My question primarily stems from videos such as this one.
I'm trying to understand RIR (reps in reserve) and proximity-to-failure training. I’ve read that 1-3 RIR is the sweet spot for growth with taking only 10% of working sets to near-failure, but I’m confused about how external factors affect that number.
In the first 2 and a half months of this year, I suffered heavily from too much intensity at the gym resulting in nightmare levels of systemic fatigue. My first question is:
####Question #1 -- Can I manipulate my rest times to reach "effective reps" faster?
The longer I rest, the more reps-in-reserve I have at the initiation of my 2nd or 3rd set. Can I "gamify" my rest times and try to aim to start my 2nd & 3rd set as soon as I feel like I'll be able to do a max of 8 reps? That way my first or second rep is already close to failure and counts as an effective rep? Or have I completely lost the plot?
####Question #2 -- Relative verses absolute RIR math
Let’s say I get 4 hours of sleep, eat a 12-pack of Snickers bars for breakfast, get into a 3-hour pointless fight with my wife or girlfriend, and show up to the gym at my normal time. Is it possible that even if I push myself in working sets to near failure, that I won't have done any effective reps and simply performed a bunch of junk volume because I'm mentally unfit to gain strength or hypertrophy? My reason for asking is because I do a tremendous amount of effort getting mentally & physically ready for my gym sessions. It definitely helps me lift harder and put in more volume.
####Question #3 -- Does proximity to failure in earlier sets complicate the RIR math in sets done in the latter half of my workout?
From my own experiments, I'm able to perform about 40% more weight on the final 60% of my working sets if I "phone it in" on my first 2 compound lifts (3 sets each) at the beginning of my workout, after warming up with 10 warmup reps at 50% of 1RM. My reason for sharing the AST screenshot at beginning of this post is because it's a measure of liver/muscle damage and is my only testament that I tried to bring "David Goggins intensity" to the gym everyday for the first 2 and a half months of this year.
I ask these questions as a beginner because I'm new to weightlifting. I've been doing it less than a year. My knowledge primarily comes from youtubers such as Flow High Performance, Huberman, Andy Galpin, Jeff Nippard, and Mike Israetel.
Afaik, the most important metric is progressive overload. If you can add weights and volume to your sets, compared to your previous workouts, you are good.
How does this fit with rir/er for you? Did you try to workout a month with and one without that method? Did you see a difference?
Fwiw: looks like effective reps aren't backed by science
Edit: regarding junk volume. How much are you speaking of? The 4th set? Or the 10th set for a specific muscle? Each additional set has a lower marginal utility of growth. Most plans use 10-20 sets per muscle per week.
As long as you are fatiguing the muscle with heavy weights, you don't have much junk volume within a set. You can do 40 reps, it just takes more time and noone wants to do that. 8-12 or 6-14 reps are the sweat spot. If you aim for 8 and can do 14, so what? Awesome! Your progression from your previous session is great. Add weight and do the same for the next set/session.
Edit2: I am not a benchmark but I measure progression based on the big compound exercises and other exercises like biceps curls are just accessories. I do progress on those but I measure growth based on the big 6. As soon as I get to curls, my muscles are so fatigued that it would be unfair to judge based on the curls.