Glossary: the terms the Kiptly app uses

The terms the Kiptly app uses, from 1RM and RPE to training max and deload. Each one in a few sentences, with what the app does with it.

By Kiptly · Updated October 1, 2026

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1RM (one-rep max): The heaviest weight you can lift for one repetition of an exercise. You do not need to test it to know roughly where it is — a set of several reps is enough to estimate it, which is what the e1RM is.
e1RM (estimated one-rep max): A one-rep max worked out from a set of several reps. Kiptly uses Epley’s formula — the weight times one plus a thirtieth of the reps — and keeps the best estimate for each exercise among your personal records, as Est. 1RM. The calculator in the wiki works it out from any set.
Set and rep: A rep, or repetition, is one movement from start to finish. A set is a run of reps without a rest between them. In the app every set is one row, with a weight and a number of reps.
Warm-up set: A lighter set before the working ones, to get ready for them. The app marks it with a W. It counts towards no personal record, and towards volume only if you switch on Include warm-up in volume in the settings.
Working set: Every set that is not a warm-up. Personal records are counted from working sets only, and so is volume unless you change that setting.
Superset: Two or more exercises done back to back, a set of one and then a set of the next, before a rest. In the app you join exercises into one with Create Superset.
RPE: Rate of Perceived Exertion: how hard a set felt. You can add it to any set, and during a workout the app offers it from 6, very easy, to 10, maximum effort.
RIR (reps in reserve): How many more reps you could have done when the set ended. Kiptly records RPE, not RIR. The two look at the same set from opposite ends: the closer a set comes to the last rep you could do, the higher its RPE and the lower its RIR.
AMRAP: As many reps as possible: a set with no fixed count, carried on while good reps are still there. In some of the app’s percentage programmes the last set of a lift is one, marked AMRAP.
Training max: The weight a percentage programme works from: every set in it is a share of this one number. You type it in when you start such a programme, and the app can fill it in for you as 90% of a one-rep max you enter. The app calls it Training Max.
Percentage programme: A programme whose weights are written as percentages of a training max rather than in kilograms. The How it works page on percentage programmes shows how the app turns the percentages into weights you can load.
Progression: Adding to the load over time — weight, reps or sets. The app suggests the next weight for an exercise from your last session of it, and the How it works page on progression and deload gives the exact rule.
Deload: A planned lighter week. After several weeks of training in a row the app shows Deload week recommended, and the How it works page on progression and deload says exactly when.
Volume: Weight times reps, added up — over a set, a workout or a week. The app counts working sets, adds a share of your body weight for the bodyweight movements that carry one, and shows the sum as Total Volume.
Personal record (PR): Your best yet on one count. The app keeps several for each exercise: Max weight, Max reps, Est. 1RM, Max volume and Best set — and, for assisted exercises, Lowest assist.
Compound and isolation: A compound movement moves several joints at once, as a squat moves the hip, the knee and the ankle. An isolation movement moves one, as a leg curl bends only the knee. The app’s catalogue classes its exercises this way, and the tables in the wiki’s muscle articles show the class of each.
Primary and secondary muscles: The muscles an exercise mainly trains, and the ones that help. The app’s muscle map counts a set as one whole set for each primary muscle and as half a set for each secondary one.
Bodyweight share: For a movement done with your own body, the share of your body mass it raises. The app adds it to any weight you type, so a set of push-ups counts in your volume. Movements where it cannot be worked out — bridges, Nordic curls, the assisted variants — carry none, and count only the weight you type.
Template and programme: A template is one workout written down to repeat: its exercises, sets and targets. A programme is a schedule of templates over weeks. The app comes with both, under Templates and Programs.

Sources

Each source says how far we actually got into it. A citation list shows that a paper exists, not that anybody opened it — so this one is labelled.

The Kiptly app
Its translation files, for every label quoted here, and its code, for every statement about what it does. A test reads the labels from the app on every build and fails when one changes.
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General fitness information, not medical advice.