I’m hoping someone can help me figure out how to grade RPE when exertion levels are low but the number of remaining reps is also low.
The situation I’ve been running into is the following, and it usually involves exercises that tax my upper back (front squat, snatch grip deadlift, etc):
I get a few reps and am at maybe and RPE 7 in terms of muscular exertion (=the weight still feels light). However, my technique begins to breakdown, likely because of weakness in my upper back; for the front squat, the bar will begin to slip off my shoulders because I’m losing tightness in my upper back. So, in terms of effort, my RPE is very low. However, in terms of the number of reps I could actually still do, RPE is high, maybe a 9 or 10; but this is entirely due to a technique breakdown from a weakpoint. How should I grade this? If RPE is designed to measure stress, I feel like I should probably grade it with the low RPE.
On a related note, I run into the same problem with exhaustion on high reps; if, eg, I’m doing 10 reps on the LBBS, the muscular fatigue might be very low, but, metabollically, I’m so exhausted, I couldn’t do even one more rep. I am not sure how to grade that either.
Any info would be extremely helpful. Thanks a lot.
Let’s use the Socratic method here… what do you think is causing the RPE of a set of front squats to go up? Additionally, what sort of weight are you back squatting and how long have you been training?
The RPE of the front squats is only going up if I grade RPE as “reps in reserve” vs rate of perceived exertion; in that case, it is going up because I am unable to keep my upper back sufficiently locked to prevent the bar from slipping. I have tried multiple grips to resolve this, and the bodybuilder style cross grip works best, but nothing allows me to actually get to a point where the set is physically hard/where the set involves high levels of effort; the number of reps in reserve always drops quickly due to bar slip/a loss of upper back strength. So, short answer, my Reps in Reserve is dropping becuase my upper back is becoming exhausted. And, from the way you phrased the question, I think you are suggesting that exhaustion is exhaustion and I should take the failing in my upper back as a valid marker for high RPE.
I have been training just shy of two years, though I spent an unfortunate amount of that time screwing around with no real plan. I LBBS 415x1 @ RPE 10; I front squat 235 x 1 @ RPE 10. I actually started doing front squats a few weeks ago because I noticed that my upper back was rounding slightly in the bottom of the LBBS, and I thought this might be a weakness I needed to fix.
Sounds like front squats are pretty new to you and your RPE climbs due to upper back/postural fatigue rather than leg strength, which is pretty typical. I don’t think I would do anything to specifically address this other than keep training the lift if you want to get better at it.