How do you become decent at gauging RPE?
I find it really a tough nut to crack as an early intermediate.
Taking as an example squat, bench and deadlifts, however, I find that bench is generally OK to evaluate by RPE; deadlifts more or less are not too hard either when within the RPE range 8-9, I doubt I’d be able to tell when I’ve 4 reps left tho.
Squats, on the other hand, I find almost impossible to gauge. “Heavy” squats feel always like @9 or @10 regardless of the actual weight on the bar, and easier ones feel light enough to make me think that I could do some more rep but not sure how many.
Suggestions and feedback on how you managed to evaluate and learn RPE yourselves?
While The Bridge ebook says that practice makes perfect, I was so far unable to find a way to tell RPE consistently and I’m skeptical on jumping on RPE programming if I don’t get a better understanding first.
I think practice is the most important. Just do it more and you’ll get better at it.
The thing is, there is not going to be an objectively right or wrong answer as far as what RPE a given set was for a given person. Sure, you need to be in the ball park but that will come with more practice.
Video review will help you guage RPE as well. I suggest shooting video of your lifts. Then before you view the video, give the set an RPE rating.
Then use the video to make adjustments to that subjective rating.
For instance, if you thought a set was an RPE 8, but video shows the bar never really slowed down at all and still moved very quickly, maybe adjust your rating to RPE 7.5 instead.
One way that I find helpful for RPE is by asking myself after the last rep, how many more reps I could do if it was an all out, AMRAP set. For instance if I can say that I still had 2 left in the tank then it was an 8. I simply have to record my RPE right after my set before I talk myself into thinking I had more left in the tank.
I tried to use that approach WHILE doing the set.
What happened was that while I thought I was at an RPE 7 or 8, I went to do another another rep and failed!
It’s like I have absolutely no awareness of what a next rep may be like.
I also considered trying to use a conservative approach and overestimate all my RPEs but then I am afraid that the workout session becomes a joke with too little volume…
I had a lot of trouble gauging squat RPE as well. Any set with more than 60% of my 1RM on the bar just always feels super heavy regardless.
I don’t recommend you do this, as its probably very poor training advice, but what I did for a couple weeks was take every set of squats to complete failure at different rep ranges. Failing at 6th rep, 8th rep, 10th rep etc. If I failed a weight on the 8th rep, I knew it was a 7 rep max @ RPE 10. The next session, I’d do the same weight for 5 reps, knowing it was an RPE 8 cuz I had 2 left in the tank.
This gave me an understanding of what a true RPE 8, 9, and 10 felt like for the squat.
In my case, what I thought was an RPE 8 on the squat was actually more like an RPE 6 or 7 - I had a lot more in the tank than I thought. By pushing to failure for awhile, I have a better understanding of what my body is capable of and what RPE 8 is supposed to feel like.
It’s also a great way to put yourself in a great deal of recovery debt.
I’ve also had trouble knowing rpe on squats but not really the other lifts. Im a 41 year old lifter who has lifted since high school, so my goals may be a little different. when my 4th and 5th rep get challengin and slow down, thats when I know im in the right range. I think everyone has a different gas tank as well depending on types of muscle fibers, endurance vs. explosive, etc. Either way, I don’t try to overthink it, I just lift heavy ass weights and have fun doing it and get stronk!!
