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.
The "rule" I was taught and try to stick with is as follows:
3 minute rest for "big compounds" (squat, RDL, benchpress)
2 minutes for "small compounds" (row, assisted pullups, etc)
1 minute for isolation (lateral raises, tricep extensions, etc)
Prior to this year, I would go to the gym and typically do 2 or 3 sets with 10 minute rest times between sets then do a half hour of treadmill since weight loss was my primary focus, prior to January 2026 but I've shed over 100 pounds in 2 years and am looking now to strength train.