When I first trained to become a yoga teacher, one of the things I found surprisingly difficult was learning the language. There seemed to be a special word for everything! Once I understood the terminology, though, everything started to make much more sense.
Fitness can be exactly the same. If you’re new to exercise and someone starts talking about reps, sets, compound exercises, resistance and range of motion, it can sound far more complicated than it actually is.
So here is my simple guide to some of the fitness vocabulary you’re likely to hear.
Rep or repetition
A rep is simply one complete movement. If you lift a dumbbell towards your shoulder in a biceps curl and lower it again, that is one rep.
Set
A set is a group of repetitions. If you do 10 biceps curls, rest, and then do another 10, you have completed two sets of 10 repetitions.
Compound exercise
A compound exercise uses more than one joint and several muscles at the same time. Squats, lunges, rows and shoulder presses are all examples. These exercises are particularly useful because you’re training several parts of your body together.
Isolation exercise
An isolation exercise concentrates more specifically on one joint and one main muscle group. A biceps curl is a good example because most of the movement happens at your elbow and you’re deliberately targeting your biceps.
Push exercise
This simply means you’re pushing resistance away from you. A chest press and shoulder press are both push exercises.
Pull exercise
Here you’re pulling resistance towards you. A dumbbell row or lat pulldown are examples. Rows primarily work your back, although your arms help too.
Concentric contraction
This is when a muscle shortens while producing force. Think about the upward part of a biceps curl as the dumbbell comes towards your shoulder.
Eccentric contraction
This is when the muscle lengthens while still under tension. When you slowly lower that dumbbell again, your biceps are working eccentrically.
Isometric contraction
This means your muscles are working but you’re holding a position rather than creating obvious movement. Holding a plank is a great example.
Flexion
Flexion generally means decreasing the angle of a joint — bending your elbow during a biceps curl, for example.
Extension
Extension is the opposite. You’re increasing the angle of the joint — straightening your elbow again.
Abduction
Abduction means moving a body part away from the centre line of your body. Raising your arm out to the side is an example.
Adduction
Adduction means bringing it back towards the centre. A little trick for remembering this is: ADduction = ADD it back in.
Range of motion (ROM)
This describes how far a joint moves during an exercise. You may hear a trainer talking about increasing, decreasing or controlling your range of motion.
Resistance
Resistance is simply what your muscles are working against. It could be your own bodyweight, a resistance band, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells or a gym machine.
Free weights
These are weights that aren’t attached to a machine, such as dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells.
Fixed resistance
This usually means a resistance machine that guides you through a particular movement.
Progressive overload
This sounds very technical, but the idea is beautifully simple: as your body gets stronger, you gradually give it a little more to do. That could mean slightly more weight, another repetition, an extra set or a more challenging version of an exercise.
Hypertrophy
Another impressive-sounding word with a simple meaning: hypertrophy means increasing the size of your muscles.
Muscular strength
This is your muscles’ ability to produce force.
Muscular endurance
This is your muscles’ ability to keep working repeatedly or for a period of time.
Form or technique
This simply describes how you perform an exercise — your body position, alignment and movement.
You don’t need to memorise all of this before you start exercising.
Fitness is a little like learning a new language. At first you hear unfamiliar words everywhere. Then you hear them again. You use them yourself. And gradually they become completely normal.
So don’t be intimidated by fitness terminology. Ask questions. Stay curious. Learn one new word at a time.
Before long, you’ll realise that the language of fitness isn’t nearly as complicated as it first sounded — and understanding it can give you much more confidence about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
