Zyra › Glossary
40 terms behind the Zyra apps and the guides on this site, each defined in plain language with the formula or rule it rests on — the same code the apps run. Where a guide covers a term in depth, the card links to it.
Sets, effort scales, progression and volume — the vocabulary of the Zyra Workouts log and program generator.
How many more reps you could have done.
Reps in reserve: the number of extra reps you could still have completed when you stopped the set. RIR 0 means the set went to failure; RIR 2 means two reps were left. Zyra Workouts logs it per set, and its program targets are written as a rep range at an RIR — 6–10 @RIR 2. The RIR / RPE converter maps it to RPE as RPE = 10 − RIR.
Effort on a 10-point scale; 10 is nothing left.
Rate of perceived exertion: a 1–10 rating of how hard a set was, where 10 means no more reps were possible. In lifting it is read as the mirror of RIR — RPE 8 is two reps in reserve. The app converts with RIR = 10 − RPE after clamping RPE to the 6–10 range, so RPE 5 and below all read as RIR 4.
The heaviest load you can lift once.
The most weight you can lift for a single full-range rep on an exercise. Training percentages and load charts are written against it, but testing it is not required: a set of several reps gives an estimate close enough to plan from. See the 1RM calculator.
A one-rep max predicted from a submaximal set.
A one-rep max predicted from the weight and reps of a set you actually did. Zyra uses Brzycki w × 36 / (37 − r) for 12 reps or fewer and Epley w × (1 + r / 30) above 12; 100 kg for 5 reps estimates 112.5 kg. Warm-up sets are excluded, and the estimate gets fuzzier the higher the rep count.
Any completed set that is not a warm-up.
A set that counts toward your training volume — in the app, every completed set whose type is not warm-up. Standard, drop, myo-rep and failure sets are all working sets. Weekly-volume totals and the muscle landmarks count working sets only.
A lighter preparatory set, excluded from volume and e1RM.
A lighter set performed before the working sets, marked with a W badge in the log. Warm-ups are excluded from weekly-volume totals and from the estimated 1RM. The warm-up set builder rounds each step of a ramp to a weight the bar and plates can actually be loaded to.
Reduce the weight and continue without rest.
A set extended by lowering the weight and immediately continuing for more reps, one or more times, with no rest between the drops. In Zyra Workouts a drop set is one logged set with several weight-and-rep entries stacked under a D badge; it counts as a working set, and the rest timer starts only after the whole drop set is committed.
One hard set, then short mini-sets at the same weight.
A rest-pause pattern: an activation set taken close to failure, followed by several short mini-sets at the same weight with brief rests between them. The app logs the mini-sets as entries grouped under one set number with an M badge. The group counts as a working set.
A set taken to failure — RIR 0 by definition.
A set continued until no further rep is possible. It is logged with an F badge and its RIR is pinned to 0 by definition. The progression engine handles it differently: the rep ceiling for a failure set is the top of the rep range rather than the range midpoint plus RIR.
Two exercises alternated back to back before resting.
Two exercises performed back to back — a set of A, then a set of B — before the rest period. In Zyra Workouts only adjacent exercises in a workout can be paired, the log alternates between them automatically, and the rest timer starts only after both sides of the pair are done.
A movement that loads several joints and muscles at once.
An exercise that moves more than one joint and trains several muscle groups together — squats, presses, rows, deadlifts. The exercise catalog files every movement as compound or isolation, and compounds get the lower rep targets (3–5 for strength, 6–10 for hypertrophy, both at RIR 2) and the longer default rest periods.
A movement around one joint, for mainly one muscle.
An exercise that moves mainly one joint and targets mainly one muscle group — lateral raises, curls, leg curls, calf raises. Isolations get the higher rep targets in the app (6–8 @RIR 2 for strength, 10–15 @RIR 1 for hypertrophy) and shorter default rest.
One side at a time — logged as left and right.
An exercise performed one side at a time, such as a split squat or a single-arm row. The catalog flags these exercises, and the log can record each set as left, right, or both so the two sides are tracked separately.
Read: Bulgarian split squat: muscles worked and how to log it →
Working sets per muscle group per week.
The number of working sets a muscle group receives in a week — the unit the app uses to compare training against its landmarks. Each working set counts 1 toward the exercise's primary muscle and 0.5 toward each of its secondary muscles. The weekly sets calculator totals a planned week the same way.
The app's weekly working-set target per muscle group.
