25 Key Fitness Terms Everyone Should Know Before They Step Foot IN THE Gym

1. Active Recovery

This is one of the ways to invest your “rest” day. So instead of lounging on the sofa all day you’ll schedule some kind of low-intensity activity like light walking or soft yoga. The reason why you might like to do this, of nothing instead, is that incorporating gentle movement into these days can help with blood circulation (which can ease pain and reduce muscle exhaustion). https://www.sportsblog.com/seanchang/sean-chang-first-post/ And remember, whether it’s mild activity or complete rest, the body needs time for you to recover-when you work out, you’re wearing down muscle materials, and recovery is when the true magic happens as your muscles rebuild stronger.
2. Aerobic Exercise

“Often we call all cardio ‘aerobic exercise, ’ but aerobic is truly a specific energy system,” points out Lefkowith. “[Energy systems] relate with how your body produces energy to gas your workout routines.” During aerobic exercise, your body uses oxygen for energy, which helps keep you moving for a long period of time, like a long walk, run, or bicycle ride.
3. Anaerobic Exercise

On the other hand, your anaerobic energy system is taxed when you do high-intensity exercises that skyrocket your heart rate. “Anaerobic activities are brief intervals of work used to boost velocity and power,” explains Lefkowith. Of these activities, your muscles break down blood sugar (aka sugars) to use as energy (because air can’t deliver energy to the muscles fast enough).
4. Boot Camp

These classes are rooted in military-style training, so are typically very challenging, and they include a mixture of cardio and strength exercises often. “Boot camp programs are designed to build power and fitness through a number of intense group intervals,” points out Denver-based fitness expert Tara Laferrara. “It often begins with operating, followed by a multitude of period training, including bodyweight goes like push-ups and sit-ups, and various types of extreme explosive exercises.”
5. Circuit

Think of this as a “circular” of exercises. For example, in this bodyweight circuit workout, one circuit contains 5 burpees, 10 push-ups, 15 plank jacks, and 20 leap squats. “You are moving in one exercise right to the next with [minimal] rest among each exercise,” says Laferrara.
6. Compound Exercises

A compound exercise is a move that incorporates multiple muscle groups, like lunges, deadlifts, and squats. It may refer to two moves being strung collectively also, such as a bicep curl to a make press. Compound exercises are efficient for increasing overall muscle mass and burning up calories (because they might need more effort to complete), as opposed to isolation exercises, which concentrate on working just one single muscle group (such as a bicep curl).
7. Cool-Down

This is exactly what you choose to do at the ultimate end of your workout. The goal is to steadily bring your body back again to a resting state by cutting your heart rate and calming your nervous system. That is typically done with lighter actions and passive stretches (ones that are held in place for approximately 10 seconds or more).
8. Cross-Training

Cross-training means mixing in various workouts and training methods than focusing on just one type of workout rather. Not only will this help produce a well-balanced workout plan, but it can benefit you reach specific goals, too. For instance, if you’re getting ready to run a competition, you’ll want to cross-train with yoga exercise and strength workouts, which will complement your running and assist in improving your performance and reduce the chance of injury because they build muscle and increasing versatility. “If you only include one form of training, you might be holding yourself back again from the total results you are worthy of,” says Lefkowith.
9. DOMS

DOMS stands for delayed onset muscle soreness, which is the pain you are feeling the day or two after a hard workout. This is really because when you’re working out you’re harmful muscle fibres (that’s a very important thing!). The muscle then fixes and rebuilds and that’s how you get more powerful. The pain and pain you are feeling from DOMS comes from the chemicals that set off pain receptors through the repair process, Robert Hyldahl, Ph.D., a fitness physiologist at Brigham Young College or university, explained to SELF previously. This pain may last from 24 to 72 hours after your workout. (Here’s how to proceed when DOMS kicks in after a good work out.)
10. Dynamic Warm-Up

This is exactly what you should be doing before exercise to improve your heart rate and body's temperature in preparation for the workout. During this type of warm-up, you moving through stretches and light exercises without stopping (instead of a passive stretches, that are held set up, as if you do in a cool-down). This helps increase range and mobility of motion to get deeper into exercises. Here are five great powerful warm-up exercises to try.
11. Foam Rolling

“Foam rolling is a kind of massage (or result in point release) that can be done to loosen tight muscles to assist in improving your flexibility,” says Lefkowith. Using a foam roller helps erase “knots” in your fascia (the level of connective cells surrounding the muscles), which can get in the real way of your range of motion. This is crucial for executing exercises with right form and making sure the right muscle fibers are firing away. While you can stop, drop, and foam move anytime, it’s often suggested to spend a few momemts with the foam roller before your workout to help get the juices moving.
12. Practical Moves

“This generally identifies exercises that help you move and feel better in every day life,” says Lefkowith. These exercises often imitate the real ways you move outside of the gym-for example, you’d use many of the same muscle groups to perform a squat as you'll to crouch down and connect your shoe.
13. HEARTRATE Zones

Your heart rate refers to how many beats each and every minute (BPM) your heart is pumping, so when it comes to working out, knowing your heart rate can help see whether you’re working at the right intensity. You have your relaxing heart rate, which is how fast your heart is beating when you’re doing nothing (the ultimate way to measure this is to consider your pulse very first thing each day). Generally speaking, this gets lower as you get more fit because your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to generate bloodstream (although if you have a normally low resting heart rate thanks to genetics, it might not get much lower, and that’s totally fine, says Lefkowith). Based on the American Center Association, the average is 60-100 BPM. You have your maximum heartrate also, which is the hardest your heart can work efficiently.


