The RPE Chart: Reps in Reserve, Percentages and How to Use Them

How the RPE scale works

RPE stands for rating of perceived exertion. The original version, the Borg scale, rates whole-body effort during cardio. Lifters use a different one: a 10-point scale tied to reps in reserve, meaning how many more clean reps you could have done at the end of the set. RPE 10 is zero left, RPE 9 is one left, RPE 8 is two left. That anchor is what makes it usable: "how hard did it feel" is vague, "how many more could I have done" is a number you can check.

Two details trip people up:

• Half points mean "between". RPE 8.5 is "two reps left on a good day, one for sure". RPE 9.5 is "no more reps, but a slightly heavier bar would have gone up". Use halves only once whole numbers feel reliable.
• "Clean" reps only. A rep that needs your hips to shoot up on a squat or your lower back to round on a deadlift does not count as one in reserve. Rate the set by the reps you could have done with the same form as the first rep.

RPE and RIR describe the same thing from two ends: RPE 8 and "2 RIR" are the same set. This page uses both because programs are written in both. If a plan says "3 × 8 @ 2 RIR", it means three sets of eight with two reps left on each.

RPE to percentage chart

Each row is a number of reps; each column is the RPE you finished at. The cell is roughly what percentage of your one-rep max that set was. It is the widely used chart popularized by powerlifting coach Mike Tuchscherer, rounded to whole numbers.

Notice the pattern: one point of RPE costs about the same as one extra rep. Five reps at RPE 9 and six reps at RPE 10 are the same weight, because both mean "six was the limit".

Worked example: estimating your max without testing it. You squat 100 kg (220 lb) for 5 reps and rate the last set RPE 8. The chart says 5 reps at RPE 8 is about 81%. 100 ÷ 0.81 = about 123 kg (about 270 lb) estimated one-rep max. Next session the plan calls for 3 reps at RPE 8, which is about 86%: 123 × 0.86 = about 106 kg (234 lb), so load 105 kg (230 lb), the nearest jump with 2.5 kg (5 lb) plates. If 105 kg × 3 then feels like RPE 9, your estimate was high, and you use 102.5 kg (225 lb) next time.

Treat the percentages as a starting point, not a law. Some people can do more reps at a given percentage than the chart says, and it varies between lifts: most lifters get more reps at 80% on a leg press than on a bench press. The chart is most accurate between 1 and 6 reps on the big barbell lifts, and least accurate above 10 reps.

How to estimate reps in reserve honestly

Research on RIR ratings, reviewed by Halperin and colleagues in 2022, finds that people judge reps left more accurately the closer the set gets to failure and on heavier sets of fewer reps; Zourdos and colleagues' 2016 paper, which introduced the lifting RPE scale, also found experienced lifters rated near-maximal sets more accurately than novices. The usual error is calling a set harder than it was: on average people have about one more rep left than they predict, and more on long, high-rep sets. Four ways to sharpen it:

1. Watch the bar speed. The first rep of a set moves at a certain speed. When a rep is clearly slower than the first, you are often two or three reps from the end. When a rep stalls or slows sharply partway up, you are at one or zero.
2. Rate the set within ten seconds. Before you rack the weight, ask: "With the same form, how many more?" Write the answer down before the feeling fades into "it was fine".
3. Calibrate on safe exercises. Once every two to four weeks, take the last set of a machine exercise or a dumbbell curl, predict your RIR at a chosen rep, then keep going to the point where form breaks. If you said "2 left" and got 5, you underestimate by 3, and your RPE 8 sets are really around RPE 5.
4. Use the rep that slowed as an anchor. If rep 7 of a set of 8 was the first slow one, note it. Over a few weeks of calibration sets you learn your own pattern, for example "my first slow rep comes about two reps before my last possible one". Then you can rate sets from that rep instead of guessing.

Do not calibrate by going to failure on heavy squats, deadlifts or bench without safety bars or a spotter. The calibration is the same lesson on any exercise; pick the safe ones.

How beginners should use RIR

In the first months, your RPE numbers will be off, and that is fine. What matters is the habit of stopping a set with reps left and noticing how many. Meta-analyses comparing training to failure with stopping short, such as Grgic and colleagues (2022) and Refalo and colleagues (2023), find similar strength gains and only small differences in muscle growth when sets end a few reps short, which is why there is no reason for a new lifter to grind out reps. The 4-week beginner gym plan is written around this.

Two shortcuts for the first months:

• The form test. Stop the set at the first rep that looks or feels different from rep one. That is usually one to three reps short of failure, which is where you want to be.
• The rep-range check. With a plan of 3 × 8–12, pick a weight where the first set lands around 10 with the last rep slow but clean. If all three sets reach 12 with reps to spare, the weight is too light; if the third set stops at 7, it is too heavy.

Beginners also get a bonus: weight goes up nearly every session at first, so the plan can mostly run on simple rules, like adding 2.5 kg (5 lb) when every set hits the top of the rep range. RPE takes over once those jumps start failing. For the rules on how much effort counts toward your weekly total, see sets and reps by goal.

