There's also times when the lifter will just know s/he is done after

the top work set, and is incapable of performing any fatigue work. In
this case, the lifter should not attempt drop sets, and should note
this in his/her training log.
So, now we have the intensity for our drop set. But how many drops
should the lifter perform? The answer to that question is deceptively
simple: the lifter should perform as many drop sets as it takes to get
to the same RPE of the top work set.
Again, it's important to control other variables while performing the
drop sets. If the athlete doubles his/her rest period after the top
working set, and prior to starting fatigue work, that's going to permit
more full recovery. This will interfere with fatigue, and could permit
too many drop sets to be performed.
The 4-6% range is a moderate level of fatigue; generally speaking,
the following holds true:
0% - no fatigue work
2% - minimal fatigue work
5% - moderate fatigue work
7% - high amount of fatigue work
Generally speaking, a higher fatigue percent, means the lifter will be
performing more work. When the lifter performs more work, more
fatigue is generated. More fatigue requires more recovery. If an
athlete is gauging RPE accurately, training for a week with a fatigue
percentage of 7% will leave the athlete in a state of incomplete
recovery the following week.
So, you would not program a 7% fatigue drop for an athlete who is
already having problems recovering. You would not program this
much fatigue immediately prior to the athletic event. You would not
program this much fatigue for multiple weeks.
The lesson here: in your programming, identify and control the
variables which affect the athlete's ability to generate intensity. By
providing a consistent experience, it will become much easier to
gauge RPE for a given exercise.
Over time, with practice, you'll develop your "coach's eye" and
begin to see, with each athlete, what different RPEs look like. Bar
speed might be a great indicator for some athletes. You might be
able to clearly see that the athlete has moved from warm-up weight
to working weight by how quickly they move the bar at the
beginning of the exercise.
Quick review: autoregulation is a strategy to control the intensity
and volume of training so as to maximize training effect while
accounting for changes in the individual. Changes which impact
training can include stress, illness, and injury. Of note is that "stress

is stress." Whether stress originates from training volume, from

relationship problems, from money problems - there's only one
mechanism in the body for coping. So if that mechanism is busy
coping with external stressors, the last thing we want to do increase
stress from training.
The problem is that the athlete has started to dip deeper into their
recovery reserves with the latter move; on the other hand, failing to
complete a workout is viewed as a failure - perhaps most
importantly in the athlete's mind, but certainly they didn't get the
training effect the coach was hoping to achieve. Again, for a session
or two, probably not a big deal. But let this happen frequently
enough, and the damage adds up.
@10: Maximal Effort. No reps left in the tank.
@9: Heavy Effort. Could have done one more rep.
@8: Could have done two or three more reps.
@7: Bar speed is snappy if maximal force is applied
@6: Bar speed is snappy with moderate effort
To get better at grinding out a weight, you basically need to
practice. That means increase the reps and RPEs slightly. Reps will
tend to be 3 to 6 reps, most often concentrating on sets of 5 and 6.
RPEs will be in the @9 to @10 range, almost always being @10.
In the context of training, were talking about the amount of work
being done. There are many different ways to measure training
volume. Perhaps the most simple is your Number of Lifts
(abbreviated NL). NL is simply a count of the total number of reps
you did in a given time period. It can cover a training session, a
week, a training cycle you get the idea. Benefits of this method
are that its simple to use and many different exercises can be
compared to one another. Drawbacks are that it doesnt really take
into account the loading of the work that was done.
Another method for measuring the training volume in a session is
Tonnage. This method is a bit more involved in that it requires some
calculations. The concept for Tonnage is to find the total weight
lifted in a time period. For example, if you did DB Rows for 5 sets of
5 reps using 100 pounds, you did 2500 pounds of work (you lifted
100 pounds a total of 25 times). Its easy enough when the weight is
constant, but when the weight changes from set to set (as is likely
the case with many of us), calculating this number can be an
involved process. As you might have guessed, the time required to
calculating this number is one of its main drawbacks. Other
drawbacks include the fact that only similar exercises are suitable
for comparison. What that means is if you did 30,000 pounds of
volume for the squat and 20,000 pounds of volume for the bench,
which one required you to work harder? Its a trick question its

