RP Hypertrophy app review

RP Hypertrophy and its two closest alternatives

Pick RP if you want the app to decide how many sets each muscle gets, week by week. For less, Alpha Progression plans those changes in advance; for free, RIRLift sets every weight from your logged effort, and Coach can plan sets and RIR week by week, though your feedback doesn't change set counts.

What to weigh before you pay for RP

• Volume that moves with your feedback

  The rules are plain: low pumps, barely sore and easy workouts mean more sets next time; great pumps, soreness that won't heal in time and too much volume mean fewer. No other app here changes your set count from how a session felt.

• Weight that climbs a few percent a week

  RP raises the load a few percentage points each week, and adds a rep instead when the next dumbbell is too big a jump. Working sets carry RIR targets, and you can overwrite any weight or add and delete sets.

• Blocks you set up front

  Pick one of 45+ templates, or build a block in the Meso Builder by marking muscle groups Emphasize, Grow or Maintain. Either way you choose a length that ends in a deload week. RP suggests up to 8 weeks for beginners and 3 to 6 weeks of accumulation for advanced lifters.

• The price

  $34.99/month or $299.99/year in the US, on a subscription. Purchases on RP's website come with a 30-day refund.

• Where RIRLift is different

  RIRLift doesn't ask about pump or soreness. It reads the weight, reps and reps in reserve you log and sets the next set and the next session from them, free, on iPhone or Apple Watch. How it decides.

  

What each app does in a real week

Week 4, quads still sore from Monday

An intermediate on a 5-week upper/lower block, legs twice a week. By Thursday, Monday's quad soreness still hasn't cleared.

App	What it does here	For this lifter
RP Hypertrophy	Your soreness and workload ratings feed the next session. Soreness that doesn't heal in time, with great pumps and too much volume, is the signal for fewer sets.	Built for this. It's the main thing you pay for.
Alpha Progression	Week 4's sets and RIR are what the periodized plan says. Mark the workout as a deload and Pro eases the recommendations for it.	Fits if you'd rather plan the ramp than rate soreness.
RIRLift	Soreness isn't an input. Log what you actually lift: a set below its rep range brings the next set down, and the set count stays what the routine says.	Fits if you steer volume yourself and want the weights to follow your sets.

Only RP turns how sore you feel into a set count. The other two leave that call with you.

The same quad day, run in RIRLift

Same block, no soreness rating. The pendulum squat is planned at 10 reps with 2 left, in an 8–12 range.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Pendulum Squat	Set 1: 200 lb × 10, 3 left	Set 2: 205 lb × 10	13 reps to failure against a planned 12, so 200 × 42 ÷ 41 ≈ 205 lb.
Leg Extension	120 lb, 15 / 15 / 15, 2 left	130 lb × 10	Every set at the top of 10–15: one step up the stack, reps back to 10.

The heavier set 2 came from set 1, not from the week number.

Hypertrophy plans to run in RIRLift

• The best workout plan for muscle gain, for where you are now

  Past a year of lifting, gains have stalled

  Heavy and volume upper/lower days for lifters past their first year, four days a week.

  4× a week · 76 sets a week · ~50 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  4 days a week: upper/lower

  Four days, within RIRLift's 4 free routines.

  4× a week · 68 sets a week · ~40 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Start from your working weights

  RIRLift imports Hevy, Strong and FitNotes files, not RP's export. Tap Edit starting weights under the routine picker and enter your current working weights. They show as Yours, and the next weight is worked out from them.

• Keep thinking in reps in reserve

  RP's targets are in RIR, and so are RIRLift's. Set one per exercise, like 2 left, and log what you actually had left.

• Give the block a finish line

  Set a program length, say 6 weeks, and the Journey shows the week you're in and where your main lift is headed.

• Choose how deloads work

  Keep Step back when stuck on for a lighter week when a lift stalls, or turn it off and run deload weeks on your own schedule.

When a different app fits better

• You want set counts adjusted from pump and soreness, week by week. RP Hypertrophy. RIRLift doesn't do that.
• You train on Android or in a browser. RP runs on both. RIRLift is iPhone and Apple Watch only.
• You want week-by-week ramps planned in advance on Android, for less than RP. Alpha Progression Pro, at $12.99/month. On iPhone, RIRLift's Coach plans the same kind of block.

Questions

Read next

• RP Hypertrophy app alternatives

  Five apps ranked for lifters leaving RP.

• Alpha Progression vs RP Hypertrophy

  Planned periodization against feedback-driven volume.

• What is a mesocycle?

  How a hypertrophy block builds volume and effort.

• Training volume for hypertrophy

  How many sets per muscle, if you set them yourself.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  Where the 190 lb came from.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• The hypertrophy app that sets your load from reps in reserve

  RIR on every set, weekly sets per muscle, and deloads when a lift stalls instead of on a calendar.

• The periodization app that runs your block from what you lift

  Training blocks with a finish line, weights set from your sets, and deloads offered when a lift stalls.

• JuggernautAI vs RP Hypertrophy

  Same price, different goal: JuggernautAI for strength, RP for size. And a free option between them.

Every lifter and goal