The weekly working-set target the Zyra Workouts dashboard draws for each muscle group: chest 12, back 14, shoulders 14, quads 14, biceps, triceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves and core 10 each, forearms 6. It is the app's default for its coverage bars — a tracking target, not a law. The muscle pages show each landmark with the exercises that fill it.
Doing a little more over time: load, reps or sets.
Gradually asking more of a muscle over time — more weight, more reps, or more sets at the same effort. In the app the load step depends on the equipment: a barbell moves by two of the smallest plate in your inventory (2.5 kg with a 1.25 kg plate), dumbbells, machines and cables by 2 kg, and bodyweight exercises progress by reps only.
Fill the rep range first, then add weight.
A progression scheme with two levers: work up through a rep range at a fixed weight, and add load once you clear it. The Zyra Workouts rule: when your last reps exceed the ceiling — round((repMin + repMax) / 2) + RIR — the next recommendation adds one step and drops back to the bottom of the range; below the range floor it backs off one step.
A planned lighter cycle within a program.
A deliberately lighter period of training inside a program. The Zyra Workouts generator offers an optional deload as the first or last cycle: one fewer set per exercise and an RIR target two higher than the base, so the sets are genuinely easier rather than just relabelled.
Read: How to deload: volume down, intensity down, or both? →
One pass through a program's days; six per generated program.
One complete pass through every day of a program. A generated program runs six cycles, and the targets can change from cycle to cycle: the RIR ramps from one above the base target down to one below it, so the same rep range gets harder as the cycles advance.
How the week divides muscle groups across days.
The pattern that assigns muscle groups to training days — full body every session, upper/lower, or push/pull/legs. The generator spreads the training days evenly over a 7-day week with floor(i × 7 / days), so three days land as train, rest, train, rest, train, rest, rest. See the programs built from each split.
Read: Full body vs upper/lower vs push/pull/legs: which split? →
Which plates load a bar to a target weight.
Working out the plates per side that make up a bar weight: (total − bar) / 2, filled greedily from the largest plate you have. For 110 kg on a 20 kg bar the app prints (2×20 + 1×5) × 2 + 20 kg bar = 110 kg; when the inventory cannot reach a weight exactly, it says so. Try the plate calculator.
How evenly weekly volume covers the eleven muscle groups.
A 0–100 score of how evenly the week's volume is spread across the eleven muscle groups. Each group's coverage is min(sets / landmark, 1); the score is 100 × (1 − coefficient of variation) of those coverages, clamped to 0–100. Even coverage scores high; a week that hammers two groups and skips the rest scores low.
Energy, macros, rates and trend weight — the vocabulary of the MacroDiet targets and the weight chart.
All the calories your body uses in a day.
Total daily energy expenditure: everything your body spends in a day — resting metabolism, digesting food, training and all other movement. A calculator estimates it as BMR × activity multiplier; for an 85 kg, 180 cm, 30-year-old man training 4–6 times a week that is 1,830 × 1.55 = 2,837 kcal. It is a population estimate, not a measurement. See the calorie calculator.
Energy your body uses at complete rest.
Basal metabolic rate: the energy your body would use lying still all day. Zyra estimates it with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + 5 for men and − 161 instead of + 5 for women. It is the base that the activity multiplier scales into TDEE.
Energy from movement that is not training.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis: the energy spent on all movement that is not deliberate exercise — walking, standing, a physical job, fidgeting. It is why two people with the same training schedule can have different expenditures. The MacroDiet formula adjusts the activity multiplier for it: −0.05 sedentary, 0 moderate, +0.1 very active.
Energy used to digest and process what you eat.
The energy your body spends digesting, absorbing and processing food. It is one of the components of TDEE, alongside resting metabolism, training and non-exercise movement. A calculator does not model it separately — it is absorbed into the activity multiplier that scales BMR up to a daily total.
The factor that scales BMR up to TDEE.
The number BMR is multiplied by to estimate TDEE. In the MacroDiet formula it comes from training sessions per week — 1.2 for 0, 1.375 for 1–3, 1.55 for 4–6, 1.725 for 7+ — plus the NEAT adjustment for how active the rest of your day is. Picking the wrong level is the most common reason two calculators disagree.
Read: Which activity level should I pick on a calorie calculator? →
Protein, fat or carbohydrate — the nutrients with calories.
One of the three nutrients that carry energy: protein, fat and carbohydrate. Targets are set in grams because each has a different calorie density — 4 kcal/g for protein and carbs, 9 kcal/g for fat. The macro calculator sets protein from body weight first, fat as a share of what remains, and carbs from the rest.
