What is RIR?
Well this is the new kid on the block in rehabilitation for assessing if a patient is working at their true maximum intensity when training for MUSCLE strength or MUSCLE and tendon mass development.
It uses the 1-10 ratings of perceived exertion scale, which you will be familiar with to assign a training intensity for muscular development. In essence it acts as a cognitive marker for both you and your patient of how close to technical failure you want them to be before the end of each set of exercise.
Why use it in rehab?
1. Well as I said, its a very practical way of making sure that your patient achieves their true maximum intensity to drive muscle and tissue adaptations based upon a goal load.
For muscle and tendon mass changes we want to be at failure or close to muscular failure. However, if your goal for your patient is to improve their power or rate of force development or to learn a new skill (motor control and coordination training) then you will often not want them close to failure.
2. It also provides a method to tailor your programme to the patients daily and weekly variation in physical preparedness.
What is physical preparedness … I hear you say?
Well physical preparedness is something that affects us all, it’s our daily variation in strength levels and motivation that affects our ability to workout with maximum intent on a daily basis. It can be affected by physical fatigue, travel, stress, or a bad nights sleep!.
Why bother with Reps in Reserve ?
All too often in physiotherapy we undercook or under dose our patients when we give them a training prescription for their rehabilitation. This can happen commonly because the patient still has the capacity to do more repetitions … or still has reps in reserve!
So how do you use reps in reserve clinically?
1. Decide on the outcome and the adaptation you are chasing for the patient in question … let’s say they have Achilles tendinopathy and you want to increase tendon cross sectional area and muscle mass.
2. Decide on the goal repetitions based upon the outcome you decide your patient needed above … You can use our table below for ease!
3. Then use our table below to match the RPE with a RIR based upon the outcome you want for the patient.
You can also use it to Educate patients !
I often use RIR as a method to help my patients understand when and how to increase the resistance of a rehab exercise, so they can progress their exercises between our sessions.
This is a good way to encourage patients to begin to take onwership of their rehab and to understand the training process. So for example, if the patient has more than 3-4 reps left in the tank (or 3-4 RIR) then I explain to them that its time to increase the load on the weights stack or to combine two coloured thera bands together.
So RIR is a really simple way to ensure your patient is maximising the time they spend doing resistance training exercise. It can help prevent you under dosing exercise and wasting both yours and you patients precious time!
Further reading
Borg, G. (1970). Perceived exertion as an indicator of somatic stress. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 2(2), 92–98.
Helms, E. R., Cronin, J., Storey, A., & Zourdos, M. C. (2016). Application of the Repetitions in Reserve-Based Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale for Resistance Training. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 38(4), 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000218
Morishita, S., Tsubaki, A., Nakamura, M., Nashimoto, S., Fu, J. B., & Onishi, H. (2019). Rating of perceived exertion on resistance training in elderly subjects. Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, 17(2), 135–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779072.2019.1561278
Ormsbee, M. J., Carzoli, J. P., Klemp, A., Allman, B. R., Zourdos, M. C., Kim, J.-S., & Panton, L. B. (2019). Efficacy of the Repetitions in Reserve-Based Rating of Perceived Exertion for the Bench Press in Experienced and Novice Benchers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 33(2), 337–345. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001901
RSH_DevelopingExplosiveMuscluarPowerwithMixedMethodsofTraining.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved 22 July 2021, from http://www.hydra gym.com/research/RSH_DevelopingExplosiveMuscluarPowerwithMixedMethodsofTraining.pdf
Suchomel, T. J., Nimphius, S., Bellon, C. R., Hornsby, W. G., & Stone, M. H. (2021). Training for Muscular Strength: Methods for Monitoring and Adjusting Training Intensity. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01488-9
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