Rapid Fire Q&A: Off-Season Programming, RPE, and Volume Progression

What should change when an athlete’s schedule, training age, or recovery does not fit the model?

In this Rapid Fire Q&A, the KILO team works through the programming decisions that appear when textbook structure meets a real athlete or client.

The episode opens with off-season planning for hockey: how training age, competition schedule, and the athlete’s biggest weakness should determine whether you extend anatomical adaptation, hypertrophy, maximum strength, or power. From there, the discussion moves into step loading versus constant loading, including why two sessions can carry the same average intensity but produce different exposures, recovery costs, and strength outcomes.

The coaches also explain where RPE and reps in reserve fit inside a percentage-based system, why RPE is often unreliable for selecting load, and where it can still help evaluate the overall stress of a session. 

They then break down when a client may need to move from low to medium volume, why consistent programming makes that decision easier, and how to give general-population clients the feeling of “more work” without compromising the quality of their strength training.

The episode closes with two sharp questions: when twice-weekly training is enough, and when expectations need to change, and why the upper body is “smart” while the lower body is “dumb.”

Between 2 Racks is produced by KILO, a coach-led education company for personal trainers and strength coaches who want durable principles, not disposable tactics.

Better coaching starts with better decisions.

0:00 Intro rapid fire Q&A format

0:26 Hockey off-season training progression

7:53 How training age affects anatomical adaptation length

8:24 Training while still playing at night

9:38 Step loading vs constant loading

11:10 Step load vs constant load volume math breakdown

15:17 Using RPE and RIR

19:12 Why RPE is inaccurate for load selection

23:32 Moving from low to medium or high volume

26:51 Managing clients who want more work than they need

32:59 Why training twice a week is frustrating

37:05 Weekly activity recommendations research

38:12 Why upper body training is more complex than lower body

44:02 Closing thoughts