RIR (Reps in Reserve)

RIR meaning: what 0, 1 and 2 reps in reserve stand for

RIR 2 means two more clean reps were there. Example: you get 10 clean reps with 80 kg and feel that two more would have gone. Next week you get 11 with the same feeling, so you got stronger without adding a single kilo. The scale is closely related to RPE: RPE 10 equals RIR 0, RPE 9 equals RIR 1.

• RIR 0, often written as 0 RIR: No clean rep left. The last one slows down noticeably and technique starts to drift. Useful now and then, expensive as a habit.
• RIR 1 to 3: The working zone for most sets. Bar speed drops noticeably, technique holds. Training plans often write this as RIR 1-2.
• For hardgainers this means: The number is a self-estimate, not a measurement. It gets more accurate the more stable your exercise, range of motion and tempo are, and the more consistently you log it.

The anchors in the system: the Training Volume and Fatigue System, SRA for the recovery window and technical failure vs. muscular failure.

What you control and what you don't

How much stimulus a set ends up triggering is not something you set exactly. What you control is how close to failure you go, depending on the job of the set.

• Main lifts: RIR 1 to 2, for very heavy compound lifts closer to 2 to 3. High stimulus, manageable fatigue, clean technique.
• Assistance and volume work: RIR 2 to 3. Technique stays stable, volume quality stays high.
• Isolation at the end of the session: RIR 0 to 1 is fine here. A failed rep on a machine is harmless and costs little fatigue.
• New exercise or new phase: RIR 3. Learn the movement first, push harder later.
• Deload week: RIR 4 to 5. Keep the stimulus, shed the fatigue. More on that under deload.

Practice: the 14-day check

• Day 0, set your target RIR: Write down a target RIR for every exercise in your plan. Without a written target there is nothing to compare later.
• Log every session: Load, reps and estimated RIR for each working set, warm-ups do not count. Add sleep and steps, because your recovery depends on both. How much your steps burn is shown by the NEAT Calculator. Once a week, film a set and check your feeling against the video.
• Day 14, check the trend: Two reps above your target range at the same RIR: add load. A 0 next to almost every set means you are training too hard to recover. If reps drop at the same RIR, check sleep and calories first, not the plan.

Calibrate: now and then, take one set on a machine to true failure and count how many reps came after the point where you would have stopped. Many people find a lot more was there than they thought. The difference is your correction value.

Common misconceptions

• “You must train to failure every time.” No. In two meta-analyses, training to muscular failure gave at most a small advantage over training with reps in reserve. As a hardgainer you pay for it twice, because your recovery is tight.
• “Burning and shaking tell me how close I am.” Not much. Effort feels different from actual proximity to failure. The better marker: the rep slows down noticeably. Why these are two different things is explained in intensity vs. effort.
• “Keeping RIR in my head is enough.” A number that only lived in your head is gone after three days. Without a logbook, RIR is just a feeling with a label.
• “When technique breaks, I just keep counting.” Once the movement falls apart, the set is over. What comes after is not clean reps any more, it is risk.
• “I can mix RIR and RPE in my log.” Pick one scale and stick with it. Mix them and after four weeks you are comparing apples with oranges.

Common questions