Austrin Performance

⚠️What is Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE?)⚠️

RPE is a rating from 1-10 of how hard you perceived a set to be and relates to how many repetitions away from failure you were on completion of a set. In this sense, RPE is the inverse to reps in reserve (how many reps you had in the tank on completion of the set).

Practically, this means:
RPE 10 = 0 reps in the tank
RPE 9 = 1 rep in the tank
RPE 8 = 2 reps in the tank

Since RPE is a subjective measure of internal load / stress, mastery of assigning accurate RPE ratings can take time, however, the individualisation of training achieved through this auto-regulation can provide a big pay-off. This auto-regulation allows you to adjust your training intensity and even volume depending on how you feel going into training. Factors like sleep quality, nutrition, hydration, stress, and physical fatigue affect your readiness to train and the difficulty of training.

If RPE is used to prescribe load in your training, you can take these factors into account to adjust training variables accordingly. This is important, as things like a bad nights sleep or unusually busy days do happen, and you aren’t always going to be 100% ‘fresh’ for training.

🏋🏾‍♀️ How RPE is used…🏋🏼‍♂️

For example, last week, you squat 100kg x 6 at the prescribed RPE 7. Coming into this weeks session, you slept poorly and had a long tiring day at work. Now this could mean that the same absolute load (100kg) moves at a higher relative intensity (e.g. RPE 9) so, a reduced absolute load (e.g. 95kg) moves at the same relative intensity (RPE 7).

🤓 Making good RPE calls 🤓

Accurate RPE ratings call on a lifters experience and knowledge of their own lifting (I.e. how fast a given RPE lift typically moves, how quickly rep work tails off for them, how much they can ‘grind’).

Clients regularly ask me about protein and protein consumption. “How much protein should I be eating if I’m training?”, “I normally eat X, Y, Z, is that enough protein?”

Absolute daily protein intake is key. It is widely recommended that endurance and strength trained individuals should consume 1.3-1.8g/kg body mass of protein a day. Endurance-focussed individuals ideally aiming for the middle of that range, and strength- and hypertrophy-focussed individuals aiming towards the upper bound (1,2). The only way to increase muscle mass is to be in a positive protein balance! If in doubt, take on a bit more protein (providing it fits in with your macros). If you are in a calorie deficit as your goal is to reduce fat mass, it is recommended that protein intake is increased to 2g-2.7g/kg body mass to preserve lean tissue, depending on the magnitude of the deficit.

Protein timing and source are other important factors to consider. ~25g of protein appears to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis and this should be consumed every 3-4 hours (1,2,3,4). I always recommend consuming this amount of protein upon waking and before bed. This way, muscle protein synthesis is spiked frequently and kept elevated, helping promote a positive net protein balance. This is in-line with findings from Res et al. (2012), that pre-bed protein increases overnight muscle protein synthesis, while the serving upon waking provides the first protein in 8+ hours (at least it should be if you are sleeping the correct amount).

Lastly, most people want to build some muscle mass. Now, trying to maximise your gains by getting all your protein in is let down if you are not actually eating enough total calories to be in a calorie surplus. Protein is expensive by the way! So often people focus on ‘protein, protein, protein’, yet they’re not in a calorie surplus where they have sufficient energy to synthesise lean tissue optimally.

1. Gerovasilli et al., 2009
2. Phillips and van Loon, 2011
3. Witard et al., 2014
4. Areta et al., 2013
5. Res et al., 2012