Understanding RPE and RIR for Smarter Training
Updated: 4 hours ago
Eight. That's the number I hear more than any other when I ask an athlete how a set felt. Sometimes it's accurate. Often it means "hard, but I didn't die," and the next set tells me the real answer was a six or a ten.
I was no better when I started. My early training logs are full of eights. Easy sets, brutal sets, sets where I barely remember what happened: all eights. It took me a long time to understand that a number is only useful if it tells the truth.
Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and reps in reserve (RIR) are two of the most useful tools you can learn, and two of the most misused. Used well, they let your training flex with your sleep, stress and progress instead of locking you into fixed percentages. Used badly, they become a polite way to guess. Here's how I use them.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Two Scales, One Question: How Much Was Left?
RPE is a 1 to 10 rating of how hard an effort felt. In conditioning, a 1 is sitting on the couch and a 10 is the hardest effort you could possibly produce. In strength training, coaches commonly use a version tied directly to reps left in the tank, and that's where RIR comes in.
RIR is exactly what it sounds like: when you racked the bar, how many more good reps could you have done? The two line up simply in the strength version of the scale:
RPE 10 / 0 RIR: no more reps possible, or no more weight possible.
RPE 9 / 1 RIR: one more rep was there, and only one.
RPE 8 / 2 RIR: two more clean reps were available.
RPE 7 / 3 RIR: the bar moved with speed; three more reps were possible.
RPE 6 and below: warm-up territory, technique and speed work.
Half points are fine. An RPE 8.5 means "maybe one more, definitely two if I had to." The key word in every definition is good. A rep in reserve counts only if it would have met the standard: depth on the squat, lockout on the press, full range on the pull-up. Grinding out an ugly rep doesn't mean you had it.
Worked Example One: A Back Squat Day
Say your programming reads: back squat, 4 sets of 5 at RPE 7 to 8. Here's how that session might unfold for a hypothetical athlete, a composite of many I've coached, whose five-rep squats usually sit around 100 kg.
Her first working set goes up at 95 kg. The last rep is still fast and she's confident she could have done three more. That's RPE 7, right where it should be. She adds 5 kg. At 100 kg the fifth rep slows noticeably, and she believes two more were possible. RPE 8. The prescription says 7 to 8, so she stays at 100 kg for the final two sets rather than chasing a heavier number.
Now picture her after a stressful week. At 95 kg the bar already feels like an 8. She holds 95 kg, or drops to 90 kg, and still gets the intended effect. A fixed percentage would have asked her to grind, and grinding on a bad day is how technique erodes and small aches grow.
I've lived that exact day: bad sleep, long week, a warm-up that felt like a max. Years ago I'd have forced the number. Now I rate the set, adjust the load and walk out having trained well instead of having proved something. The prescription stays constant (effort) while the load adapts to the person under the bar.
Worked Example Two: Gymnastics Sets That Stay Crisp
RIR is especially helpful for gymnastics, where the cost of pushing too close to failure is poor positions under a bar or on rings. Suppose the plan calls for 5 sets of strict pull-ups at 2 RIR.
You've got a max of about 10 strict pull-ups, so you start with 7. Rep 7 is slower but controlled, and you're confident two more were there. Good. By set four, rep 6 starts to lose its chest height. You stop at 6, because 2 RIR on a tired set is 6, not 7. The number of reps changed; the effort didn't.
When I coach this, I ask athletes to set a quality standard before the first rep: chin clearly over the bar, no kip, full hang at the bottom. Reps in reserve are counted against that standard. If the shape breaks, that rep was your last one, whatever the whiteboard says. I still remember the first time an athlete of mine stopped a set on her own, one rep early, because her chin wasn't clearing. She looked almost guilty. I was thrilled.
Worked Example Three: Conditioning by Feel
In conditioning, RPE is less about reps and more about sustainability. Here's a simple translation many coaches use:
RPE 3 to 4: easy aerobic work. You can speak in full sentences.
RPE 5 to 6: steady and working. Short phrases only.
RPE 7 to 8: threshold-like efforts you can hold for many minutes but wouldn't want to extend.
RPE 9 to 10: short, hard intervals or the final push of a test.
Take 5 rounds of 3 minutes on the rower at RPE 7, with 90 seconds of rest. A useful check: round five should look almost identical to round one. This is where I made my classic mistake. I'd call the first round a 7, row it like a 9, and spend rounds four and five hanging on to the handle. If your first round is at a pace you can't repeat, you rated it a 7 but rowed it as a 9. Start a little slower and let the last round be the hardest-feeling, not the fastest.
If you wear a heart rate monitor, use both. Heart rate lags behind short efforts and drifts up in the heat or when you're tired; perceived effort fills that gap.
Calibration: Getting Better at Rating Yourself
Most athletes underrate early sets and overrate late ones. The scale becomes reliable with practice, and practice needs feedback. Three habits help.
First, write down the RPE the moment you finish a set, before rest makes it feel easier. Second, now and then, test your guess. On a safe movement such as a goblet squat or a dumbbell row, take a set you called RPE 8 and see whether two more good reps were there. Only do this where failure is safe, never on heavy barbell lifts without spotters or safety arms. Third, compare your ratings over weeks. If your RPE 8 at a given load keeps drifting down to a 7, you're getting stronger, and that's useful information for your next block.
A quick safety note: RPE measures effort, not pain. A sharp, localized or worsening pain isn't something to rate and push through. Stop, and if it persists, see a physiotherapist or doctor.
Coach's cue: Rate the rep you did, not the rep you wish you did.
Where RPE Fits in a Week of Classes
You don't need to rate everything. RPE matters most on strength days where you choose your loads, on extra work around classes, and on easy aerobic days where the danger is going too hard. For most athletes, the bulk of strength work lands between RPE 7 and 9, true 10s are rare and planned, and aerobic base work stays truly easy at RPE 3 to 5. Those guardrails are what let you keep showing up week after week.
Effort You Can Measure, Week After Week
RPE and RIR turn "how did it feel?" into a number you can plan around, log and learn from. They reward honesty and punish ego, which is exactly why they work. Start with one lift and one conditioning piece this week, rate every set, and read your log back on Sunday. I bet you'll find a few eights that weren't.
If you want sessions that already come with effort targets, so you know what a 6 or an 8 should feel like before you start, take a look at Sphere Programming. It adds structured engine and gymnastics work around your classes, with the intent of every piece written right into the session.
Your turn. Tried this? Tell me how it went in the comments below. I read every one, and your questions help shape what I write next. If it helped, tap the heart so it reaches more athletes.
Keep reading
Further reading: National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
Coach Fritz Bautista · Head Coach, ATHLETESPHERE
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) ✓ · CrossFit Programming Certificate · MBA · Digital Marketing Certified · Coaching athletes from all walks of life online
Comments