Fitness & Health Glossary

Health & Fitness

If you’re thinking of attending a gym for the first time or have already made the effort and started attending you will probably have come away confused with the gym terminology used for your muscles and the different methods of training. Fear not here are some of the most commonly used terms in the gym explained in easy form:

• Abdominal muscles – These are more commonly referred to as a “six pack” especially when they are well toned, they are the six muscles which are grouped in pairs and run down your stomach from the mid region to your navel.
• Aerobic training – This is a particular strenuous exercise routine which requires plenty of oxygen, it is particularly helpful for strengthening the heart and lungs through using your bodies muscles to increase the heart rate.
• Anaerobic training – This form of training requires very little oxygen and a common form of this type of this exercise is sprinting.
• Agility – the ability to be able to move the limbs very quickly and easily, an example of an agile person is a gymnast.
• Cardiovascular training – many forms of exercise work particularly on the cardiovascular system, any form of exercise that strengthens the blood vessels and heart is called a cardiovascular workout. Examples of this are running, aerobics and cycling.
• Cool down – this is a from of light exercise which you do at the end of your workout to allow your body to gradually slow down.
• Lactic acid – this is produced in muscles during an anaerobic workout, if the lactic acid builds up too much then it will slow the body down.
• Pectoral muscles – these muscles are more commonly known as “pecs”, they are the muscles in your chest which help to push your arms forward.
• Repetitions – these are for example if you are doing sit-ups then 10 sit ups would be 10 reps.
• Sets – these are a fixed number of reps, for example when asked to do 2 sets of sit-ups then you would do 2 x 10 sit-ups if 10 was the amount of reps you do.
• Trapezius muscles – these are the largest muscles in the back and neck.
• Vo2 max – this is based on the amount of oxygen that a person can use in a work out of one minute, the higher the vo2 max rating the more efficient the body will be when performing regimes.
• Warm up – time should always be taken beforehand to prepare your body for a workout, this usually consist of bending and stretching exercises to loosen up your muscles and also to get blood flowing through them.