Why do you work out?
Is it to look better? Feel better? Gain muscle? Lose weight? Prevent injury? Improve balance? Continue to play sports with your kids? Be able to live independently when you're 80?
No matter WHAT your goal is, getting using strength training will help you get there. I firmly believe everyone should be doing some form of strength training in their workouts. Yes runners, I'm especially talking to you!
Some hear strength training and immediately visualize huge powerlifters and bodybuilders lifting super heavy weights while doing the typical squat, bench, and deadlift. For some people, yes, that is their strength training. And if that's not you-totally fine- it doesn't have to be!
For the sake of simplicity, strength training is any exercise done with enough intensity to cause a physiological change in your body to progress your strength. You can use a push up a strength training exercise. You can also perform lunges as a strength training exercise. While we're at it, you can also use a dumbbell squat, wall sit, step up, shoulder press, bicep curl, pullup, or any other number of movements as strength training. But there is one VERY important point to remember... it has to be the right INTENSITY.
And that is where using RPE comes into the picture.
RPE stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion. It's a way to self regulate your exercise intensity to make sure your exercise is going to help you build strength appropriately.
It can be a great tool to help you further understand what your body is actually capable of, and how many repetitions of an exercise you need to do to get a proper strength building stimulus from your training.
One of the most popular RPE scales when it comes to strength training is the 1-10 RPE Scale. This 1-10 scale corresponds to how many reps that you are still capable of performing for a given exercise. A 10/10 RPE is max effort, so a true "rep max". This means you could not do a single additional repetition of that exercise with the given weight. A 9/10 RPE would equate to you being able to do 1 more rep of that exercise, still very high intensity. An 8/10 RPE corresponds to 2 reps remaining, and so on. This scale breaks it down pretty simply!
While it may seem confusing at first, it gets pretty easy to understand and implement. But understanding your body and its capabilities enough to choose the right intensity isn't always easy. I'll show you what I mean, here is an interesting test for you!
Do an exercise-lets just pick a back squat to make it easy. I want you to do sets of 5 repetitions, building up in weight, until you get to a weight that you think you could only do 7-8 repetitions with. Now here comes the fun part- I want you to do as many reps as possible with that weight. You're not gonna stop at 8, you will keep squatting until you can't anymore. Go on, I'll wait....
Did you do it? How many repetitions did you get? I am gonna guess WAY more than 8. But you surely felt like you could have only done 8 right? Why is that?
When it comes to weight training, many of use have a skewed representation of what 100% effort actually is. Often times, our body is capable of way more than we give it credit for! And that is exactly the premise of intensity that I was talking about earlier. If our strength training is to be effective for actually building strength, we have to be in tune with what max effort for our body is.
Now this doesn't mean you have to go out and lift the same weights every other guy or gal is lifting, it means we have to find what works for each individual, and take an individualized approach!
In this video I break down the scale, and a brief description of how to apply it to your training!
If you're already weight training, using the RPE scale can really level up your training and help you get even stronger than before! If you have questions on this, send us an email!
The tricky part can be making decisions on the best exercises to use this technique with. For beginners, it is best applied to barbell and dumbbell exercises because weights can be adjusted easier to determine your load capacity
And if you're in the Columbus, Ohio area and have been dealing with pain or injury preventing you from working out like you want, hit us up and schedule a free phone consultation with Dr. Taylor to see how we can help you!
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