RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) and Subjective Feeling are similar but distinct concepts used to measure exercise intensity subjectively, providing athletes and coaches more insight into how an athlete responds to their training.
What is the Rate of Perceived Exertion?
Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a numerical scale that quantifies the subjective intensity of physical exertion during exercise.
TrainingPeaks uses the modified BORG RPE scale from 0 to 10, with 0 representing no exertion and 10 representing maximum effort:
Other RPE scales are common; TrainingPeaks uses a ten-point scale because most athletes and coaches understand it.
For more background RPE, please see this article.
What is Subjective Feeling?
Subjective Feeling is a holistic measure of an athlete’s subjective exercise experience encompassing motivation, mood, enjoyment, or discomfort.
Descriptive terms commonly express Subjective Feeling ratings such as ‘Very weak,’ ‘Normal,’ or ‘Very strong.’
TrainingPeaks combines those terms with emojis to add clarity to an athlete’s self-reported subjective feelings:
How do RPE and Subjective Feeling Differ?
RPE is a numerical scale that measures an athlete’s perceived physical effort while training.
Subjective Feeling, by contrast, is an athlete’s broader assessment of their overall training experience, including physical and mental factors.
Why Do RPE and Subjective Feeling Matter?
RPE and Subjective feeling are self-monitoring metrics that quantify an athlete’s internal training load.
When combined with external training load metrics (CTL, ATL, and TSB), the athlete and coach get a complete picture of how that athlete responds to their training and can adjust if necessary.
For more background on internal training load, please read this article.
Application of RPE and Subjective Feeling
The interpretive value of RPE and Subjective feeling is most useful in reference to a planned RPE workout target. The interpretive variables are:
Planned Workout RPE Target (from a coach, training plan, or self-coached athlete) + Actual RPE (athlete reported) + Subjective Feeling (athlete reported).
RPE and Subjective Feeling Patterns
Subjective Feeling
- ‘Weak’ or ‘Very Weak’ Subjective Feelings are always negative and should be addressed.
- An athlete should strive to achieve ‘Very Good’ Subjective Feelings (through consistent, proper workout execution, recovery habits, and lifestyle); however, it’s unrealistic for an athlete to always feel ‘Very good’ during training.
- In practice, athletes progress best when they report consistent neutral (‘Normal’) to positive (“Very good”) Subjective Feelings. Instability – “Very Weak’ one day, ‘Very Good’ the other – slows progression.
- Self-reported subjective feelings with no variation, for example, always being ‘Normal,’ isn’t normal. Athletes are human and will experience some degree of day-to-day variation in Subjective Feeling.
RPE
- Self-reported RPEs that are consistently above or below workout target RPE typically indicate:
- Miscommunication between an athlete and coach in what the workout intensity should feel like.
- Inaccurate thresholds and zones.
- An athlete’s mindset, e.g., thinking it’s better to do the workout ‘harder’ than prescribed because they’ll get faster.
- Self-reported RPE values of 9 or 10 should be relatively rare (reserved mostly for races) because of how demanding they are.
- Ideally, athletes consistently report that their actual RPE matches the planned workout RPE.
- Like TSS, RPE is not just a function of intensity but duration. A long endurance workout with a planned RPE of 4 that lasts several hours requires adequate nutrition and hydration to keep the RPE on the planned RPE target.
