CHANGES IN INTRASET RIR ACCURACY DURING SIX WEEKS OF BENCH PRESS TRAINING IN TRAINED MEN

This study examined whether accuracy of intraset RIR predictions changes over time. Nine resistance trained men completed three bench press training sessions per week for six weeks, with the last set of each session performed until muscular failure. During the set to failure, subjects verbally indicated when they perceived 4 repetitions in reserve (RIR) and 1 RIR during the set. For each RIR prediction, the difference between perceived RIR and actual RIR was calculated as RIRDIFF. We analyzed differences in RIRDIFF using both the raw RIRDIFF (including positive and negative values) and the absolute values of all RIRDIFF using a factorial MANOVA. Covariates included proximity to failure of the RIR prediction, total repetitions performed per set, percentage of one-repetition maximum lifted, the week of training, and the session (1, 2, or 3 within each seek). For the raw RIRDIFF all covariates, except for percentage of 1RM (p > 0.05) were significantly related to the outcome measure at both the predicted 4 and 1 RIR (p < 0.001 to p = 0.04). Specifically, RIRDIFF was significantly higher in weeks 1-4 versus weeks 5-6 (p < 0.001 to p = 0.005). However, the only covariate which significantly impacted the absolute value RIRDIFF at both the predicted 4 (p = 0.033) and 1 RIR (p = 0.022) was total repetitions per set. These results indicate that trained men tend to shift from overpredicting to underpredicting RIR over time and that more repetitions in a set is related to more inaccurate RIR predictions. However, the actual accuracy (i.e., absolute value RIRDIFF) did not significantly change over six weeks of training.