Fitness glossary

Plain definitions of the training and nutrition terms you see in the gym and in Pensum.

1RM: One-rep max. The most weight you can lift for one clean repetition.
Active recovery: Light movement such as walking or easy cycling on a rest day to help you feel fresh for the next session.
Activity multiplier: The number you multiply BMR by to estimate TDEE, from about 1.2 for desk work to 1.9 for very hard training.
Aerobic exercise: Steady effort that your body fuels mainly with oxygen, like jogging, swimming or cycling.
AMRAP: As many reps as possible. A set taken to the last good rep.
Anaerobic exercise: Short, intense effort such as sprinting or heavy lifting that your body cannot fuel with oxygen alone.
Barbell: A long bar loaded with weight plates at each end, used for lifts like the squat, bench press and deadlift.
Bench press: A lift where you lie on a bench and press a barbell or dumbbells up from the chest.
BMI: Body mass index. Weight in kg divided by height in metres squared. It cannot tell muscle from fat.
BMR: Basal metabolic rate. The calories your body burns at complete rest.
Body composition: How much of your body is fat and how much is lean tissue such as muscle, bone and water.
Body fat percentage: The share of your total body weight that is fat.
Bulking: A period of eating in a calorie surplus and training hard to gain muscle.
Cadence: Steps per minute when running, or pedal turns per minute when cycling.
Calorie: A unit of energy. On food labels one calorie means one kilocalorie (kcal).
Calorie deficit: Eating fewer calories than you burn. About 7,700 kcal equals 1 kg of body fat.
Calorie surplus: Eating more calories than you burn, used to gain weight and build muscle.
Carbohydrates: A nutrient found in grains, fruit, starchy vegetables and sugar. It has 4 kcal per gram and is the body’s main fuel for hard effort.
Cardio: Short for cardiovascular exercise. Any activity that raises your heart rate for a sustained time.
Cheat meal: A planned meal outside your usual eating plan. Treat it as one meal, not a reset.
Circuit training: A set of exercises done one after another with little rest, then repeated.
Compound exercise: A movement that works several joints and muscle groups at once, like a squat or a deadlift.
Concentric: The lifting part of a rep, when the muscle shortens.
Cool-down: Easy movement at the end of a session that lets your heart rate come down gradually.
Core: The muscles around your trunk, including the abs, obliques and lower back.
Cross-training: Using a different type of exercise, such as cycling for a runner, to build fitness with less repeated strain.
Cutting: A period of eating in a calorie deficit while keeping training hard, to lose fat and keep muscle.
Deadlift: A lift where you pull a loaded barbell from the floor until you stand tall.
Deload: A planned lighter week that lets the body recover before training hard again.
DOMS: Delayed onset muscle soreness. The ache that appears a day or two after unfamiliar or hard training.
Drop set: A set continued straight away at a lighter weight once you reach failure.
Dumbbell: A short weight held in one hand, sold in pairs.
Dynamic stretching: Moving a joint through its full range with control, often used in a warm-up.
Eccentric: The lowering part of a rep, when the muscle lengthens under load.
EMOM: Every minute on the minute. You start a task at the top of each minute and rest for what is left of it.
Estimated 1RM: A calculated one-rep max from a lighter set, for example with the Epley formula: weight × (1 + reps ÷ 30).
Failure: The point in a set where you cannot complete another rep with good form.
Fartlek: Swedish for speed play. A run where you mix faster and slower stretches without a fixed structure.
Fibre: The part of plant foods your body cannot fully digest. It supports digestion and helps you feel full.
Flexibility: The range of motion available at a joint.
Form: The way you perform an exercise. Good form means the right muscles do the work and the joints stay safe.
Frequency: How often you train a muscle group or do a type of session, usually per week.
Full body workout: A session that trains all the major muscle groups, usually done two to three times a week.
Glycaemic index: A scale that ranks carbohydrate foods by how fast they raise blood sugar.
Glycogen: The form in which your muscles and liver store carbohydrate for energy.
Goblet squat: A squat holding one dumbbell or kettlebell against the chest. A good way to learn the squat pattern.
Habit streak: The number of days in a row you have done something, such as logging food or training.
Heart rate: The number of times your heart beats per minute (bpm).
Heart-rate reserve: Your maximum heart rate minus your resting heart rate. Used to set training zones.
Heart-rate zones: Bands of effort set by heart rate, from easy (zone 1) to maximal (zone 5).
HIIT: High-intensity interval training. Short hard efforts alternated with rest or easy periods.
Hip thrust: A lift where your upper back rests on a bench and you drive a weight up with your hips. It trains the glutes.
Hydration: Having enough water in the body. Needs rise with heat, sweat and long sessions.
Hypertrophy: Muscle growth. Usually trained with moderate weights for 6 to 15 reps.
Intensity: How hard an effort is. In lifting it is often the weight as a share of your 1RM.
Interval training: Alternating harder efforts with easier recovery periods.
Isolation exercise: A movement that works one joint and mainly one muscle, like a biceps curl.
Isometric: A hold where the muscle works but the joint does not move, like a plank.
Kettlebell: A cast weight with a handle, used for swings, goblet squats and carries.
Kilocalorie: The unit used for food energy. 1 kcal is 4.184 kilojoules.
