There is no shortage of terms, metrics, and techniques to help you measure your progress toward your fitness goals. Unfortunately, you can easily become overwhelmed when figuring out whether your workouts are improving your fitness. However, you can use the RPE scale while exercising to quickly determine how hard you are working.
What is RPE?
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. It measures how hard your workouts feel when you’re exercising. It is subjective, meaning you and only you determine your level of effort. However, that is its advantage because you can check in with yourself and adjust your efforts to keep you on track.
Tracking your heart rate with a fitness tracker or monitor ensures you’re working in your desired heart rate zone. On the other hand, RPE can be an easy way to monitor your effort during your workouts without needing any equipment.
The RPE Scale
Gunnar Borg developed the first RPE scale in the 1960s. Your perceived effort is rated between 6 and 20. The RPE scale is a way to estimate your heart rate while exercising by multiplying your rating by 10. A person’s resting heart rate is around 60, while an all-out effort may reach 200 beats per minute at maximum effort. However, your maximum heart rate declines as you age. Regardless, the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale can be used without knowing your heart rate.
| Rating | Exertion |
|---|---|
| 6 | none |
| 7 | extremely light |
| 8 | |
| 9 | very light |
| 10 | |
| 11 | light |
| 12 | |
| 13 | somewhat hard |
| 14 | |
| 15 | hard (heavy) |
| 16 | |
| 17 | very hard |
| 18 | |
| 19 | extremely hard |
| 20 | maximal exertion |
For those who prefer a scale from 1 to 10, an alternative RPE scale has been adapted to use a 0 to 10 rating for anyone at any age or fitness level. Both RPE scales are equally effective. It’s simply a matter of personal preference.
| Rating | Exertion |
|---|---|
| 0 | no exertion at all |
| 1 | very light |
| 2-3 | light |
| 4-5 | moderate, somewhat hard |
| 6-7 | hard, vigorous |
| 8-9 | very hard |
| 10 | maximum effort |
How Do You Rate Yourself?
Typically, you can check in with yourself while exercising to measure the intensity of your workouts. Ask yourself how hard you feel you’re working right now. Consider your breathing rate, heart rate, amount of sweat, and fatigue.
You can rate yourself multiple times during your workouts. Furthermore, you can rate your perceived exertion for any activity that raises your heart rate, including physically demanding work.
Why Rate Yourself?
RPE can provide you with real-time feedback during your workouts. Therefore, you can adjust your effort when you’re working too hard or not hard enough. This is useful when you’re trying to work at a certain intensity.
Another reason to rate yourself is to develop a better sense of your body while you exercise. Over time, you’ll become more self-aware of your physical sensations at different intensity levels, which will allow you to optimize your efforts. Furthermore, you may become more aware of pain or weariness from overtraining or burnout.
If you have specific fitness goals, the RPE scale can help you track your progress. As your fitness improves, your rate of perceived exertion while exercising may decrease. Therefore, you can increase your workload to make your workouts feel harder again. On the other hand, if your rate of perceived exertion is increasing while doing the same workouts as before, you might be overdoing it and may want to consider doing a light workout or taking a day off to recover.
The Takeaway
RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) helps you judge how hard you’re working while exercising. It doesn’t require any special equipment. Instead, you rate how hard you’re working. It’s subjective, which means you and only you would rate your effort.
Using the original RPE scale, you would rate your effort from 6 (at rest) to 20 (maximum effort). However, an alternative RPE scale rates your exertion between 0 (at rest) and 10 (maximum effort). Regardless of which scale you use, RPE can provide real-time feedback about your workouts and help you develop a better sense of self-awareness as you work towards your fitness goals.
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Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
