Most lifters glance at the numbers written on their programme and follow them to the letter, even on the days their body is clearly asking for something different. They hit the prescribed weight, grind through six reps that should have felt like five, and wonder later why a shoulder feels wrecked or why their squat has stalled for the third week running. The missing piece is RPE, or Rate of Perceived Exertion, a simple scale that lets your body have a say in how hard a gym session actually needs to be.
RPE turns training into a conversation between the plan on paper and how your nervous system is performing on that particular day. Instead of chasing a fixed number regardless of sleep, stress, or how many hours you spent on your feet at work, it asks a straightforward question after every set. How many more reps did you have left. Get comfortable answering that honestly and you will train harder on your good days, back off on your average ones, and avoid a lot of the burnout and niggling injuries that come from ignoring the signals your body sends.
What RPE actually measures
RPE started as a tool in exercise physiology long before it reached the weights room. Swedish researcher Gunnar Borg developed the original scale to help people rate how hard cardiovascular activity felt on a range from 6 to 20, a range chosen because it roughly lines up with heart rate divided by 10. A score of 15 on that original scale tends to sit near a heart rate of about 150 beats per minute. Strength coaches later adapted the idea for resistance training and simplified it into the 0 to 10 scale most Australian gyms use today.
The version used for weight training was formalised by a research team led by Dr Michael Zourdos, who tied each whole number on the scale to a specific number of reps in reserve, or RIR. An RPE of 10 means you could not have completed another rep. A rating of 9 means you had exactly one more rep in the tank. A rating of 7 means you finished the set with about three reps still available. The research behind this scale found a strong link between how fast the bar moved and the effort rating a lifter reported, which gives the scale genuine scientific backing rather than it just being a gut feeling with a number attached.
That same research found experienced lifters were noticeably better than beginners at judging true effort close to a one rep max, which is worth remembering if you are new to the scale and it feels awkward at first.
Why RPE beats chasing a fixed number every week
Traditional programming assigns a percentage of your one rep max to every set, which works well on paper but less well in real life. A muggy Brisbane afternoon, a rough night of sleep before an early shift, or a stressful week at work can all change how much weight you can genuinely move on a given day, even though your one rep max has not changed at all. A fixed percentage has no way of knowing any of that. RPE does.
A research team led by Eric Helms compared a programme built around fixed percentages against a programme where lifters selected their own loads using RPE targets, with both groups matched for the same sets and reps over an eight week block. Both approaches built real strength, but the guided group came out slightly ahead across squat, bench press, and combined totals, with the researchers concluding that this approach may offer a small strength advantage for most people.
A related study from the same research group found that these same targets can also be used to guide how much total training volume a lifter does across a block, giving coaches and self coached lifters a practical lever to pull when life gets in the way of the plan.
The RPE scale for resistance training
Once you know what each number represents, using it in the gym becomes second nature. The table below shows how the scale lines up with reps in reserve for a typical working set.
| RPE | Reps in reserve | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 0 reps left | Maximal effort, could not do another rep |
| 9 | 1 rep left | Very hard, one more rep was possible with a fight |
| 8 | 2 reps left | Hard, two clean reps remained |
| 7 | 3 reps left | Solid working set, clearly more in the tank |
| 5 to 6 | 4 to 6 reps left | Moderate effort, good for warm up sets |
| 3 or below | Many reps left | Light effort, suited to technique work or a deload |
Pro Tip: Calibrate before you trust it
Your first few weeks using RPE should include the occasional set taken close to true failure so you know what a genuine RPE of 9 or 10 feels like for you personally. Without that reference point it is easy to underestimate effort, especially on compound lifts where fatigue builds gradually across a set rather than hitting all at once.
Common mistakes Aussie lifters make with RPE
The biggest mistake is treating every set as an opportunity to hit RPE 10. Training to true failure on most sets adds fatigue far faster than it adds strength, and it makes the scale useless as a monitoring tool because there is nowhere left to go. A programme that calls for an 8 wants you to stop with two clean reps in reserve, not to grind out a ninth rep because it felt achievable.
The second common error is confusing how a single set felt with how the whole session felt. RPE is normally reported per set, not as a vague impression of the whole workout. Rating every set the same regardless of the actual load or rep count defeats the purpose of using the scale at all.
The third mistake is ignoring RPE once fatigue builds through the back half of a session. Reps in reserve should be reassessed on every set, because the same weight that felt like a 7 on your first set might genuinely feel like a 9 by your fourth, particularly in the heat or after a long day standing on your feet at work.
Key Takeaways
Use these points as a quick reference the next time you are second guessing a number on the bar.
- RPE measures how many reps you had left in a set, not just how heavy the weight felt.
- A validated 0 to 10 scale ties each number to a specific number of reps in reserve.
- This approach has been shown to build strength as well as, and sometimes slightly better than, fixed percentage programming.
- Calibrate your sense of true failure early so your ratings stay honest.
- Reassess your rating on every set, since fatigue and life stress change how a given weight feels as a session goes on.
Final Thoughts
RPE is not about replacing your training programme, it is about giving that programme permission to bend around real life. A sensible approach is to keep your rep ranges and exercise selection fixed while letting your effort rating decide the exact weight on the bar each session.
Start by tracking your ratings on your main lifts for a few weeks, be honest about where true failure sits, and trust the process even when the number on the bar looks a little different from what the spreadsheet predicted. Over a full training block that honesty pays off in fewer stalled lifts, less nagging fatigue, and a lot more consistency in the gym.
