Why you suck at RPE
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:48 am
This is intended as a short commentary...
Well, this isn't really why you suck at RPE, or (even worse) why RPE is not for you, but rather "some thoughts about why RPE is hard for you to assess across your various lifts". That title wouldn't be as catchy though.
For a while I've been seeing posts on various forums (including here), Facebook, Instragram, Myspace, etc. with people having issues with RPE. Often times it's the issue that they are having a hard time coming up with an internally consistent "feel" for RPE across different lifts. More specifically, RPE error varies from lift to lift, and they are left wondering why or feeling as though RPE doesn't work for them.
So let's think about this a bit...
Tangential Analogy
When I was in high school, I played tuba. I was okay; good enough to get a scholarship to college to play. My proficiency was ok, but limited to what I had been playing in high school and further constrained by the fact that I had only been playing BBb (the fundamental key) tuba. Not out of the ordinary, but something to consider nonetheless.
As a result of that experience, I struggled playing with major/minor keys that had lots of flats or sharps. I was really lazy about forcing myself to practice scales in various patterns, and things didn't improve much, e.g. E major was still an ugly key for me to play in. About a year into college, a good friend of mine (and currently a professional tuba player) convinced me to get a CC Contrabass Tuba. Basically a tuba in a different key. In doing so, I was still playing similar music, but my scale proficiency began to grow, since I was forced into fingering patterns I hadn't been using before. Then I started reaching into the orchestral literature and gained more proficiency. In another year or so, I picked up an F tuba, forced myself to play through all of the same literature, and gained even more proficiency. Blowing through scales on a tuba in any given key became pretty darn easy. Why? Well, mainly because my exposure to those patterns started to converge or at least flatten out.
Application of the Tangential Analogy
Thinking of each lift as simply a movement pattern, I see a similar problem with folks that have come off of NLP and are trying something like "The Bridge" that @JordanFeigenbaum and @Austin have put together. A common theme is that squats are pretty easy to gauge whereas other lifts are often different.
Well, let's assume this person just departed the SSNLP.
They were doing 45 reps of squats per week.
Roughly 23 reps of bench or press per week.
Maybe 5-10 deadlifts per week with some other pulls (that might not translate well to developing RPE) per week.
So squat proficiency would roughly be double either of the pressing movements. Squat proficiency as compared to deadlift is at least a factor of 3 (45/15) possibly being as high as a factor of 9 (rare).
While I admit that there are other factors that would affect RPE assessment, mainly whether or not the lift is started in an eccentric or concentric phase along with the size of the musculature involved, I think that those with this RPE concern should consider the concept of total reps as a first order of correction when trying to dial in RPE. I am aware that programs like The Bridge do even out the reps per week, but this will take some time to converge. Knowing that, proceed with the post-novice programming and allow yourself time to calibrate RPE on each lift accordingly.
tl;dr:
Your RPE difficulties may be well-explained simply by your differences in exposure to the various lifts.
Well, this isn't really why you suck at RPE, or (even worse) why RPE is not for you, but rather "some thoughts about why RPE is hard for you to assess across your various lifts". That title wouldn't be as catchy though.
For a while I've been seeing posts on various forums (including here), Facebook, Instragram, Myspace, etc. with people having issues with RPE. Often times it's the issue that they are having a hard time coming up with an internally consistent "feel" for RPE across different lifts. More specifically, RPE error varies from lift to lift, and they are left wondering why or feeling as though RPE doesn't work for them.
So let's think about this a bit...
Tangential Analogy
When I was in high school, I played tuba. I was okay; good enough to get a scholarship to college to play. My proficiency was ok, but limited to what I had been playing in high school and further constrained by the fact that I had only been playing BBb (the fundamental key) tuba. Not out of the ordinary, but something to consider nonetheless.
As a result of that experience, I struggled playing with major/minor keys that had lots of flats or sharps. I was really lazy about forcing myself to practice scales in various patterns, and things didn't improve much, e.g. E major was still an ugly key for me to play in. About a year into college, a good friend of mine (and currently a professional tuba player) convinced me to get a CC Contrabass Tuba. Basically a tuba in a different key. In doing so, I was still playing similar music, but my scale proficiency began to grow, since I was forced into fingering patterns I hadn't been using before. Then I started reaching into the orchestral literature and gained more proficiency. In another year or so, I picked up an F tuba, forced myself to play through all of the same literature, and gained even more proficiency. Blowing through scales on a tuba in any given key became pretty darn easy. Why? Well, mainly because my exposure to those patterns started to converge or at least flatten out.
Application of the Tangential Analogy
Thinking of each lift as simply a movement pattern, I see a similar problem with folks that have come off of NLP and are trying something like "The Bridge" that @JordanFeigenbaum and @Austin have put together. A common theme is that squats are pretty easy to gauge whereas other lifts are often different.
Well, let's assume this person just departed the SSNLP.
They were doing 45 reps of squats per week.
Roughly 23 reps of bench or press per week.
Maybe 5-10 deadlifts per week with some other pulls (that might not translate well to developing RPE) per week.
So squat proficiency would roughly be double either of the pressing movements. Squat proficiency as compared to deadlift is at least a factor of 3 (45/15) possibly being as high as a factor of 9 (rare).
While I admit that there are other factors that would affect RPE assessment, mainly whether or not the lift is started in an eccentric or concentric phase along with the size of the musculature involved, I think that those with this RPE concern should consider the concept of total reps as a first order of correction when trying to dial in RPE. I am aware that programs like The Bridge do even out the reps per week, but this will take some time to converge. Knowing that, proceed with the post-novice programming and allow yourself time to calibrate RPE on each lift accordingly.
tl;dr:
Your RPE difficulties may be well-explained simply by your differences in exposure to the various lifts.