Masheen

Progress

PR

Personal record Also called personal record, PB, personal best, new PR

A personal record, or PR, is the best you have ever done at something in the gym: the heaviest weight, the most reps at a weight, the highest estimated max.

87.5 kgHeaviest setSession 1Session 6
Session 6: 87.5 kg, a new best. Bench press, heaviest set by session: 80, 82.5, 82.5, 85, 85, 87.5 kg. The last 87.5 kg is a new PR, 2.5 kg over the old one.

In plain words

A PR is a line in your log that nothing in your log beats. Lifters also call it a PB, a personal best; the two words mean the same thing. It can be the heaviest weight you have put on a lift, the most reps at a weight, or your highest estimated one-rep max. What beginners get wrong is thinking a PR has to be a heavy single. One more rep at a weight you have lifted before is a rep PR, and it counts. In competition the rules are stricter: under the IPF's rules a record attempt must beat the standing record by at least 0.5 kg. Your log is the record book.

An example

Six sessions of bench press, with the heaviest set of each written down: 80 kg, 82.5, 82.5, 85, 85, then 87.5 kg. Two of those sessions only repeated a weight already in the log, so they set nothing new. The last one did: 87.5 kg is 2.5 kg above the old best, and that is the PR.

Often confused with

One-rep max A one-rep max is the heaviest single you can lift; a PR is your best at anything, and may be a set of ten.
One-rep max A one-rep max, or 1RM, is the heaviest weight you can lift for one full rep of an exercise, and no more.
Estimated 1RM An estimated 1RM, or e1RM, is a calculated guess at your one-rep max, worked out from a set of several reps with a formula instead of a heavy single.
Rep max A rep max is the heaviest weight you can lift for a given number of reps and no more: a 5RM is the most you can lift five times.
Plateau A plateau is a stretch of training in which a lift stops improving: session after session, no more weight and no more reps.

Sources

  1. International Powerlifting Federation, Technical Rulebook, effective 1 March 2026 (v3) Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.