15 fitness lingos and their meanings that you need to know

Do you ever get confused about what your fitness trainer is trying to instruct you to do? If you have just started working out, especially in a gym, the people around you might be using abbreviation and lingo you haven’t heard before, leaving you feeling out of place. Here are the meanings of 15 different fitness lingo for the next time you are at the gym with your fitness buddies.

Cardio is simply short for cardiovascular exercise. This kind of exercise is meant to increase your heart rate. It is a rigorous exercise that helps you burn the most amount of fat.

Training your core involves exercises to strengthen the muscle around your waist. These are mostly aiming at giving you the much sought-after six-pack abs. Famous core strengthening exercises include crunches and planks.

AMRAP is an acronym for ‘as many repetitions as possible’. It basically challenges you to complete a certain exercise as many times as possible in a certain amount of time.

Another acronym, DOMS means Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and is indicated to the soreness and discomfort in your muscles. You normally feel this a day after a rigorous workout. The soreness is caused by chemicals released by the body to repair any damage to the muscle.

HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training. Rigorous exercises are performed at maximum intensity. It involves short periods of these intensive exercises with quick periods of rest.

Plyometrics is also known as jump training or plyos. It is a specialized kind of training which includes repeated jumping. It is focused on the extension and contraction of muscles to increase power.

Exercises generally target only a specific muscle group. Cross-training, on the other hand, aim at eliminating this and combines different types of exercises.

It is a kind of high-intensity interval training. You chose a specific movement like squats, thrusters or burpees and start by completing a high intensity set for 20 seconds. After a 10 second rest, do the same ser again. This should continue for 4 minutes.

Circuit is simply a single round of particular exercises. It is a prescribed program which involves doing a number of exercises one after the other.

Muscle confusion is a training concept that fights against the body’s tendency to get bored with the same exercises. It involves a variety of workouts. It is important to try different workouts to prevent your body from becoming habituated.

Every Minute on the Minute is a regime which gives you a minute to complete the designated number of repetitions you need to do.

TRX is also known as Total Resistance Exercises. It can be thought of as a fancy suspension exercise. You need to get yourself a flexible suspension and do stretching and your workout using them.

Pilates helps you stretch and fix your back-pain woes. It is a simple workout that works wonders to correct your posture.

A toned body just means noticeable muscle and shape to your body. After regular exercise, your muscles are in a state of semi contraction which creates the toned, defined shape.

RPE is short for rate of perceived exertion. This is a scale that tells your trainer what amount of exercise is easy or difficult for you. It is used to custom your workout routine for you.