder of Roberston Training systems and legend of strength and conditioning):
RPE of 10 – Max effort/limit lift. This is either one heckuva grinder, or they flat out miss a lift.
RPE of 9 – Heavy lift, but one rep left in the tank.
RPE of 8 – Heavy(ish) lift, but two reps left in the tank.
RPE of 7 – Moderate weight, multiple reps left in the tank.
Seems pretty straightforward, right? Fortunately, it is! Let’s take a look at using this methodology in a hypothetical workout:
Say the workout calls for a 3x3 Back Squat at 90% 1RM. This would be a high intensity, low volume day - typically programmed toward the end of a strength cycle, in a week prior to deload before retest or competition. Your work effort should be right around 90% of max capacity, or a 9/10 rate of perceived exertion (RPE) - hence the 90% 1RM.
On this day, you pick up the bar, go for your first set, and can barely do two reps at the prescribed weight. Your second rep is sloppy, and your third rep is a textbook example for ‘how not to squat’. Bummer. You re-rack the bar but don’t even consider taking off weight, because that would be ‘failing’ or ‘giving up’ at your programming - which is not something you do. You commit to the work at hand, so that you can make progress. This is the work of a good athlete.
... right?
Let’s reconsider:
If the intended stimulus is 90% , with a feeling of ‘one rep left in the tank’, but you’re working over 100% of your capacity for the day... Are you really following the programming?
If your trunk is collapsing under the weight of the bar, your knees are caving in, or your hips are shooting up - errors which you can control at lower percentages - what movement mechanics are you training? What muscle recruitment patterns are you reinforcing? Is that really contributing to your best and strongest movement? I can almost guarantee if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s not a chicken. We want chickens, not ducks. (Duck = shitty squat. Chicken = good squat. See where my head’s at?)
Training to failure is important, but should be reserved for test, retest and competition days. The rest of the time, training to technical proficiency will allow you to keep making progress - or keep training at all.
If all of that makes at little sense, or at the very least strikes a chord, then we arrive back at: What to do when my body feels like poo?
In this case, if I were your coach, I would tell you to take off *just* as much weight as you need in order to get to that which feels the most like 90% for that day. All the time, I tell athletes to use percentages as “guidelines, not absolutes”, and this is a perfect example of when to put that into play.
The best way to incorporate RPE into your percentage based training is keep a consistent mental note of how you’re feeling. Check in with your exertion, be self-critical when it comes to form, and you’re less likely to move through workouts with blinders on. Effective use of RPE clearly requires honesty - it’s a subjective rating system, which is arguably the hardest selling point. That said, if the result of keeping tabs on RPE is greater awareness and intention in your day-to-day movement, then the benefits will keep coming for as long as you decide to keep putting in the work.
*I searched the internet somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes trying to find the study Robertson cites in the linked podcast, but could not find it. I decided to reference his insight anyway, because a) the guy does his homework, and precedent means I trust what comes out of his mouth, b) the statistic really puts things into perspective. So, take that information as you will.
Sometimes, all you need is a teaspoon of You Got This.