RPE targets by exercise

Not every exercise should be pushed to the same point. The heavier and more technical the lift, the more room you leave. In RPE numbers:

• Squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press: working sets at RPE 7–8, the last set at 8–9. Form breaks before the muscle does.
• Rows, pulldowns, lunges, Romanian deadlifts, dumbbell presses: RPE 7–8, the last set at 9.
• Machines, curls, lateral raises, cable work: RPE 8–9, the last set at 9–10. Low risk, and failure is easy to judge.
• Deload week, all lifts: RPE 6–7, nothing ground out.

The reasoning for each exercise type, written as reps left, is in the proximity-to-failure table on the sets and reps guide.

Higher-rep sets need more honesty. At 15 reps, the burning starts long before failure, and it is common to stop at RPE 6 believing it was 8. On light, high-rep work, assume you had one or two more reps left than it felt like.

RPE-based progression: an 8-week example

RPE turns the weekly weight decision into a rule. Instead of "add 2.5 kg (5 lb) every week and hope", you let last session's rating set this session's load. This is progressive overload steered by effort instead of a fixed schedule.

The rule, for a target of 3 × 6 at RPE 8, judged on the last set:

Here is that rule on a bench press over eight weeks, one bench session a week:

The lifter added 7.5 kg (about 16.5 lb) in eight weeks without a single failed rep, and week 4 shows the main advantage over a fixed plan: on a bad night's sleep, the rule held the weight instead of forcing a jump that would have ended in a missed rep. A fixed "+2.5 kg (5 lb) a week" plan would have asked for 77.5 kg (170 lb) by week 8. With 67.5 kg (150 lb) × 6 at RPE 8, the chart puts this lifter's estimated max at about 85 kg (188 lb) (67.5 ÷ 0.79), so 77.5 kg is about 90% of it: a weight good for three or four reps, not six.

A second method: top set and back-off sets. Work up to one set of 5 at RPE 8, then take 7.5 to 10% off and do three more sets of 5. If the top set is 100 kg (220 lb), the back-off sets are 90 to 92.5 kg (200 to 205 lb). The top set tells you how strong you are today; the back-off sets give you the volume. When the top set at a given weight drops to RPE 7, add 2.5 kg (5 lb) to it the next week.

Write every rating in your log. The printable progressive overload tracker has room for it if you add an RPE figure after the reps, like "62.5 × 6 @ 8".

If this happens, do this

Common RPE mistakes

• Rating the whole session instead of the set. RPE is for one set, rated right after it. "Today felt like an 8" is a mood, not data.
• Chasing RPE 10 on heavy barbell lifts. True failure on a squat or deadlift costs days of recovery and risks a bad rep. Keep those at 9 or lower.
• Ignoring weekly volume. RPE controls how hard each set is, not how many sets you do. Pair it with the right number of sets per muscle each week.

Questions people ask

What does RPE mean in the gym?

Rating of perceived exertion: a 1-to-10 score for how hard a set was. On the lifting scale, 10 means no reps left, 9 means one left, 8 means two left.

What does RPE 8 mean?

You finished the set with about two clean reps left. It is the most common target for working sets because it is hard enough to drive progress and easy enough to recover from.

What is the difference between RPE and RIR?

None in practice. RIR counts the reps left, RPE subtracts them from 10. RPE 7 is 3 RIR.

What RPE should I train at?

Most working sets at RPE 7 to 8. Beginners stay around 7. The last set of an isolation exercise can go to 9 or 10.

Is RPE 10 the same as failure?

Yes: no more reps were possible. RPE 9.5 is the step just before it: no more reps, but a little more weight would have gone up for the same reps.

Should beginners use RPE?

Use the idea, not the decimals. Stop sets two to three reps short and note roughly how many were left. Exact ratings get reliable after a few months of practice.

Do I need to train to failure to build muscle?

No. Meta-analyses find similar strength gains and only small differences in muscle growth when sets stop one to three reps short of failure, with far less fatigue.

Is this the same RPE scale used for cardio?

No. Cardio uses Borg's scales (6 to 20, or 0 to 10) for whole-body effort. The lifting scale is tied to reps left in a single set.

Where these numbers come from

The reps-in-reserve version of the RPE scale comes from Zourdos and colleagues, Novel Resistance Training–Specific Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale Measuring Repetitions in Reserve (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2016), and how to program with it from Helms and colleagues, Application of the Repetitions in Reserve-Based Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale for Resistance Training (Strength and Conditioning Journal, 2016). The percentage chart is the one popularized by Mike Tuchscherer of Reactive Training Systems.

That rating accuracy improves close to failure comes from Halperin and colleagues, Accuracy in Predicting Repetitions to Task Failure in Resistance Exercise (Sports Medicine, 2022). The comparisons of training to failure with stopping short come from Grgic and colleagues, Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy (Journal of Sport and Health Science, 2022), and Refalo and colleagues, Influence of Resistance Training Proximity-to-Failure on Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy (Sports Medicine, 2023).