The per-gram calorie values behind every food label.
The conversion factors that turn grams of macronutrient into calories on labels and in tracking apps: protein 4, carbohydrate 4, fat 9 and alcohol 7 kcal per gram. They are averages across foods, which is one reason a food's macros multiplied out rarely match its calorie line exactly.
Calories in versus calories out, over time.
The relationship between energy taken in as food and energy expended. When they match, body weight is stable on average; a sustained gap in either direction moves it. The planning constant the MacroDiet formula uses is 7,700 kcal per kilogram of body fat — a rule for converting a weekly rate into a daily calorie change, not a law of physiology.
Eating below expenditure; sized from a weekly rate.
An intake below expenditure. The MacroDiet formula sizes it from a rate rather than a round number: weight × rate% × 7,700 / 7 per day, where the rate is 0.3%, 0.5% or 0.75% of body weight per week. The deficit is capped at 35% of TDEE and the target never goes below the calorie floor. See the deficit calculator.
Eating above expenditure; the same rate math, reversed.
An intake above expenditure, used when the goal is to gain. The formula is the deficit math with the sign flipped: the same 0.3 / 0.5 / 0.75% weekly rates, the same 7,700 / 7 conversion, and the same 35%-of-TDEE cap. No calorie floor applies on the gain side.
Eating at expenditure — target equals TDEE.
An intake that matches expenditure, so weight holds steady on average. In the MacroDiet formula the maintain goal sets the daily target equal to the TDEE estimate with no deficit, surplus, cap or floor applied. Because the estimate is a population equation, real maintenance is confirmed by the weight trend, not by the calculator.
MacroDiet's running estimate of your actual TDEE.
MacroDiet's term for the energy you actually use each day — the number that TDEE from a calculator only approximates. The app estimates it from what you log and how your weight trends rather than from an activity multiplier; keeping it updated needs 3 days of food logging and one weigh-in per 7-day period. No exercise tracking is required for it.
Read: How do apps estimate your energy expenditure from your logs? →
The lowest target the deficit math will output.
The minimum daily target the MacroDiet formula will produce for a lose goal. The standard floor is 1,500 kcal for men and 1,200 kcal for women; a lower setting uses 1,200 and 1,000. When the rate math lands below the floor, the target is raised to it and the calculator flags the change.
Read: Why do calorie calculators stop at 1,200 or 1,500 calories? →
Weekly weight change as a percentage of body weight.
How fast weight is planned to change, expressed as a share of body weight per week so it scales with the person. The three settings are conservative 0.3%, moderate 0.5% and aggressive 0.75%; at 80 kg the moderate rate is 0.4 kg a week, which the formula converts to a 440 kcal daily change. Faster rates come with the larger deficits and the caps and floors that go with them.
Seven daily targets counted as one weekly total.
The idea of judging intake over a week rather than a day: seven daily targets add up to one weekly number, and a day above target is balanced by the days around it rather than counted as a failure. It follows directly from the arithmetic of energy balance — a deficit is a sum over time, not a daily test.
Read: Does a calorie deficit have to be daily, or does weekly count? →
A smoothed weight that filters out daily noise.
A smoothed version of your scale weight that filters out the day-to-day swings from water, food volume and timing. Both Zyra apps compute it as an exponential moving average with a 7-day half-life: each new weigh-in moves the trend part of the way toward it. Progress is read from the trend, not from any single morning.
Read: Trend weight vs scale weight: what's the difference? →
The smoothing formula behind the trend weight.
A running average that weights recent values more than old ones. Each day: trend = α × today + (1 − α) × yesterday's trend, with α = 1 − exp(−ln 2 / 7) ≈ 0.094 so that the influence of any one weigh-in halves every 7 days. A single unusual reading therefore moves the trend by less than a tenth of its size.
Read: Trend weight vs scale weight: what's the difference? →
Losing fat and gaining muscle over the same period.
Body recomposition: losing fat while gaining muscle over the same stretch of time, rather than in separate phases. Nutritionally it is planned around maintenance rather than a deficit or surplus, and it is judged with the trend weight and body measurements together, since the scale alone cannot separate the two changes.
Formulas and constants on this page come from the open math package behind the Zyra tools — documented with worked examples on the methodology page. Training and nutrition education only.
Zyra is a training and nutrition tracking tool. Nothing on this page is medical advice, a diagnosis, or an individual prescription. The numbers are estimates from published formulas and the apps' own rules — consult a qualified professional for decisions about your health, and a coach for your training.