What is it?
RPE, or Rate of Perceived Exertion, is a subjective rating of difficulty of a physical activity. It differs from person to person, and is the best way to determine how challenging you find an exercise based on how hard you feel you’re working.
How is it assessed?
RPE is a scale that runs from 0 – 10, with “0” representing no difficulty at all, and “10” being all out maximum effort. (Side note: originally this was a 6 – 20 scale, why, on earth, I have no idea, but I’m super thankful this was modified because RPE 8 sounds much better than RPE 17.)
When performing a squat, for example, I might ask you “what’s the RPE?” I always have a number in my head when I ask this of a client, because I’ve been training long enough to guess an RPE based on my visual observation, and I’m usually pretty spot on. If you answer RPE 6 out of 10, that means the weight was pretty easy and you could at least get 4 more reps in at that weight. If you answer 9 out of 10, now we’re creeping up towards maximum effort. An RPE 9 means you might be able to squeeze 1 more rep out at that weight. RPE 10 is max effort.
English, please.
If you’re programmed to do a set of 5 squats at 100lbs, and you tell me it’s an RPE 10, that 5th squat was a hail mary and almost didn’t happen. RPE can also change workout to workout – an RPE 10 one day might be an RPE 8 another day, as there are many different factors that can impact a workout, such as sleep, nutrition, rest, stress, etc.
My husband likes to say everything I do in life is at an RPE 10. I think he’d prefer I take it down to an RPE 8, but what can I say, I’m a max effort kind of gal and he’s stuck with me.
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