Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is the primary tool we use to prescribe load/intensity for our lifters. It helps us autoregulate the weight on the bar based on how the lifter is feeling on a given day. Autoregulation allows our lifters to push harder when they feel great, pull back when they don’t feel good, and make on-the-fly adjustments to the training plan.
I’ve written a ton about RPE-based training so I’m not going to go deep into what it is. You can read all about it here:
Choosing the Weight on the Bar: Percentage, RPE and RIR – part 1
Choosing the Weight on the Bar: Percentage, RPE and RIR – part 2
A 4-Step Process for Choosing the Right Weight to Lift
My old pal Jamie Smith, founder of Melbourne Strength Culture in Australia, posted a meme the other day that inspired this blog. He poked fun at the idea that beginners shouldn’t use RPE. You’ll hear many coaches complain that beginners are terrible at rating their own RPE so they shouldn’t use it. But that’s the whole point: they’re bad at judging their own abilities, so we have to teach them how to do it better. RPE is a simple framework with universally-understandable language they can use to learn to “listen to their body.”
“Beginners suck at RPE” is a lazy mindset. Would you avoid teaching a beginner how to squat because their squat technique sucked on day one? Of course not.
In the spirit of coaches actually doing the job they’re paid to do, here are two tricks coaches and lifters can use to help novices get better at using RPE to judge their own performance:
Easy/Medium/Hard
When I’m working with a new lifter, before I even mention the phrase RPE, I ask them after a set is over, “Was that easy, medium or hard?”
With no further context, I await their reply. I try my best not to influence their answer based on what I saw during the set. My input only interferes with their ability to learn how to self-assess their effort. I only give them advice on what to do on the next set.
If they say “easy” and they performed the previous set with acceptable technique, I tell them to go up in weight. I explain that as a novice, they can get plenty strong with light weights, but that there’s room to increase the weight while still challenging themselves appropriately.
If they say “medium”, I tell them that’s a great place to be. We’ll typically keep the weight the same for the next set.
If they say “hard”, I’ll give them a choice: 1) stay at the same weight, but be ready to reduce the weight if they can’t hit the target rep range or maintain acceptable technique, or 2) go down in weight to something that feels more like “medium”. Once again, I’ll explain that in the early stages of their lifting journey, technique is all that matters. I don’t care how heavy the weight is because they’ll make progress with easy-to-medium weights.
Before the end of the session, I’ll bring the lifter over to our whiteboard and explain the RPE scale. I’ll show them the scale of 1-10, and correlate easy/medium/hard to the numbers on the board. It looks something like this:
| Was that easy, medium or hard? | RPE rating |
| Hard | 10 9 8 |
| Medium | 7 6 5 |
| Easy | 4 3 2 1 |
These ranges help the lifter understand where we want to “live” during most of our training. Living in the medium range makes for challenging-yet-sustainable training for a beginner. We can sneak into hard territory every once in a while, but no need to set up camp there all the time lest our technique falls apart. The easy range is reserved for warm-ups and is likely too light to drive progress.
AMRAP Sets to Gauge RPE
The most widely-accepted way to judge RPE is to ask yourself after a set is over, “How many reps did I leave in the tank?” That number is subtracted from 10, and that’s your RPE. For example:
| How many reps did I leave in the tank? | RPE |
| 0 | 10 |
| 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 7 |
This is still my preferred way to judge RPE, but here’s where those darn beginners start causing problems. Beginners are notoriously bad at knowing how many reps they have in the tank. But guess what? That’s not their fault. They have no context. They don’t know what they’re capable of yet. It’s the coach’s job to teach them.
A reliable strategy to teach them: AMRAP (as many reps as possible) sets. You can’t know how many reps are in the tank until you’ve emptied the tank.
With our newer lifters, we’ll often prescribe several straight sets via RPE, then do an AMRAP set at the same weight. This checks the accuracy of the lifter’s RPE rating. For example, if the assignment is 3 sets x 5 reps @ 7 RPE, then an AMRAP at the same weight, the lifter should probably get 7-8 reps on the AMRAP set. By definition, sets of 5 @ 7 RPE is an 8-rep max (but after doing a few sets, fatigue may set in so we’d accept a dropoff in reps on the AMRAP). If the lifter gets way more than 8 reps on the AMRAP, we know they undershot their RPE rating and they’re instructed to go heavier next time.
Novice lifters typically undershoot their RPEs. This is a good thing. Better to start too easy and too light than too hard and too heavy. Sustained progress builds confidence and consistency. No need to crash and burn right out of the gate. After a few weeks, we often see these lifters get better at judging their RPE and the number of reps achieved on their AMRAP sets reflect that.
Coaching = Teaching
Coaches need to remember what it feels like to be a novice. Many of us spent years figuring it out for ourselves. There’s value in this process, but it’s inefficient at best. Lifters pay coaches to speed up this process and get a greater return on their time investment. RPE is a powerful tool that allows lifters to make better training decisions, and it’s the job of the coach to teach the lifter how to best use that tool. So start teaching. It’s your job.