Top 20 Must-Know Fitness Terms
So you’re googling workouts online, attending a fitness class or talking amongst friends and they whip out fitness terms like, “circuit” “superset” “dropset” “HIIT” and your like…what’re you talking about?
If you’re a total new-be to this whole ‘workout’ thing or fitness professional looking to test their knowledge these fitness terms will do just that. Outlined in alphabetical order (A-Z) are some of the most common fitness terms people use!
KEY TERMS:
Anaerobic Vs. Aerobic: Anaerobic means without oxygen and aerobic means with oxygen. An anaerobic exercise is done nearly all-out, and therefore can't be done for a long period of time. Think of a 100-meter sprinter or 1-rep max lift.
On the other hand, a lower-intensity activity such as moderate bicycle riding uses a different energy pathway that can be done for an extended period of time. This process does require oxygen.
Branched Chain Amino Acids: (Leucine, Isoleuice, and Valine) these three BCAA’s have a unique branched-chain structure. During exercise they are broken down and preferentially taken up by skeletal muscle.
Ingestion of BCAAs (5-10 g daily) can stimulate anabolism, while research also shows these three amino acids have anticatabolic properties, reduce exercise-induced muscle soreness, and decrease mental fatigue during intense exercise.
CIRCUIT: Perform prescribed exercises back-to-back with little to no rest.
Concentric: When you lift a weight against gravity, a muscle contraction (shortening) takes places around a joint or joints. For example, when you do a biceps curl, the biceps muscle—which is connected to the elbow and shoulder joints—contracts to lift the weight. This action is called a concentric action movement.
DROPSET: A drop-set is the simple technique where you perform a set of any exercise to failure—or just short of failure, then drop the weight and continue for more repetitions, with the reduced poundage
Eccentric: When you extend (lengthen) the muscle you’re working with gravity. For example, when you do a biceps curl, the biceps muscle—which is connected to the elbow and shoulder joints—lengthens to lower the weight. This action is called a eccentric action movement.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Type of cardio training where you alternate short, very high-intensity intervals with recovery times to increase heart rate and get you into the fat burning zone!
Hypertrophy: refers to the muscle building process of enlarging individual muscle fibers. Muscle fibers grow through protein synthesis (creating new protein fibers), in which fibers damaged by resistance training rebuild themselves (adapt) by becoming stronger and larger in response to the training stimulus.
Skeletal muscle is best trained for hypertrophy by choosing a weight in which you can do 8-12 reps per set to muscle failure with good form for 3-5 sets
SET: Moment you begin an exercise to the moment you stop. Sets consists of one or more repetitions
Overtraining: This is a state in which your body's recovery ability can't keep up with the volume and intensity of your training program. It manifests itself in physical and emotional states where progress stalls, but losses may also occur in strength and fitness because of increased catabolism.
Signs of overtraining include fatigue, elevated resting heart rate, insomnia, persistent muscle soreness, weight loss, increased incidence of injuries and susceptibility to illness, poor exercise performance, low testosterone levels, and possibly depression.
To combat overtraining, dialing back your training is essential (either by taking a break or reducing the volume and intensity), as is getting more sleep (shoot for 8 hours) and keeping a better eye on your diet.
Periodization: Periodization is the systematic planning of your training. While inexperienced lifters may think training full-bore every workout is the way to go, science shows that the best way to make size and strength gains long-term is to cycle periods of volume and intensity.
Post Workout Nutrition: Protein with high glycemic index carbohydrate. I recommend Phormula-1 + Ignition for ALL post workout nutrition. Whether you’re adding muscle mass, losing weight or fat Phormula-1 + Ignition WILL work for you!
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Repetitions: One performance of a single exercise
When written as “3X10” it means 3 sets of 10 exercise repetitions
Examples: The workout calls for 3 sets of 12 repetitions of push-ups=
Push-ups: 3X12 Reps
Straight Sets: Complete each exercises number of repetitions and sets before moving onto next exercise.
SUPERSET (SS): two exercises listed where you’re going from one exercise to the next with no rest
Example:
SUPERSET: 4X15 Reps
Dumbbell Biceps Curl
Dumbbell Triceps Extension
Supplements: supplements range from vitamins, pre workouts, multi vitamins, minerals, protein powder, creatine and many more! Most importantly they’re to supplement your diet not replace it. Supplements can help assist you in reaching your health and fitness goals faster. Whether you’re looking to gain mass, lose fat, or gain overall health supplements are great for you because with our busy on-the-go lifestyles it is hard to eat according to your bodies needs for whatever goal you have from whole food sources.
Tempo: This refers to the speed of a movement. Generally speaking, when training to build muscle, you use an explosive motion to lift the weight, hold the peak contraction momentarily, lower it more slowly under control during the negative (eccentric) contraction, then smoothly reverse direction at the bottom of the range of motion without bouncing.
Different training protocols can shorten or lengthen any one of those parts of the rep to achieve particular results. In addition, different training programs like plyometrics, in which you move explosively without deceleration, are variations of tempo.
TRI-SET: Performing three exercises in a row with no rest.
Example:
TRI-SET: 3X10 Reps
Barbell Squat
Dumbbell Lunges (each leg)
Squat Jumps
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Thanks for listening and remember to kick some major booty this week!
Trainer Hales:)
