When you first start lifting, progress is simple. Add 5 pounds to the bar every week, eat enough protein, get some sleep. Linear progression works because you're far from your genetic potential.
But then it stops working. The weights that went up easily start grinding. You fail reps. And you're left wondering: is this a bad day, or am I doing something wrong?
This is where RPE comes in.
What Is RPE?
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. It's a scale from 1-10 that describes how hard a set felt:
- RPE 10: Maximum effort. You couldn't have done another rep.
- RPE 9: Very hard. Maybe 1 rep left in the tank.
- RPE 8: Hard. 2 reps in reserve.
- RPE 7: Moderate. 3 reps in reserve.
- RPE 6: Light. 4+ reps in reserve.
The concept comes from powerlifting coach Mike Tuchscherer, but it's useful for anyone who's moved past the beginner phase.
Why Beginners Don't Need It
When you're new to lifting, everything feels hard. RPE 8 on a squat? You have no reference point. Your body hasn't developed the proprioception to accurately gauge effort.
More importantly, beginners are recovering so fast that it doesn't matter. You can train to failure repeatedly and still make progress because you're adapting quickly.
Why Intermediates Do
Once you've been training 6+ months and your nervous system has adapted, things change:
1. Your Recovery Slows Down
Training to RPE 10 every session accumulates fatigue faster than you can recover. This leads to stalled progress and eventually overtraining.
2. You Need Autoregulation
Some days you walk into the gym and the weights fly up. Other days, everything feels heavy. Fixed percentage programs don't account for this variability.
RPE lets you autoregulate: push harder on good days, back off on bad days, while still making progress.
3. Fatigue Is a Signal
Here's the key insight: if the same weight feels harder (higher RPE) week over week, you're accumulating fatigue.
This is exactly what happened to one of our beta testers. His bench press had been stuck at 185 for three weeks. But when we looked at his RPE data, we saw it had crept from 7.5 to 9 over that period.
He wasn't plateauing—he was accumulating fatigue. A deload week and his bench jumped to 190.
The Research on Autoregulation
A 2025 network meta-analysis by Huang et al. compared different progression methods. Their finding? Autoregulating Progressive Resistance Exercise (APRE) achieved:
- 93.0% SUCRA for squat
- 97.1% SUCRA for bench press
Compare that to fixed percentage-based protocols at 13.2% and 15.9% respectively.
Translation: programs that adjust based on your daily performance dramatically outperform rigid programs.
How to Start Using RPE
Step 1: Learn the Scale
Spend a few weeks just logging RPE without changing anything. Get calibrated. Learn what RPE 8 feels like on squats versus curls.
Step 2: Target RPE 7-8 for Most Work
Unless you're testing maxes, most of your working sets should be in the RPE 7-8 range. This gives you room to progress without accumulating excessive fatigue.
Step 3: Watch for Creep
If your RPE starts climbing at the same weight, that's your signal to either:
- Take a deload week
- Reduce volume temporarily
- Check recovery factors (sleep, stress, nutrition)
Step 4: Use It for Deload Decisions
In Swole, our AI Coach uses your RPE data to recommend deloads. But even without the AI, you can make this decision yourself: if your RPE has been trending up for 2-3 weeks, it's probably time to back off.
RPE in Swole
We built RPE tracking right into the set logging flow. After you complete a set, you rate it from 6-10. That data feeds into:
- Adaptive rest timer: Higher RPE = longer rest
- Fatigue analysis: Track RPE trends over time
- AI Coach recommendations: Personalized deload and progression advice
Start Simple
If you've never tracked RPE before, don't overcomplicate it. Just ask yourself after each working set: "How many reps could I have done?" Then:
- 0 reps left = RPE 10
- 1 rep left = RPE 9
- 2 reps left = RPE 8
- And so on
Over time, this becomes automatic. And it gives you data that transforms how you train.
Ready to start tracking RPE? Download Swole for $5 and bring autoregulation to your training.