Kilojoule: The metric unit of energy. 1 kJ is about 0.239 kcal.
Lactate threshold: The effort level above which lactate builds up faster than your body clears it. Higher means you can hold a faster pace for longer.
Lean body mass: Everything in your body that is not fat: muscle, bone, organs and water.
Long run: The longest run of your training week, done at an easy pace to build endurance.
Macros: Macronutrients: protein, carbohydrate and fat. Protein and carbs have 4 kcal per gram, fat 9.
Maintenance calories: The calories you eat to keep your weight steady. About the same as your TDEE.
Max heart rate: The highest heart rate you can reach during all-out effort. Often estimated as 220 minus your age, which is only a rough guide.
MET: Metabolic equivalent of task. A measure of effort: 1 MET is resting, and a brisk walk is about 3 to 4.
Micronutrients: Vitamins and minerals. You need them in small amounts and they carry no calories.
Mifflin-St Jeor: A widely used equation for estimating BMR from weight, height, age and sex.
Mobility: The ability to move a joint actively through a full range of motion with control.
Muscle memory: The way muscles regain size and strength faster after a break than they took to build the first time.
Negative rep: The lowering phase of a lift, also called the eccentric. Slow negatives are a way to add difficulty.
Negative split: Running the second half of a race faster than the first.
One-arm row: A back exercise where you pull a dumbbell towards your hip with one arm at a time.
One-rep max test: A session where you work up to the heaviest single you can lift safely. Many people estimate it from a lighter set instead.
Overtraining: Training more than you can recover from, leading to lasting tiredness and poorer performance.
Pace: Time per kilometre or per mile. Lower is faster.
Periodization: Planning training in phases of changing volume and intensity over weeks or months.
Plank: An isometric hold on forearms and toes with a straight body line. It trains the core.
Plateau: A stretch where your results stop improving despite steady training.
Plyometrics: Explosive jumping exercises such as box jumps that train power.
PR: Personal record. Your best ever result on a lift or a distance.
Progressive overload: Doing a little more over time: more weight, more reps or more sets.
Protein: A nutrient made of amino acids that your body uses to build and repair tissue. It has 4 kcal per gram.
Pull-up: A bodyweight exercise where you hang from a bar and pull until your chin is over it.
Push-up: A bodyweight exercise where you lower and press your body from the floor with your hands under your shoulders.
Pyramid set: A scheme where weight rises and reps fall across sets, or the other way round.
Range of motion: The full distance a joint moves during an exercise.
Recomposition: Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, often without much change on the scale.
Recovery: The time and habits, like sleep and food, that let your body adapt to training.
Repetition: One full movement of an exercise from start to finish. Also called a rep.
Rest interval: The time you rest between sets.
Resting heart rate: Your heart rate when you are calm and still, best measured on waking. A lower number often goes with better fitness.
RIR: Reps in reserve. How many more reps you could have done when you stopped the set.
Romanian deadlift: A deadlift variation with soft knees where you hinge at the hips to lower the bar down the legs. It trains the hamstrings and glutes.
RPE: Rate of perceived exertion. How hard a set felt, from 1 to 10.
RPM: Revolutions per minute. On a bike, how fast the pedals turn.
Saturated fat: A type of fat found mostly in animal foods and some oils. It has 9 kcal per gram.
Set: A group of repetitions done without stopping to rest.
Skeletal muscle: The muscle you train and control, attached to bones by tendons.
Sodium: A mineral in salt. You lose it in sweat and need some every day.
Specificity: The principle that you get better at what you practise. To run faster, run.
Split: A way of dividing training across the week, for example push, pull and legs.
Split time: The time of one segment of a run, usually each kilometre or mile.
Spotter: A partner who stands ready to help you with a heavy lift if you cannot finish a rep.
Squat: A lift where you bend the hips and knees to lower your body, then stand back up.
Static stretching: Holding a stretch in place for a period of time, usually after training.
Steady state: Cardio done at a constant, comfortable effort for a long period.
Strength training: Exercise that uses resistance, such as weights or your body, to build muscle and strength.
Stride length: The distance covered in one step when running.
Superset: Two exercises done back to back with no rest between them.
Taper: Cutting back training in the days before a race or test so you arrive fresh.
TDEE: Total daily energy expenditure. Every calorie you burn in a day, including exercise.
Tempo: The speed of each phase of a rep, for example 3 seconds lowering, 1 second pause, 1 second lifting.
Tempo run: A sustained run at a comfortably hard pace, often about the pace you could hold for an hour.
Thermic effect of food: The calories your body uses to digest and process food, roughly 10 percent of what you eat.
Time under tension: How long a muscle works during a set.
Training volume: Sets × reps × weight. The total work you did.
Trans fat: A type of fat, mostly from processed foods, that raises heart-disease risk. Keep it as low as possible.
Unilateral training: Working one side of the body at a time, such as a single-leg squat.
Unsaturated fat: Fats from plants, nuts, seeds and fish. Generally better for the heart than saturated fat.
VO2 max: The most oxygen your body can use during hard exercise. A marker of aerobic fitness.
Warm-up: Light movement and lighter sets before the main work to raise body temperature and prepare the joints.
Weight plate: A flat disc added to a barbell or a machine to increase the load.
Zone 2: Easy, steady cardio at an effort where you can still hold a conversation. It builds the aerobic base.