Reps, sets, isometric. Here are all those terms you hear, defined in words you can understand.
Stepping foot into a gym for the first time can seem like you are entering a new world with its own language. Some everyday words even take on specific gym definitions, making matters even more potentially confusing. To spend more time toning your body instead of scratching your noggin, check out these definitions:
Aerobic: Activities that increase your need for oxygen and tend to be long in duration. They utilize the entire cardiovascular system, including the heart and lungs. Such exercise, including riding spinning bikes and running on a treadmill, promotes endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
Anaerobic: Short and intense efforts that rapidly fatigue muscles but don't require much oxygen. Strength training with weights or a short sprint are examples.
Burn: That soreness in your muscles, which is caused by the buildup of lactic acid and small muscle tears.
Circuit training: Half aerobic exercise and half strength training in a workout. You'll lift weights but, unlike lots of weight-lifting routines, you don't do multiple sets of a single exercise. Instead, you move quickly to the next exercise. Usually, a circuit is made up of 6 to 12 exercises.
Crunch: Instead of the traditional bent-knee sit-up, this exercise requires you to raise just your shoulders off the floor; your upper body isn't brought all the way to your knees.
Endurance training: Workouts that build your body fitness by training toward a specific goal within a specific amount of time. An example: running a 5-K in less than 30 minutes.
Failure: When your muscles are worked to the point that you can't complete another exercise.
Free weights: Weights that are loose, not connected to machines. They require greater balance and control to use than machine weights do, because they mimic real-life motions and often work more of the body.
Isometric: When you apply a force to a resistant object. For example, holding a weight in a specific position or pushing against a wall.
Progression: Changing your workout so that you can vary its duration or intensity to produce better results.
Recovery: Taking a break from workouts. Exercise breaks down muscles and makes them weaker; rest helps them heal and become stronger.
Reps: Short for repetitions, or the number of times you do a particular exercise. In most cases, one rep involves moving weights or your body from one position to another, then back to your original position.
Set: A group of reps. Often, one set is 6 to 12 repetitions. You usually perform two to three sets of an exercise.
Spotter: Someone who stands nearby while you're lifting free weights and can help grab the weight, if necessary.
Training zone: A level of exertion at about 70 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate, which is ideal for aerobic exercises.
Weight-stack machines: Those contraptions with metal plates and pulleys. They guide muscles through a range of motions with proper form and control.