During your workout you have “target” heart rate zones that are expressed as a share of your max heart rate. For low-intensity cardio, you want to aim for 60 to 70 percent of your utmost heartrate, for moderate-intensity cardio the target is 70 to 85 percent, as well as for high-intensity cardio, 85 percent or above. This assists you see if you’re really working as hard as you think you are and change as needed to ensure you’re striking your workout goals. How to calculate your max and focus on heartrate zones here’s.
14. HIIT

HIIT means high-intensity interval training. “This identifies tough quick, extreme bursts of exercise, followed by short recovery periods. This sort of training gets and helps to keep your heart rate up,” points out Laferrara, while also (typically) lowering the overall timeframe you spend training. This workout is ideal for losing fat because the intense intervals help kick-start the process known as surplus post-exercise oxygen usage (AKA the “afterburn impact”), which helps you burn more calorie consumption even after you stop working out as your body has to work harder and take in more oxygen to return to its relaxing state.
15. Interval Training

An interval is a period of activity or a period of rest simply. While this often refers to HIIT workout routines, explains Lefkowith, you can implement intervals in virtually any workout. Maybe that’s 30 seconds of work and 15 secs of rest, or a quarter-hour of work and 2 minutes of rest-it depends upon what you’re doing and what your targets are.
16. Isometrics

“Isometric exercises are where you hold a position under tension and stay static in that position for a established timeframe,” says Lefkowith. Think wall structure sits and planks. “They are a terrific way to build power and balance. And holding a posture that is unpleasant can help build mental power so you may also push harder during your workouts.”
17. Plyometrics

It’s not an exact science, but when you hear the word plyometric, you can go on and think jumping and breathlessness. Good examples would include squat jumps, container jumps, wide jumps, and burpees. Among the primary purposes of the explosive exercises is increasing power, says Laferrera. Having more power means you can recruit effectively muscle fiber faster and more, which pays off when you’re moving heavy objects or working on sprinting drills in the gym, provides Lefkowith. Plus, because these movements up get your heart rate, they’re big calorie-burners. Here are seven plyometric movements you can do at home.
18. Reps

Shorthand for repetitions. Saying 12 repetitions means doing a fitness 12 times.
19. Resistance

Level of resistance means how much weight your muscles will work against to complete a movement. That may mean anywhere from your own bodyweight to a couple of five-pound dumbbells to a 50-pound kettlebell.
20. RPE

This means rate of perceived exertion, and refers to intensity. It’s a spot of research that trainers often use to communicate how hard you should be working since what feels easy or challenging is different for everyone. Around the RPE level a 1 just about means zero work while a 10 means you’re working harder than you thought you possibly could.
21. Sets

A set identifies how many times you repeat a given number of reps. For example, one place might be 12 reps of push-ups-repeating for three sets means you’ll do that three times through.
22. Steady-State Cardio

Steady-state cardio refers to exercise where you try to keep a collection speed at a moderate intensity, just like a long run or bicycle trip. This type of endurance training is particularly beneficial if you’re training for a race or event.
23. Power Training

Weight training means using resistance to work muscle tissue; that can be your bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, sand bags, level of resistance bands, etc. The goal of this type of workout is to increase muscle tissue. https://medium.com/@sterom/how-cellulite-was-invented-946a14d65fac Getting stronger helps improve everyday performance (from sports activities to regular life), prevent accidents, and increase your metabolism. Need a primer on where to start? We’ve got you protected.

24. Super Set

Super setting means pairing two exercises and doing them back-to-back, explains Lefkowith. There are a few ways to do these: You could save time by working two different muscles (like arms and legs) which means you don’t need to rest in between exercises, because one muscle group is recovering as the other is working. Or, you could do two exercises that work the same area to completely fatigue one muscle group. Another option is to pair “force” and “pull” movements-for example, a push-up and a pull-up. “Super units are a good idea if you are short on time but still want to concentrate on building power,” clarifies says Lefkowith. And because you’re doing movements matched together, you’re likely to increase your heart rate, too.
25. Tabata

Tabata is a favorite high-intensity intensive training protocol. It means 20 mere seconds of all-out work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times for four minutes total. It’s known for it’s crazy fat-burning power-here’s why.