Training with intensity: RPE, RIR, VBT and deloads

When I first started working out, I loved watching old workout videos from people like Dorian Yates and Tom Platz, screaming and yelling, smashing weights and bringing unparalleled intensity to their training, and in turn, giving me the motivation to push myself further than I had previously imagined possible. In watching those videos however, I misinterpreted training with intensity, I assumed that every set and every workout should break me. It took me a few years of injuries and constant soreness to realise that bringing that kind of intensity to every set at all times would eventually be counter productive. This doesn’t mean I don’t train as hard as I possibly can, but by programming correctly and ramping intensity up throughout my block I was much better able to manage my training and achieve my goals long term.

When starting out in Personal Training, I often trained my clients with the goal of “breaking” them each workout and going to absolute failure on every exercise, in every workout. The clients would leave feeling satisfied, as they had put in a herculean effort and believed that that was optimal for improvement. What I failed to realise for the first few months though, was that when I did this, our next session together inevitably suffered, and clients failed to improve their lifts. I tested their 1 rep maxes far too often, I tried to jump too much weight on their lifts, and I added metabolite techniques such as drop-sets and supersets on almost every exercise as I believed that they would get “more” from their workout. Skip forward nearly 5 years, and I will now test client’s one rep maxes once every few months (if that), add far less weight to the bar each session, and typically will only include metabolite techniques occasionally within their workouts. Why? You might ask. To put it simply, I now know that to really see the biggest improvements in my client’s strength and physique goals, it’s best to delay gratification, get the rep and volume PRs, manage fatigue and work on constantly improving rather than annihilating them on every session.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’ve ever seen me training, you will see that I bring a lot of intensity to my sets, I have learned however, to use it sparingly, in order to maximise its benefits when I truly need it, rather than at all times. A tool that I frequently use for my clients and for myself to estimate the level of difficulty of a lift is Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). RPE is a scale from 1 to 10 that allows coaches and clients to assess the level of difficulty of a set or rep. 1 being incredibly easy (and quite frankly pointless), to RPE 10: absolute max, no more in the tank, eyes bursting out of head, difficult. Where we see the most amount of improvements is if we can keep most of our lifts around the top end of the scale, as in RPE 7 to RPE 9. With an RPE 7 you could probably get 2 to 3 reps more, RPE 9 you may be able to do 1 more rep but it would be an absolute max. If you are able to do most of your working sets in between those 2 RPEs, you’re most likely training at the right intensity. Typically within a training cycle, I would like most lifts to be at an RPE 7 in the first week and potentially RPE 9 or even 10 (as long as this 10 doesn’t cause the client to break form) in the last week. Doing this allows us to undulate intensity from cycle to cycle and therefore manage fatigue. In this last week of training on the block, intensity and focus should be high, and sets should be very tough. Something that should be noted here is to BE HONEST with yourself as far as where the lift was on the scale. I have had people telling me their lift was an RPE 8 and when I later see a video of them doing the lift it was far closer to an absolute max, the scale is only useful if used appropriately.

Reps In Reserve (RIR) is very similar to RPE and serves as a measure of difficulty of a set, I also find it more simple to apply than RPE for most people as RPE can seem a little vague whereas RIR is a very clear indicator. We should be looking for 2-3 RIR at the beginning of a block and 0-1 RIR towards the end of a block. The reason I mention when we should have a certain amount of RIR depending on where you are in the block is because if we start a block with 0-1 reps in reserve, where do we go from there? You’ll be stuck from week 2 and will fail your lifts every week, the point is to ramp up intensity and then back down from it at the beginning of the next block, but your baseline of strength will be higher from the previous block (if done correctly).

Another useful tool that I use to assess the level of difficulty of a rep or set is velocity. There is even a training methodology named velocity based training, whereby you measure the speed of the bar using an implement strapped to the bar in order to measure the exact speed of the bar. This will allow the coach to gauge the level of difficulty of the movement as well as get a sense of the level of fatigue of the athlete. I will often look at bar speed on movements like bench and deadlift, if in the warm ups for example I see that a typically easy weight is moving slower than usual, we might need to change the plan for the working weight or spend some extra time on the warm up.

If bar speed is a problem for a prolonged period of time, if what should feel like an RPE 7 feels like an RPE 9, if every set of every session has 0 RIR: There’s a chance you’re in need of a deload. Deloads are often misunderstood and either never used or used too often. They serve a useful purpose of allowing the muscles and the nervous system to recover after prolonged exposure to high intensity training. For many, they are often implemented too late and injury is what forces you to deload, for others, deloads are implemented every 4 weeks when fatigue has barely had a chance to accumulate. The trick is to implement a deload at just the right time, an example of a good time to deload is after a week of failed lifts, if all the big lifts for the week were a wash, you did your best, you grinded out as many reps as you could but everything felt bad all week, it’s probably time to deload. There is no perfect time to implement a deload but if your training is truly suffering you’re probably done. There are multiple ways to implement a deload, some prefer to reduce volume, others prefer to reduce intensity. I personally suggest you do your sessions exactly as you typically would, but instead of doing your normal prescribed weights, instead do 50% of that for the week. Simple and effective, and by the end of the week you’ll feel very much ready to train hard again and may even be tempted to cut short your deload, DON’T! Do your deload and come back stronger.

So to conclude, intensity can be measured in several ways, RPE, RIR and VBT (to name the most common). These tools can and should be used to optimise the level of intensity you bring to your training and when within your block. Too much intensity too soon can be problematic for improving over time, not enough intensity, and you’ll be spinning your wheels and never improving, so use these tools to continue pushing yourself and achieve your goals while still being able to manage fatigue and avoid injury.