RPE Weekly Progression

Hi Jordan, Ive got a couple of follow up questions if thats ok.

  1. Regarding weekly progression/RPE.

Say for a top set at RPE 8, would it make sense to repeat this weight each week until, one week it feels like an RPE 7, take a rest then attempt a weight increase that session to see if the next increase is in fact an RPE 8. Then so on.

  1. Deadlift RPE/RIR

Sometimes I often find it difficult to judge deadlift RPE/RIR. Usually past 150kg the bar speed does decrease significantly. But I can still do 162.5 x 5@RPE 8. Sometimes it feels like a 9/10 based on bar speed, but im pretty sure it would be an 8 with a gun to my head.

im onto the 2nd block of PB1 and im finding the DL singles hard to judge if I base the RPE on bar speed.

Am I right in saying that singles shouldnt be based on RIR?

My last session was a 165kg x 1@8 based on the bar speed and how i felt, but wasnt sure whether to attempt another higher set (167.5/170) based on the fact that i managed 165kg x 5@9 during the volume block

Is there any videos going about of what a DL single at RPE 8 would look like?

Cheers mate

Hey Paul,

I made you your own thread on this to try and keep things straight. For your questions:

  1. No, that is not respecting the day’s RPE on either session. Choosing a weight that may still be too heavy or too light just because it was done the week before is not something I’d recommend.

  2. Bar speed and RPE/RIR are not the same thing and each lift will have it’s own “typical” velocity for a given RIR. Singles can be based on RIR, but not necessarily. It’s more important that you use the same scale each time.

If your 165 x 1 felt like @ 8, then that’s fine for the day.

I don’t think a video of another lifter doing 1 @ 8 would be useful for your own personal 1 @ 8.

-Jordan

Thanks Jordan.

P.S after reading your comment was thinking about my deadlift form, I watched one of your deadlift videos, and last Friday decided to adjust imy form slightly by widening my stance a bit and pointing my toes more forward. I found that I was more stable and able to set my back better. I was able to actually “squeeze” the bar off the floor, where as before I always felt like I had to “jerk” the bar to get it moving. 165kg absolutely flew up compared to last time, I then did 170kg and it was easily an 8. So onwards and upwards for deadlift.

Cheers mate