RIR in the gym.
In the gym, RIR is how many reps you still had.
RIR means reps in reserve. When you finish a set, you count how many clean reps you could still have done, with the same weight and the same form. Zero means you could not do one more. Two means you had two left.
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What does RIR mean in the gym?
A set is the group of reps you do in a row, at the same weight, before you stop. The RIR of that set is the count of the ones you still had.
Example: bench press, 60 kg, 8 reps. If with that weight and that form you would have reached 10, that set was RIR 2.
How do you count it?
When you rack, you ask: how many more, clean? That answer is the RIR. If the bar would have stalled halfway up, it was RIR 0. That is one picture. The test is the same: the next clean rep would not finish.
The number moves from day to day. The same 60 kg for 8 reps can be RIR 3 on Tuesday and RIR 1 on Thursday, after a short night or a hard session yesterday.
If it is your first month, write what you think. You may be off by a rep or two. Keep writing it down. The log teaches the scale.
What do you do with that number?
If the plan asks for 8 reps at RIR 2, you put the weight that today leaves you two reps from stopping. Some days that will be 62 kg. Others, 58 kg. Weight is in kilograms.
Today Peak Health logs effort on every set as RPE. If you count RIR, you write the matching score. How the two scales relate is on the difference between RIR and RPE. How to log it on every set is on RPE and RIR.
The 1 to 10 score is on what RPE is.