In this video Austin talks about reducing the load when dealing with pain in the gym, and then working your way up conservatively. How does one go about mixing this advice with RPE training? Do you take pain in consideration for judging the RPE?
For example, say I’m prescribed a set of 6@7 and a set of 6@8. I do 100kg for 6@7, no pain. I do 105kg for 6@8, it hurts a lot but I still think I could have done 2 more reps, so do I still judge it at RPE 8? Or should I try to stay within the ‘pain free’ zone, i.e undershoot my RPE and not touch weights that give me pain, even though the pain is tolerable?
Ditch RPE for now. When rehabbing things don’t use RPE to guide load selection. Find a pain free weight, set the sets/reps, and work things up linearly over time allowing for pain management.
Yeah I agree, I think RPE is probably not the focus when dealing with this sort of thing.
However, I do think the intensity of pain (0-10 scale, for example) matters. I’m not sure that it it necessary to only perform exercises with 0/10 pain. What is likely more important is to have a low level of pain (2/10 for example-I don’t know if there is an exact number for this) and that the pain is not worsening with more reps.
Yeah I figure it’s important to keep the pain to a minimal, even if it is tolerable, as the whole point is to de-sensitise your brain to associating pain with this specific movement (at least that is what I got from the video)
Yes, continue to utilize RPE. You can modify intensity either by preemptively dropping external loading (weight being lifted) or reduce RPE for a particular set.
With that said - the premise here is not pain free but rather tolerable symptoms (individualistic) during and after training. Tolerable means you aren’t’ feeling debilitated during or after training (unable to go do other life activities). It’s important to mention that intensity and severity of symptoms is not meaningful in regards to tissue damage/injury. We tend to not advocate for the consistent use of pain scale (NRS or VAS) when working with patients given the lack of correlation to biology of tissue and the inherent re-focusing of attention onto pain when these scales are utilized.
I’m struggling with implementing this advise.
I’ve been dealing with some pain in my right hip lately. (I suspect too much squat-volume)
I will reduced target RPE for quite some sets now. (mainly for supplementary squat exercises) This is not to reduce pain during training but to prevent pain during the following night(s). During training the pain is quite tolerable, even when I lift with the prescribed RPE for the day. And there lays the problem. How do I know what a sufficient decrease in intensity is, when the pain manifests itself, mainly, after the training?
During the training pain levels do not increase. I feel some pain during warm-ups and that pain-level stays the same even for sets @8 or @9. (>80% 1RM)
I know the pain levels increase when laying down on my side (I have to sleep on my side: positional OSA). I have trouble sleeping because of it (the pain). Walking up or down the stairs also creates some discomfort.
Is there a good strategy to regulate target RPE in these cases? (trial and error?)
I’m preparing for a meet, so I would like to keep my strength up as much as possible. At the same time I don’t want to aggravate things so I wouldn’t be able to compete at all.
Thanks for your help.