REPS IN RESERVE: AN OVERVIEW

What is RIR? This is a question that I get frequently, and while I have spoken about it here and there, I thought it would be good timing to do a deep dive.

Reps in Reserve, or RIR for short, is a method to measure intensity. Think about how many repetitions you have left in the tank that you can do, or in other words, left in reserve.

Usually this is designated as a number followed by RIR. So 4RIR would mean you have 4 reps in reserve, or could do 4 more reps in this set. On the flip side, an 1RIR means you have 1 repetition left that you can complete. The 1RIR is higher intensity as compared to the 4RIR.

The ultimate is a 0RIR, this is taking an exercise to failure, meaning you don’t have anything left in the tank.

Why does this matter? Well it comes down really to a couple factors. The first is intensity and the second is recovery.

First, you need to apply enough training stimulus to cause the body to need to adapt, which in this case, is to build muscle tissue. If intensity isn’t high enough, the body won’t respond favorably.

Well then you say, watch this, I’m going to crush it! Hold on there sunshine…

While intensity is important, recovery is even more important. Without proper and full recovery, we not only won’t build muscle fully, we also have a higher risk of injury.

To balance these two factors, RIR comes in. Generally speaking, the 2 to 1 RIR is ideal for muscle growth. In order to not cross the line and increase intensity over our recoverability, we can throw in 3 or 4 RIR days to boost this. Occasionally, we can touch 0RIR as well.

There are two challenges for most on this. The first is to not default to a specific RIR and how to determine which RIR they are at.

When it comes to default RIR, most fall into two camps. They either don’t push themselves hard enough (5+RIR), or they go way too hard (0RIR). Often this is correlated with training experience. The more experienced, the higher intensity (new trainees often can’t generate enough).

While admittedly, it can be hard to determine the difference between 4/3 and 1/2, it’s not too hard to know the difference between a 4 and a 1RIR. Most underestimate their upper body RIR and overestimate lower body. We can usually feel more comfortable in pushing our upper bodies to failure or close to it.

When to incorporate RIR? Usually when starting to feel recovery is taking a hit and/or not making progress in the gym. Often linked to inadequate recovery or over training.

In closing, I love the high intensity mindset but we need to keep things in balance/inline to not tip the intensity/recovery scale and continue the progress forward.