What’s Your RPE? at He's Fit

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What’s Your RPE?

Posted May 18, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jamal Walker

Section: His Fitness, Cardio Training, His Health, Physical Health

endurance Like any industry, fitness has many acronyms that sometimes need to be defined to consumers. One popular acronym that you should know is RPE. It stands for “rate of perceived exertion.”

Exercise scientists often use RPE to determine intensity levels. There are even studies that say RPE is a more reliable tool to measure intensity than heart rate monitors and exercising according to a percentage of your maximum heart rate (which, by the way, is 220 minus your current age). Most of the time, RPE is measured on a scale of one(lowest) to 10 (highest). At your lowest point, you should feel the exercise is extremely easy and you are barely even trying. At 10, you should feel like you are going to fall over and you can’t try and harder.

You can even do the “talk test,” meaning, if you can talk while you’re exercising, you’re not working hard enough. If you can’t talk, you are working pretty hard.

Here’s a more specific breakdown of RPE that you can use:

RPE 1-2: Very easy; conversing with someone can be done without any difficulty
RPE 3: Easy; chatting with a workout buddy is done with very limited difficulty
RPE 4: Moderately easy; you can still carry on a conversation with someone, but it requires a bit of effort
RPE 5: Moderate; you find conversation with a workout buddy takes some effort and concentration
RPE 6: Moderately difficult; carrying on a conversation is not easy and requires effort
RPE 7: Difficult; having a conversation is almost out of the question, though not impossible
RPE 8: Very difficult; conversation requires maximum effort, to the point where it’s very unlikely to take place
RPE 9-10: Peak Effort; you are working as hard as you can. You have just enough wind to finish the exercise, and therefore can’t expend any on conversation

Research sources and for more information: [That’s Fit];