Yes. Das why I said to not do that until you're in shape and can manage it. Lol

Hmm, i will give it a try but idk if 4x8 can be called volume day. Im really busy lately but have to stick to some kind of basic routine, upper lower seems fun since it shouldn't be consuming so much time as ppl. When i asked about amount of volume i meant total amount of sets at rpe +/- 6/8 for big muscle groups weekly. Cheers.

Agree to disagree. I definitely think it has a place in exercise testing, but it is completely subjective and can really lead to inaccurate data. It's a great tool to make sure you're not killing your patients and see where they feel that they're at, but most won't really understand the grading enough to Know where they're actually at. You also have to deal with people who lie about where they feel they're at.

It's a good accessory tool.

I can't think of an instance that % is better than rpe

5x5 @ 80% will kill some people, for others it will be easy. The training effect of that session will be very different. 1 will have little fatigue, the other will be playing catch up all week

If you prescribe 5 x 5 @ rpe 8, the lifters will lift at different %s of their max but the training effect will be relatively the same, do you can plan long term and develop training cycles

Things that can affects people's ability to do reps... work capacity, fitness, ROM, psyched up, low sleep, low calories,


The only time IMO that you should go for specific numbers over 'how you feel' is when picking max attempts. Max weight is always going to feel heavy no matter your strength level, and a lot can be said for having a goal and going HAM for it once in a while

I find bar speed to not be a very good indicator for a coach (especially a new coach for that athelete because of different people's ability to grind reps

I asked why you prefer RPE over % max because I think both are roughly subjective in new lifters. % max and RPE becomes clearer with experience.

I think of RPE as subjective but as a fantastic intraworkout tool. It's how I work, especially because I don't test my maxes weekly, and I know they change. Thus, f*ck the calculation. Also, coming from a sports background as well as a lifting background (sports since age 3, lifting since age 12), I learned about intensity way before I learned about % max.

Where I like % max is in pure strength work. In this case I will want to know my numbers. I don't need to stick to 80% max if that's what I wrote down though. It's just that I prefer to plan for %max and work with RPE. In effect, if I plan for RPE I'm probably going to adjust it anyway. That's just because sometimes I feel better or worse, and it balances out within say 5% of the RPE range (I like to use an RPE scale out of 10 b/c I like it better than the annoying /16 or w/e setups. If I'm at 12 or 13 RPE, I don't have a way to standardize that.

In programming and in practice I think the key is adjustment. Ask clients how they feel, watch their physiology, read the signs.

In your own workouts, I think it's way easy to perform proper work sets, accessory sets, functional sets and conditioning work because we know our own bodies better than we know the bodies of others.



As an athlete, I hated even the idea of taking cues about bar speed. I wanted cues on form, and cues on effort. Bar speed is a useful analytic tool but I never really trusted its measurements or my own consistency in responding to it as a lifter.

This post was edited by RewtheBrave on Oct 3 2017 07:18pm

Those are da same ting, are dey not?

This post was edited by tommyd323 on Oct 3 2017 11:30pm

% of 1rm is widely innacurate for beginner lifters.

Yes and no.

Intensity can be quantified as % max. Some people would say intensity can be quantified as RPE. But I'm going back to when I was younger, before I really worried so much about these distinctions. Intensity is just "I won't be outworked by anyone else on this field!" or "Did you give it your best?", or "I tried, but not hard enough", or even, "I got a good sweat out of it". It's a ubiquitous term that I've seen used in different ways, but in that moment I just meant it in a colloquial way. And I think that can sometimes be the BEST guide, b/c it's subjective, informal, and belongs to the heart--we know how hard we're working, we can be accountable to it. % max & RPE are just great ways to create program guidelines b/c they add a standard. It's not an objective standard but it's a standard, and for each person, there's only so much wiggle room with a standard, so sh*t gets done right most of the time by non-idiots (a.k.a.. maybe 20% of people who begin lifting and start programs).