What Is RPE?
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion — a scale from 1 to 10 that measures how hard a set felt relative to your maximum effort.
- RPE 10 = absolute max effort, couldn't do another rep
- RPE 8 = left 2 reps in the tank
- RPE 6 = left 4 reps in the tank, still felt comfortable
It was originally used in endurance sports but has become essential in strength training, particularly in powerlifting and evidence-based hypertrophy training.
Why RPE Beats Just Tracking Weight
Tracking weight and reps tells you *what* you did. RPE tells you *how hard it was*.
The same 100kg squat for 5 reps might be RPE 7 when you're fresh and recovered — and RPE 10 when you're tired, undertested, or stressed. If you only track weight, you'll miss this crucial difference.
RPE lets you:
- Auto-regulate training load based on how you actually feel
- Avoid overtraining by recognizing when fatigue is accumulating
- Progress more intelligently by targeting specific effort levels each session
- Compare performance across weeks and mesocycles
How to Use RPE in Practice
- Warm up properly — RPE is only useful if your first working set is actually representative
- Log RPE immediately after each set — don't try to remember it later
- Target specific RPE ranges — most hypertrophy work sits between RPE 7-9
- Review trends weekly — if the same weights are feeling harder over time, you may need a deload
Tracking RPE With Soma
Soma is one of the only fitness apps that takes RPE seriously. Log your RPE every set directly in the app, and Soma uses that data to automatically adjust your programming — suggesting weight increases when you have headroom and flagging when accumulated fatigue is affecting performance.
It's the closest thing to having a coach watching your every set.