Alpha Progression
Autoregulative training
With autoregulative training, you can modify the volume and intensity of your workouts to your current state of fitness and recovery. Autoregulative training aims to maximize muscle growth and strength gains while lowering the risk of injury or overtraining.
Reps in reserve, also known as RIR, is one of the fundamental ideas of autoregulative training. This is the number of reps you still have left after finishing a set.
Your RIR would be 2, for instance, if you were doing 10 reps but could have done 12. By keeping an eye on your RIR, you make sure you exert yourself enough to promote muscular growth but not so vigorously that you run the danger of getting hurt or overtrained.
RPE, or rated perceived exertion, is another metric in autoregulative training. This scale goes from 1 to 10, with 1 denoting little effort and 10 denoting utmost effort. You make sure you are working at the proper intensity level for your present state of fitness and recovery by keeping an eye on your RPE. RPE is an inverted RIR scale; thus, if you use RIR, you may dispense with it.
The first step in incorporating autoregulative training into your workouts is assessing your fitness and recovery level. You achieve that by performing a few warm-up sets of a specific exercise and keeping an eye on your RIR. Once you have a solid understanding of your current level of fitness and recovery, you may start modifying the volume and intensity of your workouts.
For instance, you should raise the weight or reps for a specific exercise if you feel strong and well-recovered. On the other side, you should reduce the weight or reps for that exercise if you're feeling exhausted or stressed.
You make sure that you are training at the proper volume and intensity for your current level of fitness and recovery by utilizing autoregulative training. Doing this can minimize your chance of getting hurt or overtrained while still achieving your strength and muscle-building goals.
Check out our strength training app Alpha Progression. It lets you track your RIR and helps you take your training to the next level.
