Is RPE killing my gains?

[Zedg]

Hey guys, I’m hoping you’re able to help me. I’m recently jumping back into training. I trained many years ago when I was a kid and had no real idea quite what I was doing. Soon enough my wedding is coming (in 8 months!) and I kind of want to get in a decent enough shape for when we take the pictures that are forever going to plaster the stairway walls.



Ive started to follow Jeff Nippards training programme the functional basic hyper trophy one. It’s an 8 week programme that I am following until I go onto his upper/lower split. Now, it has a mix of reps ranging from 8-15 depending on the excercises whilst implementing the RPE. This is something I haven’t really come across before. When I used to train it was always an 8-12 rep range making sure you go until failure or fairly close if not.



Now my question for you guys is I always , excuse my ignorance, believed that rep till failure in a rep range of 8-12. Having an RPE of 7/8 makes me feel I still have more left in the tank and I’m not truly pushing myself as hard as I should be Am I just being naive and infact this is a perfectly valid and good way to train or am I best going until failure? Are there alternative programmes which have a good outcome on a 4 day upper/lower split. Thankyou for your help and apologies for my lack of experience.

 

[CJ]

Hey guys, I’m hoping you’re able to help me. I’m recently jumping back into training. I trained many years ago when I was a kid and had no real idea quite what I was doing. Soon enough my wedding is coming (in 8 months!) and I kind of want to get in a decent enough shape for when we take the pictures that are forever going to plaster the stairway walls.



Ive started to follow Jeff Nippards training programme the functional basic hyper trophy one. It’s an 8 week programme that I am following until I go onto his upper/lower split. Now, it has a mix of reps ranging from 8-15 depending on the excercises whilst implementing the RPE. This is something I haven’t really come across before. When I used to train it was always an 8-12 rep range making sure you go until failure or fairly close if not.



Now my question for you guys is I always , excuse my ignorance, believed that rep till failure in a rep range of 8-12. Having an RPE of 7/8 makes me feel I still have more left in the tank and I’m not truly pushing myself as hard as I should be Am I just being naive and infact this is a perfectly valid and good way to train or am I best going until failure? Are there alternative programmes which have a good outcome on a 4 day upper/lower split. Thankyou for your help and apologies for my lack of experience.

I've tried, and since dropped, the week to week increasing RPE style of training. Too many variables; bad sleep, didn't eat enough that day, simply a bad day, bad RPE estimation, etc.. Then what do you do?

I've gone back to training to close to failure, or failure.

 

[Zedg]

I've tried, and since dropped, the week to week increasing RPE style of training. Too many variables; bad sleep, didn't eat enough that day, simply a bad day, bad RPE estimation, etc.. Then what do you do?

I've gone back to training to close to failure, or failure.

And would you vary the rep count or stick to it and just go to failure?

 

[CJ]

I've also found that not taking every set to failure, only the last in an exercise, while leaving a rep in the tank on others, has been better for my progression. For compound lifts.

For isolation lifts, all are taken to failure, some have partials, too.

 

[CJ]

And would you vary the rep count or stick to it and just go to failure?

I go for rep RANGES, not a specific number. Could be 6-10, 8-12, 15-20....

Most of the time, when I can do more than the rep range, I'll add weight the following session. Double progression model. Example,if 8-12 range...

100 x 9
100 x 11
100 x 12
100 x 13
Add weught
110 x 8
110 x 9
Etc...

A few exercises I'll do a linear progression model. I'll start week 1 at the top end of the desired rep range. Every subsequent session, I'll add the smallest weight possible and continue in this fashion for as many weeks as I can stay in the rep range, before resetting. For example, if in the 8-12 range...

100 x 12
105 x 11
110 x 11
115 x 9
120 x 8
125 x 6
Reset, hopefully improving
115 x 11
120 x 9
125 x 8
130 x 8 (new max)
135 x 7
Reset

 

[Zedg]

This is brilliant thankyou so much! Are you familiar with the Jeff Nippard upper lower split? If so would you recommend it or is there better out there?

 

[CJ]

This is brilliant thankyou so much! Are you familiar with the Jeff Nippard upper lower split? If so would you recommend it or is there better out there?

I'm familiar with Jeff, not that specific program.

Any program that you find will be cookie cutter, some just start out better than others.

It's up to you to run a decent program, figure out YOUR individual needs, and tailor/adjust to that, accordingly. And that takes time, and changes over time.

 

[CJ]

Hey guys, I’m hoping you’re able to help me. I’m recently jumping back into training. I trained many years ago when I was a kid and had no real idea quite what I was doing. Soon enough my wedding is coming (in 8 months!) and I kind of want to get in a decent enough shape for when we take the pictures that are forever going to plaster the stairway walls.

Most of this will be accomplished by proper diet. Training is important, too, but you'll be clothed in most of the pics, so general fat loss is the goal.

Remember, you go to the gym to build muscle, NOT to burn fat. That's primarily done in the kitchen and with your day to day lifestyle. Eat mostly nutritious real food, go for lots of walks, be a generally active person.

We wind up with the body that we earned, not the one we want.

 

[Zedg]

Most of this will be accomplished by proper diet. Training is important, too, but you'll be clothed in most of the pics, so general fat loss is the goal.

Remember, you go to the gym to build muscle, NOT to burn fat. That's primarily done in the kitchen and with your day to day lifestyle. Eat mostly nutritious real food, go for lots of walks, be a generally active person.

We wind up with the body that we earned, not the one we want.

This is brilliant thankyou, I am dropping my calorie intake and changing my eating habits at the same time as doing more excercise. I love that saying, never heard of it before!

 

[buck]

I find the vast majority of people leave rep or reps behind when training without even trying. and the only way to know how many you are leaving is to occasionally actually go to failure. But is one is leaving reps undone and consistently raising the poundage i can see value in it. But a i like to enjoy my training and challenging myself is part of my fun time. I doubt challenging myself to leave reps undone would be a big enough motivator to train hard or well.

 

[snake]

Honestly brother, just starting out you should be able to look through a muscle magazine and grow. Right now, any program that you can stick to is a good program. You're pushing yourself pretty good so you're going to grow.

Don't overthink it, put your head down and keep up the hard work and on 8 months you'll be happy and disappointed at the same time. Happy because those wedding pics will look good, disappointed that you just got your last blow job.