Reps in reserve is a simple concept to gauge the intensity of your workouts. It helps you understand when to push yourself harder, manage your fatigue, lower the risk of injuries and reach your fitness goals faster.
What is RIR?
RIR is simply how many reps you could have done before reaching failure when you finish a set.
An RIR of 0 means you could not of done another rep, no matter how hard you tried. This set would of felt outrageously difficult.
An RIR of 1 means you could of done 1 more rep. This kind of set is also very challenging but doable.
RIR 8 means 2 you have 2 reps in the tank, and so on. The greater the reps in reserve, the easier the set it.
Technical failure vs muscular fatigue
Technical failure happens when you cannot maintain proper form. You start compensating and cheating to complete your reps.
Muscular fatigue is when your muscle cannot contract anymore.
You always want to use RIR with you technical failure. This will help you avoid injuries.
There is no point continuing a set with improper form, especially with compound exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench, barbell lunges...
The more experience you get, the better your technique will become and the more technical failure and muscle failure will merge.
How to determine your RIR
This part seems simple but is actually more complicated for beginners than you may think.
Simply put, you have to assess how many reps you could have done after each set. The more you do this, the better you will be at finding your RIR and gauging your workout's intensity.
You may think it's easy but listen to this story. I was training a client on the seated rows. He'd been training with me for a few months now and his form was getting good and it was time to add the intensity.
I explained RIR to him, instructed him to do 10 reps and evaluate the intensity. So he goes ahead, bangs out 10 reps, they looked decently hard. He looks at me and assuredly tells me RIR 1. He could only do one more.
On the next set I tell him to go to technical failure. He goes ahead and does...20 reps!
So much for only being able to do one more.
The moral of the story is that it takes time to learn how to gauge your intensity. Your training experience, the exercise that you do, the number of reps you do, all influence how hard/easy it is to determine your RIR.
For the record, RIR has been shown to be an effective tool for trainers to prescribe training difficulty, even with novices.
Benefits of using RIR in your workouts
Intensity is the leading mechanism for building strong, defined muscles and getting stronger.
However, going too intense too often can also lead to injuries, lowered motivation and less results.
So we need to find a balance. This is why RIR are so important.
Training smarter
This study show that using an RIR of 4 or less is enough to muscle growth and that an RIR of 2-0 is good for maximal strength.
For my clients, the golden number is an RIR of 2. I want the majority of their sets to be performed with two reps left in the tank.
This allows them to push hard enough to elicit muscular adaptations for hypertrophy and maximal strength while staying within the safety zone.
If you think about it, doing sets at RIR 0 all the time would be counter productive. Your training volume would be super low because you would need very long rest time between your sets. This would also accumulate a lot of fatigue over the weeks.
Using the proper weights
RIR is a great tool for you to select which weights to use. Let's say you go to the gym and do four sets of 6 squats at RIR 2-3. You. do your warm up, and then you put on 150 pounds of the bar, do your 6 reps, but evaluate the intensity at RIR 5.
This is a clear indication that you can go heavier. You can do this type of evaluation after each set. With time you'll be able to do in a split second.
This is also true for the opposite. Imagine you get to the third rep and think "uho, I can only d0 2 more reps now". You do the sensible thing and put the bar down after only 3 reps. This indicates that you went a little to heavy so take off some weights for the next set.
This method also helps you navigate your progress. As you get stronger and fitter, your RIR will change. A weight that was an RIR of 2 three weeks ago might be an RIR of 1 today.
Avoid injuries
Our form is a very important thing to maintain while performing heavy sets. Although I believe that proper form is more of a spectrum than an absolute right/wrong situation, I believe that when we go close to failure we compromise form for performance.
Think about when you round your back during a deadlift to get one or two more reps in.
It's usually on the last few reps that we care tempted/forced to compensate. Staying at RIR 2-4 ensures that you stay in the "better form" zone.
Communication with your trainer
RIR is a great way to let your trainer know exactly how you feel during your workouts.
A weight, without an RIR isn't very useful. My first question after my clients complete a set is always "How did it feel"? A beginner might answer "good, hard, very hard". An intermediate or advanced client responds with "1,2,3", which instantly tells me how intense they perceived there set.
It becomes even more useful with online training when I can't see them do the sets and solely rely on their perceived feelings of the workout.
As you can see, RIR is a fantastic, subjective tool, that can take into account your daily energy levels. It's ok to be lift slightly different weights on any given days. We all have good days and bad days in the gym.
The important thing is to be consistent and smart in our training.
Incorporating reps in reserve into your fitness routine
You don't always have to use the same RIR within a given workout.
Let's say you are currently doing a volume phase. Your goal is to add muscle mass. You are doing four sets of military press to get those delts growing.
You know that an RIR of 2 is what I personally recommend to achieve this goal.
On your first set you could do an RIR of 4-2, a little on the lighter side. Let's say you got 12 reps. I like doing this because it's hard enough for gains, but still light enough to perform with exact form. This is the "get in the zone set".
Your next couple sets could be done at RIR 2. Tougher sets, you should feel a great pump with that. And remember that you may be doing different amount of reps on those two sets. If you got 8 reps on the first set but start feeling RIR 2 after 6 reps on that second set, put the bar down after 6 reps.
So far we have this configuration:
Set 1: 12 reps, RIR 4 at 100 pounds. You increase the weight to 120 pounds.
Set 2: 8 reps, RIR 2 at 120 pounds
Set 3: 6 reps, RIR 2 at 120 pounds
You have a choice for your last set: keep the same weight and try to get another 6 reps OR decrease the weight, do more reps and keep RIR 2.
This is up to you! As you learn to use RIR you'll be able to make these decision on the fly.
Conclusion, final tips and tricks
RIR is an essential tool to learn to take your training to the next level. When you start working out, your first focus should be to learn the exercises properly and get decent form on them.
Once you have that done, start paying attention to your RIR. With time, patience and practice this will become second nature to you.
Remember to go to technical failure and not muscular failure. As you become more experienced in the gym, the two will almost become identical.
It is easier to gauge accurate reps in reserve with lower reps. When you do less that 8 reps, it's fairly easy to evaluate how many more your could of done.
If you do more reps, say 15-25 reps, it become much harder to properly estimate properly. Your muscles burn so much that it becomes much more of a mental struggle than a physical one.
Use different RIR throughout your workouts to make each set count. Warm up sets should always be done below RIR 5. Workouts done on new machines should be done around RIR 4-3. When you get familiar with an exercise you can go closer to 1-2.
RIR 0, also known as Jesus-take-the-wheel sets, should be done very sparingly and with a very accurate purpose. Training to failure for the sake of failure isn't something to do lightly.
Since RIR is easiest to gauge with lower reps, you won't be using it for all the exercises. It's a useful tool for full body, compound moves like squats, deads, lunges, bench, bent over rows, pull ups, presses... Not so useful for lat raises, calf raises, and any moves you do for more than 12 reps.
For the record, RIR is the same idea as RPE (rate of perceived exertion). It's just a little more straight forward to apply to gym workouts.
Happy training,
Clem
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