Fitness dictionary/terms glossary

Dictionary and breakdown of terms commonly used in the fitness  nutrition industry:

Macros: Macronutrients are what food is comprised of. Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates in a nutshell are macronutrients.

IIFYM: “If it fits your macros”: This is a method of tracking nutrition that allows flexible dieting and foods that in most cases would not be considered “diet” foods. This works due to looking at the nutrition content opposed to what the food may be perceived as from what it is. If it’s aligned with your nutrient numbers, it’s in!

Drop Sets: A drop set is defined as a set that you complete after your final range of motion on the initial set where you strip down the weight and complete a higher qty of repetitions with the lighter weight. Usually done until failure. 

Spotting: Helping an individual with a movement or exercise in the gym, usually used for safety reasons. 

Reps: The amount of movements (repetitions) in a particular set of exercises.

Sets: The group of consecutive repetitions (reps) in an exercise.

RPE: Range of perceived exertion. 0-10 scale of intensity on an exercise.

Superset: When you quickly move from one exercise to another without rest in-between the two. Usually similar muscle groups but not always.

Maxing out: The act of completing a one-rep or low rep max of the amount of weight that your body can handle.

Circuit training: High intensity training with a variety of movements with very short rest in-between.

Compound Exercises/movements:Any exercise that uses 2 or more different muscle groups and joints for stimulation. 

Cool-Down: Term used to represent gradually lowering heart rate and 

DOMS: Delayed onset muscle soreness which is pain and stiffness feeling in the muscle that lasts after strenuous exercise. 

HIIT: High intensity interval training. A form of training that alternates strength training along with cardiovascular training. 

Isometrics: Exercise that strengthens specific muscles by using a muscle in a motionless act. Usually pitting one muscle against an immovable object.

Progressive Load Training: The act of training while gradually increasing your weight load and lowering repetitions with each load increase.