There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all workout. Every client comes with their own needs, preferences, and fitness levels. That’s why prescribing workouts can be a challenge. You have to find that sweet spot between pushing your clients toward their goals, giving them something they actually enjoy doing, and not intimidating or over-exerting them.
One of the most powerful tools you can use to find that sweet spot (and then later to help you build progressions) is RPE or Rating of Perceived Exertion.
What is RPE?
If you’re not familiar with it, RPE is a measure of how hard a client thinks they are working during a workout. It’s a way for a client to tell you how much they’re exerting themselves and you can then use that intensity score to adjust workouts (either to become harder or easier) or to rearrange or schedule them more effectively in their program.
How to Collect Client RPE
Collecting an RPE for a workout is easy! Each time a client completes a workout using Trainerize, they’ll be prompted to enter a rating. This instantly shows up in your timeline and is also added to the workout as a comment so you can reference it as you make changes or build progressions.
Step 1 - Client inputs their RPE
As soon as your client is finished their workout they’ll be prompted with a screen asking how difficult their workout was.
The client can choose between 1, being “Effortless”, and 10, being “Beyond Hard”.
Below the slider is a text field for the client to add any comments they’d like to share with their trainer about the workout.
Step 2 - Trainer reviews RPE
Once a client has completed and rated their workout, their trainer will be notified both on the mobile and desktop applications.
Where Can I See a Client’s RPE Ratings?
On the web app:
On the right side of the Overview screen is the “Recent activities feed”, displaying up to the minute activities as your clients complete them. Every time your client adds and RPE you’ll see it pop up in this list.
You can click on the name of the workout to view more and, if you like, leave a comment for your client underneath their RPE.
On the mobile app:
When you first open the app you’ll see the “Recent activities feed”, displaying up to the minute activities as your clients complete them. Every time your client adds and RPE you’ll see it pop up in this list.
Pressing on the workout will bring up the RPE for that workout, along with any comments the client may have left.
The notification bell on the top right of the screen displays a red dot any time a client completes a workout and leaves their RPE. You can press on the bell to bring up the notifications.
