RPE — Rating of Perceived Exertion
What is RPE?
The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a method of assessing subjective exertion during training. It is a scale that allows the intensity of exertion to be determined based on the subjective feeling of the person doing the workout. The RPE scale is used in many sports, both in strength and endurance training.
How does the RPE work?
The RPE scale runs from 0 to 10, where 0 represents complete rest and 10 represents maximum effort. In practice, this means that the person doing the workout assesses subjectively how difficult they find the workout to be. The RPE value is a subjective assessment, so it is useful for the person doing the workout to learn how to assess the effort correctly.
Whichever scale your club uses (see Choosing a scale for your club below), the stored value is always a whole number from 0 to 10, so training load, reports, and planned-vs-perceived comparisons work the same way and stay comparable across athletes and over time. The scale only changes how you pick an effort, not how it is recorded or calculated.
Choosing a scale for your club
The Good Coach App offers two effort scales, and each coach chooses which one their club uses in the settings:
Full scale (0–10)
Every whole number from 0 to 10 is selectable, each with its own label. This is the classic, fine-grained RPE that most people are used to.
Borg scale (seven bands)
Perceived effort is not linear. You can tell apart small differences when an effort is easy or moderate, but near your limit it all blurs together — almost nobody can reliably separate a "hard 7" from a "hard 9". The Borg scale follows the original Borg model and concentrates the scale's resolution where you can actually use it, while collapsing the top into wider bands:
| Value | Label | Range |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Rest | 0 |
| 1 | Very easy | 1 |
| 2 | Easy | 2 |
| 3 | Moderate | 3–4 |
| 5 | Hard | 5–6 |
| 7 | Very hard | 7–9 |
| 10 | Maximal | 10 |
Because the two scales share the same 0–10 stored value, switching between them is safe: existing plans and completions keep their numbers. When you view data on the Borg scale, values are simply grouped into the nearest band (for example a stored 9 shows as "Very hard"). New clubs start on the Borg scale by default.
How to use the RPE in training?
The RPE scale is used in training to determine the intensity of effort. This allows the coach to tailor training to the athlete's capabilities and needs. In practice, this means that the coach can determine how intense the training should be and the athlete assesses subjectively how difficult the effort is for him or her. In this way, the coach can adapt the training to the athlete's capabilities and the athlete can control his or her training load.
Advantages of the RPE
The RPE scale has many advantages, which is why it is widely used in training. Here are some of them:
- Subjective Effort Evaluation: The RPE scale provides a subjective assessment of effort, allowing training to be tailored to the athlete's capabilities.
- Ease of use: The RPE scale is simple to use and does not require specialised equipment.
- Universality: The RPE scale is versatile and can be used in a variety of sports.
- Training load control: The RPE scale allows you to control your training load, which is important for preventing injury and overtraining.
- Motivation: The RPE scale can be motivating for the athlete as it allows them to monitor their progress and performance.
- Training adaptation: The RPE scale allows training to be tailored to the athlete's abilities and needs, which is important to achieve the best results.
- Monitoring progress: The RPE scale allows the athlete's progress to be monitored, which is important for assessing the effectiveness of training.
- Prevention of overtraining: The RPE scale allows you to monitor training load, which is important for preventing overtraining.
- Training Effectiveness Assessment: The RPE scale allows you to assess the effectiveness of your training, which is important for achieving the best results.
- Adjusting training intensity: The RPE scale allows training intensity to be tailored to the athlete's abilities and needs, which is important to achieve the best results.
Use of RPE in the Good Coach App
In the Good Coach App, the RPE scale is used in a descriptive way, pairing each value with a label. On the Borg scale these are the seven bands described above ('Rest', 'Very easy', 'Easy', 'Moderate', 'Hard', 'Very hard', 'Maximal'); on the full scale every value from 0 to 10 has its own label. The same effort wording appears everywhere you meet it — when planning a workout, when completing one, and inside structured workout steps — so a value means the same thing wherever it is shown.
Renaming the effort labels
When your club uses the Borg scale, coaches can rename any of the seven labels in their settings to match their discipline and the language they use with their athletes — for example using their own words for the hardest bands. Leave a field empty to keep the default label. The band structure itself cannot be changed: the seven bands and their ranges stay the same, so the resolution discipline holds for every athlete and the top of the scale never splits back into a 7/8/9/10 that no one can tell apart. Only the words change, never the structure or the stored value. (Custom labels apply to the Borg scale; the full 0–10 scale uses its standard labels.)
RPE in training plans
The RPE scale can be used in training plans to determine the intensity of an effort. In the training plans, the coach can determine how intense the whole workout should be, or any individual step of it (for interval workouts), and the athlete can assess subjectively how difficult the effort was for them.
RPE in workout completions
After completing an activity, the athlete can assess subjectively how difficult the effort was for him or her. This allows the coach to monitor the athlete's progress and adapt the training to the athlete's abilities and needs. The form that the athlete fills in after workout completion includes a choice of effort intensity using the RPE scale.
Once the workout completion has been added, the coach can see the athlete's assigned RPE rating on the workout completion screen. It is also possible to compare the planned RPE with the athlete's assessment of workout completion.
RPE in training reports
The Good Coach App includes in the reports section the ability to generate training reports that include information on effort intensity using the RPE scale. This allows the coach to monitor the athlete's progress over a longer period of time.