There is an interesting conversation to be had about the subjectivity of the human experience, and when it is helpful to rely on your unique subjective experience to guide things versus relying on more apparently objective things, like feedback from other people, or technology. This post is not trying to be that philosophical.
We will start from the premise that you do generally feel sensations in your body and that they are reflective enough of something real that they are worth listening to. Depending on the context — like with exercise — they may be the primary thing you use to guide your decision making process, once you learn how to correlate your felt sense with your effort.
When it comes to exercise, we find your subjective experience uniquely valuable for many reasons. For starters, there are just dozens of variables in your body, lifestyle, and environment that affect your abilities day to day such that it becomes almost impossible to predict what you are capable of and how your body will respond with any kind of precision. I mean daily, normal variations of about 5-10% in either direction, that can’t be attributed to anything specific, just part of being in a body that varies. Listening to your body isn’t just a woo woo self-care mantra. It is also the appropriate, evidence-based way to modify your training so that you produce similar internal loads that track with your subjective experience of them.
I do at times sparkle at my own abilities to estimate a client’s abilities (“wooo PR, I knew it!”), and I am flattered by the sometimes praise I receive for being able to do this well. But I want to convey how fallible and human I am as coach, and that the truth of your subjective experience reigns supreme when it comes to what you can do on any given day with a certain exercise or workout. We can teach you how to hone this skill with enough time and practice.
There can also be a felt sense of empowerment where as you rely more on your subjective sensations and feelings and less on external sources telling you what to do, you discover just how capable you are. Your subjective experience can be quite powerful, and even precise, once you learn how to sense and trust it in various contexts.
In this way, Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE, is a very important concept for you to have a good time engaging with exercise over the years.
Fundamentally, it’s about listening to your body, and trusting the truth of what it’s telling you, however subjective that may seem.
RPE can be used with any exercise, including the primary lifts like the squat and deadlift, as well as more niche exercises like hip abduction, single leg knee extension, tempo calf raises, the list goes on.
RPE is usually defined as a scale from 1-to-10, with 10 being your maximum effort. It inversely correlates with Reps in Reserve, a scale of 10-to-1 where during a set of a given exercise you estimate how many reps you sense that you could do before you reach your limit.
Each rep provides new sensory information for you to consider. Hmmmmm.
Don’t be surprised if you blurt out things like “I don’t know!”, “I don’t like it!”, or just ““ahhhh!” as you sense you’ve reached your goal RPE. There is a fair amount of uncertainty to get used to that will get better with practice and guidance. An emotional response to making a decision while under duress is totally normal.
RPE also strongly relates to bar velocity in the range of RPEs between 6-10, providing a visual way for a coach to guide a trainee’s experience learning this concept.
This provides a healthful, trauma-informed way to engage with exercise and weight training, because it allows for day to day variance in your abilities, no “sucking it up” required.
In cardiorespiratory exercise, it analogously exists on the same 1-10 scale, which conveniently correlates to heart rate zone models, such as the 5-zone model. This enables a trainee to practice dose-measured intensity and volume of cardio appropriate for their current fitness level and goals.
You might be surprised to learn that there has been significant scientific research done on this, and the evidence supports submaximal training with RPEs in the 5-8 range as effective and sustainable for results and longevity.
Higher intensities, maximal efforts, though exciting for some people, are simply not necessary for the majority of the population, and can be counterproductive and potentially harmful for people whose primary goals are health-related.
The key to learning RPE is to take your time, and start with lower RPEs as the goal, usually 5 or 6 is a good starting point. Don’t let the ego drive: there really is little value in going to RPE 10.
An incremental build up in a single session and over the course of multiple sessions will provide a ton of useful information for you to learn from, especially if you have the ability to review your own movement on video – or heart rate data if doing cardio – and compare it to your internal sensations and thoughts. This process can be further improved if you have a coach or training partner experienced in its use working with you.
Overall, RPE is a tool that meets each person where they are, and enables people that might otherwise find certain forms of exercise intimidating or confusing a way to engage that over time results in better long-term health outcomes, and a unique sense of empowerment.
Mauricio
References:
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/autoregulation-and-rpe-part-i/
RPE and Velocity Relationships for the Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift in Powerlifters. DOI:10.1519/JSC.0000000000001517
Perceived Exertion: Revisiting the History and Updating the Neurophysiology and the Practical Applications. PMID: 36361320