Are you leaving strength gains on the table?

Are You Leaving Gains on the Table? 

Understanding and utilizing the concept of “Reps in Reserve”.

When you do an exercise at the gym… how do you choose your weight?

Do you grab whatever you used last time?

Pick something that feels “about right”?

Just aim for 10 reps and move on?

That is how most people do it. But here is the problem:

If you are finishing a set and could have done five or more reps, you likely aren’t getting the benefit that you think you are. 

You might feel like you are working, but if you are always leaving plenty of reps in the tank, your body is not getting the stimulus it needs to adapt.

Introducing: Reps in Reserve.

What is “Reps in Reserve” (RIR)?

Reps in Reserve is a simple way to track effort.

It means how many more reps you could have done with good form at the end of a set.

• RIR 0 = You hit your absolute limit
  
  

• RIR 1 = One more rep left
  
  

• RIR 2 = Two more reps left
  
  

• RIR 3+ = You probably needed more weight
  
  

Most people are unknowingly training with an RIR of 5 to 10. That’s movement, but not a strengthening stimulus.

How To Actually Apply This

1. Pay attention to the effort, not just the reps

Ask yourself after each set: could I have done more? How many?

2. Adjust if it felt easy

If you could have done 5 to 10 more reps, that is a warm-up. Increase the weight or reps next time.

3. Do not be afraid of effort

RIR 2 means the last couple reps feel tough, but doable. If you are never reaching that, you are probably undertraining. This it the RIR that most people should train at.

4. Practice makes better

You will not get this perfect from day one. But once you start noticing the difference between a hard set and a filler set, you will never unsee it.

Bottom Line

Training hard does not mean that you have to be limping out of the gym.

But it does mean challenging your system enough to get a response.

That is what actually drives progress - and most people are not doing enough of it.