impossible to tell from that information alone. This is because each

exercise will have its own volume levels for certain workload. Even
similar exercises such as Bench Press and Board Press will not be
comparable. But this method does have many benefits. If you are
comparing like exercises (i.e. Squat from week 1 to Squat from week
4), then there is probably no better way to compare the respective
workloads than by examining tonnage.
The last method we will discuss in this article is Normalized Tonnage
(NT). NT is an attempt to keep the accuracy of Tonnage with the
versatility of NL. NT is calculated much the same way as Tonnage,
except instead of multiplying NL times the load, you multiply NL
times the percentage of 1RM. The method actually worked fairly
well. NT numbers can be compared across exercises and they
include a measure for how hard the workload was. The two biggest
drawbacks are that it can be a pain to calculate at times and you
also have to have a way to obtain your %1RM for each lift you are
calculating.
The long and short of it is that most people can recover from about
30% fatigue each week. Thats the sum of all the individual fatigue
percents that you do for a particular movement pattern. For a
powerlifter, that means you would have 30% fatigue for the bench
press and 30% fatigue for the squat and deadlift combined. This
30% is a lot like money. You can use it mostly any way you want as
long as its pretty close to 30% at the end. Going beyond that is
more work than you can recover from on a weekly basis. I typically
have 6 pressing exercises each week, along with 3 squat and 3
deadlift exercises. If you distribute your fatigue evenly, that is 5%
fatigue for each exercise. And you can break that up in a variety of
ways. You can group your exercises together or spread them out. In
terms of your recovery and training volumes, it doesnt really matter
much.
Example 1
Monday: 3 exercises at 5% fatigue each (15% total)
Friday: 3 exercises at 5% fatigue each (15% total)
30% fatigue for the week.
Example 2
Monday: 2 exercises at 5% fatigue each (10% total)
Tuesday: 1 exercise at 5% fatigue (5% total)
Thursday: 2 exercises at 5% fatigue each (10% total)
Friday: 1 exercise at 5% fatigue (5% total)
30% fatigue for the week
The next style of working a fatigue percent is called Repeats. As
the name implies, you try to repeat the same load and reps on
subsequent sets. As fatigue rises, your RPE will also rise. By

monitoring this rise in RPE, you can determine the level of your
fatigue. Here is an example
Lets assume that the standard RPE chart is accurate for you. You
start with a warm up. The programmed protocol was x3 @8, 5%
fatigue, so you do the following:
405x3 @7
415x3 @7.5
425x3 @8 and lets assume this is our initial for the day. Now, you
repeat this until you get 5% fatigue.
425x3 @8
425x3 @8
425x3 @8.5
425x3 @9 and we stop here.
This method is limited by how accurate you can be with a certain
RPE. If you can normally be accurate with your RPEs to a half point,
then that will necessarily be more accurate than a person who is
only accurate to a whole number.
A Rep Drop is also logically named. To perform a rep drop, after
your initial, you keep the load on the bar the same and reduce the
number of reps performed with each set. You continue performing
each set with the same load and fewer reps until your RPE matches
and your fatigue percent is reached. Check your estimated 1RMs to
see if you reached your desired level of fatigue.
Heres an example.
405x3 @8
425x3 @8.5
455x3 @9 This is our initial
455x2 @8
455x2 @9 and we stop here. This is 5% fatigue by the standard RPE
chart.
The training effect for this depends on the protocol you are using,
but it obviously emphasizes the higher intensity loads, but keeps the
effort down a hair compared to Repeats.
The Load Drop method will keep the reps the same for subsequent
sets, but due to a drop in the bar weight, we can predict the RPE will
be down for subsequent sets. This will have the effect of producing
more total rep volume during the course of the exercise. This makes
the Load Drop method better for producing physical (morphological)
adaptations. And depending on how the actual sets play out, it can
also slightly emphasize power production.
The Repeat method keeps load and reps the same as the initial, so it
is the RPE that climbs. The influence of this method on the overall
training effect is varied. At lower RPEs (below 8), the Repeat
method tends to enhance work capacity. At higher RPEs, this effect
is lessened. Instead, the increased RPE will serve to improve your

ability to grind out tough reps. Of course, this can be taxing

depending on the way the protocol is implemented, so be aware of
your recovery when using this method.
The Rep Drop method keeps the load the same while reducing the
reps for each set. Since using this method allows you to repeat the
top weight of the day for subsequent sets, it will clearly result in a
higher overall intensity. Experience also shows that it will result in
fewer overall sets and a lower rep volume. This method will
emphasize neurological adaptations.
If you are planning a peaking cycle and are attempting to realize
sport form, you will need a high intensity of movement. This
necessitates relatively high bar weight. You will also want to utilize
fairly high RPEs to further replicate the contest requirements and
heighten sport form. This will necessitate lower repetitions. The
number of sets required is based off the level of training stress you
want to induce.