Understanding the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale for Cycling
The Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale is an invaluable tool for gauging the intensity of your workouts, especially when you don't have a power meter or heart rate monitor. Our scale ranges from 1 to 10, capturing varying levels of effort to help you accurately assess how easy or challenging your activity feels.The numbers relate to descriptions or feelings used to rate how easy or difficult you find the activity you are doing.
What is Perceived Exertion?
Perceived exertion is a subjective measure of how hard you feel your body is working during physical activity. It takes into account physical sensations such as increased heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, and muscle fatigue. Unlike heart rate monitors or power meters, the RPE scale relies on your personal perception of effort, making it accessible and easy to use without specialized equipment.
RPE Scale Breakdown
Here are the zones or scale from 1 to 10 (10 being hardest) that you can use:
Score 1: Sitting on a sofa doing nothing.
Score 2: Getting up to make a cup of tea.
Score 3: Easy-paced recreational riding, slight feeling of exertion.
Score 4: All-day paced riding, not easy but sustainable. Able to maintain a full conversation.
Score 5: Riding consciously quicker, still able to talk easily.
Score 6: Increased effort, only able to talk in short sentences.
Score 7: Building on Level 6, you could probably respond with “I’m fine!” if asked how you felt.
Score 8: Riding hard, sustainable for a couple of minutes, only single-word answers.
Score 9: Almost as hard as you can push your pedals.
