Strength and Conditioning Knowledge Center

Squats and deadlifts are two of the three exercises used to measure total strength in powerlifting championships, indicating their importance in the world of strength. Just as we often do with the two top athletes in a sport, many coaches compare squat vs. deadlift to choose which one is better for developing strength and power. …

What’s RIR in Weightlifting? Repetitions in Reserve (RIR) is a reliable tool for prescribing strength training load (Lovegrove et al., 2022). As the name suggests, RIR refers to the number of repetitions you leave undone before reaching muscle failure. This tool was originally created in “The Reactive Training Manual” in 2008 for use in prescribing …