What is going on, Farewell Squad? Today we have Brad coaching us up on something called RPE, which I will let him tell you what it means. It is a subjective metric that allows you to track the amount of effort you are putting into whatever you're doing. So it's very useful for physical exercise and workouts, but is even a good metric to use outside of the gym or off the track, off the field in your life, just to know how hard you're working because it is always good to have a sense of how hard you're working so you don't burn out, but also so that you don't slack off and know that you are doing enough to get to where you want to go. And you're thinking, why would I use a subjective metric when there are objective metrics out there? That's a good question and I just encourage you to keep listening. So here's Brad on RPE. Okay Brad, so today I want to talk to you about RPE, which I don't exactly even know what it is, so I'm going to have you define it. But this is something I think you often see used in weightlifting and powerlifting. But I saw recently a post that mentioned this is something you can use outside of the weight room. And that got, that piqued my interest because I think people are always looking for the right metrics to use to measure their performance and It had never occurred to me as a runner to use RPE So I want to talk to you about what it is how you use it how can be used outside of weightlifting how other people can apply It why it's useful, but let's start with what is it?

What does RPE stand for? RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion or rate of perceived effort. And it tends to be quantified on a 0 to 10 scale, where one is the easiest of easy, you could do it for infinity. 10 is the hardest of hard. You are giving every single last inch droplet of effort that you can possibly summon. You are going to fall off the cliff any moment. Five being right in the middle of those two. Okay, and so give me an example of how you use it, why you use it when you do a deadlift. All right, so I don't necessarily use it on a particular deadlift per se, but a set of deadlifts. So let's say that I'm supposed to do three by five reps at RPE seven. What that means to me is that the fifth rep those sets should feel like medium hard. Another way to think about it in weightlifting is three reps in reserve, meaning seven out of ten, what's ten minus seven is three, I should have three reps left in the tank. So when I complete the fifth rep of each of those sets, I should be able to go for three more with a gun to my head. In running, a 7 out of 10 might be akin to a tempo pace or what a seasoned runner would call the comfortably uncomfortable zone. So they're uncomfortable, but they can kind of get comfortable with that level of discomfort. Whereas an 8 out of 10 might be, I'm just uncomfortable. A 9 out of 10 would be, I'm extremely uncomfortable. And a 10 out of 10 would be, I can't do this any longer. Now, rate of perceived exertion is really effective because it is essentially learning to read your body and relying on your body to be your barometer or your gauge of effort. Not your heart rate, not a power meter, not a pace. And it is the most direct way to achieve the desired effort or stimulus because heart rate, power, pace, those are all secondary to what's actually going on, which is your body, right? Those are all numbers that are proxies for how hard something is. Whereas, if you can feel into how hard something is, that is the closest, most accurate way to gauge the effort and get the desired stimulus. And why does this matter? Because things like heart rate and pace and weight on the bar can change based on what you ate that day. How you slept, how hot it is, how much stress you have in other areas of your life, how hard it was to get the kids off to school.