Training Loads

The days of going into the gym and picking up any old weights, doing a couple of reps, then resting in between sets, isn’t the way to make progress anymore. We need to monitor our training loads now.

The idea of working out is to provide enough stimulus to your muscles to intitiate adaptation and growth, and the only certain way to make sure of this process is loading your body correctly.

Here are the two most effective and easy ways to load your body correctly.

Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

RPE is the original way to manage the load on your body from exercise and may sound a bit similar. If you have every expressed your workout or exercise on a scale difficulty scale from 1-10, then you have used RPE before.

When RPE was created in 1982 by Gunner Borg, he initially set the scale as 6 to 20 (rather than 1-10). This may seem like an odd and random scale, but the idea was it reflects the individuals heart rate (6 = 60bpm & 20 = 200bpm). The closer to an RPE of 20, the higher and harder the intensity. From just this idea, you may realise that the scale was better suited for cardiovascular exercise rather than weights training.

The Borg scale, or modified RPE scale (1-10), is still widely used today due to its accuracy in predicting training load in sport and cardiovascular settings. But when it comes to resistance training, it doesn’t have as strong a correlation with training load due to the difference in maximal heart rate at training intensities. 

So we use a different loading scale.

Repetitions In Reserve (RIR)

RIR is a much better form of managing and auto regulating training loads in resistance training environments. A rep in reserve just refers to how many more reps an individual would have left in the tank before they fail the lift. For example, if an individual has a maximum rep range of 15 reps for Barbell Bench Press but only went to 12 reps, they would have a 3-RIR (15 reps – 12 reps = 3 reps).

So how does this help us?

Plenty of research over the last 5 years have shown similar results in muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth) when individuals trained to 2-RIR rather than 0-RIR (or maxed out sets). With the results being very similar, leaving reps in the tank allowed for more muscle recovery and effort on preceding sets, making it the better option for programming resistance training.

It not only helps you recover better between sets (and ultimately get more out of your workout), but it helps with auto regulation. Not every day is going to feel as good or bad as the other, so we need to adjust our workouts accordingly so we get the most out of them. By using 2-RIR, the individual can still work to the necessary intensity to allow for muscle hypertrophy without injuring themselves.

I hope this helps provide a few different ways in which you can manage your training load and get the most benefits out of your training.