Rusty was right about James Cameron. He's just following in the direction of his small herd. But the reason "they" don't like testosterone is because it means more men with balls who are at risk of hanging "them" up on lampposts.
Rusty was right about James Cameron. He's just following in the direction of his small herd. But the reason "they" don't like testosterone is because it means more men with balls who are at risk of hanging "them" up on lampposts.
The problem was an apples to oranges error on the part of the “personal training” community. RPE is actually a pretty reliable stand-in for objective markers in endurance-type endeavors…heart-rate, lactate levels, etc. It’s not perfect, but it’s actually pretty reliable. If you’re going to train for endurance, objective is better, but RPE will actually get you pretty close.
The error was thinking it generalized to strength training
For novices, at least, another important aspect of this is the extent to which use of RPE teaches a lifter to attend to difficulty instead of devoting total focus to technique and finishing the rep. For me, it is sensible to attempt an “objective” assessment of relative difficulty after each set for a couple of purposes. And although the capacity to make such assessments can’t be taught, I operate on the theory that it can be improved over time.
I have no doubt that for every day Rip misperceives how shitty his reps might be, there are many, many other days when he brings his years of experience and expertise to bear during after-the-set-or-rep subjective assessments effectively to resist form creep and to assess himself for potential injury risks, for example. And on some days he nails it, I have no doubt.
Am I good at this after-the-set subjective assessment? No. I rarely have coaching, but even if I did have coaching regularly this kind of subjective assessment, including an assessment of relative difficulty, would still be background against which I would receive feedback and advice.
Isn’t this a significant deal to equip lifters to understand and apply? I think so and suspect that the entirely justified debunking of RPE unnecessarily confuses some people, especially novices. Because meta-cognitive confusion impedes strength gains, I’d supplement the debunking of RPE to address good metacognitive models while lifting, allowing for whatever variation experienced experts recognize. Maybe part of the reason RPE survives is because there are no good metacognitive models being coached yet. Maybe filling that gap in the curriculum would help kill it.
This was a really good podcast and clarifies how RPE is a borderline fraudulent approach for strength training coaches. I’ve noticed that many former SS people who disassociated themselves with SS, built their strength on SS programming, but now sell RPE templates to their clients. They must be making a fortune, but at the expense of what?
Meta cognitive models sounds like something out of 1950s French philosophy, not strength training.
How do we know if this is true?
These same RPE quack coaches also may have been squawking at people in this way: "mask up!" "follow the science!" "...most importantly, are you vaccinated for Covid 19? Get your quadruple boosters!" "I am the science god!"
There were a couple things said that resonated with me near the end of the podcast. (Yes, I got that far and was still listening) The first was Rip saying something to the effect of there is no better way to prove you have the balls than under the bar. It made me think of all the stupid things we do (especially young men) to prove we have the balls that are incredibly stupid and dangerous (ie. running with the bulls, not that I ever did that). Much more controlled and safe to do it while doing something productive like lifting more weight on the bar.
The second was something Nick said a bit after that but now that I write this after having a good scotch, I can't remember. I'll come back to this post when it comes back to me.
John