One-rep-max. Anaerobic threshold. Max heart rate.
Terms like these ricochet around the gym from one lifter to another. At the same time, two girls on the Stairmaster chat comfortably about a high-impact class they attended the day before. But what does it really mean?
The gym has a lingo all its own. It can be intimidating to walk into a gym if you don't quite know what the people there are talking about. So here is a crash course in gym-speak. If you have been avoiding the gym because the terminology is scary, hopefully this will help ease your fears.
Heart rate is just a measure of the number of beats of your heart per minute. It's that simple. Your heart rate should increase during vigorous exercise and then decrease once you stop exercising.
Your “max heart rate” is 220 minus your age -- and it's important to remember that working at this level can be dangerous.
Range of motion is defined by the ACE Fitness Instructor Manual as “the number of degrees that an articulation will allow one of its segments to move.” In short, it is how far you can move around a joint.
All properly functioning joints have a limited ability to move. Check out your knee -- its range of motion is 0 degrees to 180 degrees. Anything wider than 180 degrees is not within a safe range of motion.
Weight-bearing exercise, contrary to what many people think, actually has very little to do with heavy bars and plates. Instead, it includes any activity that requires your skeleton to bear the weight of your body. Good examples would be running and walking.
Interval training is a term that was used in the ÃQ80s and is back in vogue. Interval training is short, high-intensity exercise periods alternated with periods of recovery. An example is a 100-yard run followed by a one-minute walk, repeated eight times.
Low-impact and low-intensity are two terms that are often confused. A class that is considered “low-impact” would include movements in which only one of your feet leaves the ground at a time and your entire body weight never impacts with the ground.
Conversely, “high-impact” exercise means that both feet can leave the ground at the same time and your entire body weight impacts with the floor, as with jumping jacks.
Intensity is different. If you are a beginner, you should go to a “low-intensity” class. The class can consist of jumping and hopping, but the movements are still less intense and designed for a less-trained individual.
A low-impact class, on the other hand, may be very intense -- it just does not include any jumping. An exerciser who doesn't know the difference could easily get fooled into going to the wrong class.
Pronate and supinate are two more terms that people seem to confuse easily. When your feet tend outward and you wear out the outside heel of your shoe before the rest of it, you are supinating. When your feet tend inward, pushing your ankles closer together, and you wear out the inside of your shoe-bottom first, you are pronating. Neither condition is a reason to avoid the gym.
Cross-training is a term that means doing a bunch of different types of exercises instead of always doing the same thing. If you run Monday, do aerobics Tuesday, lift weights Wednesday and power walk Thursday, you are cross-training. This helps to lower your risk of injury and decreases the potential for exercise burnout.
Your core is another term for the support system in and around your torso. Why is this so important? Think of it this way: The body is a chain, and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You can have a strong upper body and a strong lower body, but if you have a weak middle, then you are not training optimally.
Always include exercises that train your torso, abdominal muscles and low back. That is your core.
Don't let any of these terms scare you, and certainly don't let workout lingo keep you from going to the gym. Put on your UnderArmour gear and your Nike sneakers, head over to the gym, and start exercising your new vocabulary.
