General Exercise Terms
Let’s begin with general terminology. 

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): This is the stiffness and pain sometimes felt 24-48 hours after exercise. It is temporary and often dissipates after a day or two.

Exercise prescription: No, not another pill to swallow. It refers to a set of exercises that your trainer, fitness instructor, or medical practitioner recommends for you to follow.

FITT principle: A method often given for exercise prescription, especially with aerobic exercise. It stands for:

F - Frequency: how often you exercise during the week

I - Intensity: how hard you must work

T - Time: how long you work out for one session

T - Type: what specific exercise you are doing (e.g., walking, cycling)

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Flexibility / range of motion: The movement allowed by one’s joints. Often determined by the muscles and tendons associated with that joint. Good flexibility refers to a great amount of movement in the joints and muscles. Flexibility can be improved with regular stretching.

Muscle endurance: The ability of the muscle to perform effort repeatedly over time (e.g., how often you can climb the stairs at the office throughout the day).

Muscle strength: The most weight a muscle can move in a single effort.

Personal trainers / fitness leaders: These are the folks with the knowledge and the know-how. Personal trainers often work one-to-one or in small groups. Fitness leaders refer to those teaching a group or class (e.g., aerobics or step classes).

Many trainers and fitness leaders have excellent qualifications, education and training, but beware that others may not. In Canada, the leading certification body for personal trainers and exercise specialists is the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP). Here in Alberta, fitness leaders are often certified with Alberta Fitness Leadership Certification Association (AFLCA).

Feel free to ask trainers and fitness leaders about their education and certifications. If you wish to learn more about certification, check out the Provincial Fitness Unit of Alberta, which provides the top certifications in the province.

Plateau effect: You have been working out for a while, and for some reason you no longer see improvements. This can be a sign of a couple things.

1. If you work out and train a whole lot (perhaps every day), your body may be too tired and you are experiencing over-training. In this case, you may actually need to slow down and give your body a chance to rest.

2. For most of us, this means your body has adapted to the workout you are doing. You may simply need to add a new challenge (more weight or intensity) or change up your workout (new type of exercises). If you have access to personal trainers, talk to them. They will have insight as to how to overcome this plateau.

Warm-up / cool-down: These are important parts of any workout, and they are often ignored. Warming up does just that; it warms up your body and prepares it for your workout. The cool-down allows your body to slow down, especially your muscles, heart, and pumping blood. It has been suggested that a good warm-up and cool-down can help combat DOMS.

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Types of Exercise
What about all the different types of exercise you hear about?

Aerobic exercise / cardiovascular training: Physical activity or exercise that is done at a low intensity (e.g., walking, jogging, cycling) and can be performed for long period of time (e.g., 20 minutes or more). At this intensity, the body uses primarily the oxygen energy generating system. This is the typical form of exercise most people participate in.

Anaerobic exercise: Exercise done at a high intensity in which the body cannot use oxygen fast enough to keep you going. You typically do not last longer than 90 seconds before your muscles tire out (e.g., sprinting).

Circuit training: A workout routine that combines resistance training with aerobic training. A circuit routine typically consists of 10-15 stations close to one another. The object is to move from station to station with little rest between exercises until the entire circuit has been completed.

Core training: A group exercise designed to strengthen all of your abdominal muscles as well as your back. These abdominal and back muscles are your core.

Concentric contractions: Occur when the muscle is shortening to overcome resistance (e.g., bringing a weight up to your shoulder with a bicep curl, climbing a set of stairs). This is what most people think of as a muscle contraction.

Eccentric contractions: Occur when a muscle is lengthening. It is when the muscle is trying to slow the movement against a resistance (e.g., returning the weight to the starting position or going down a flight of stairs).

Free weights: Weights that are not machines or pulleys. Typically dumbbells and barbells.

Functional fitness: Exercise that mimics real life (e.g., pushing, pulling, lifting and carrying, all movements we do in our day-to-day life). It is often associated with strength training and incorporates the whole body in the exercise rather than isolating one muscle at a time.

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Plyometrics: A type of training designed to produce fast, powerful movements. This training is typically done to help improve performance in sports. Without proper training and instruction, plyometrics can lead to injuries.

Progression: A planned increase on the stress of the muscles or the cardiovascular system during an exercise routine (e.g., lifting heavier weights during strength training or increasing the duration of aerobic training).

Resistance training / strength training / weight training: Exercises that work specific muscles, often in isolation. This is done by having your muscles move against a resistance of some sort (e.g., holding a dumbbell and performing a bicep curl).

Rep / repetition: One complete movement of an exercise through the full range of motion. Often associated with resistance training (e.g., lifting a weight up and down once). When you hear three sets of 10 or see 3x10 written, the last number refers to the number of repetitions that should be performed.

Sets: A collection of repetitions. Often associated with resistance training. A rest between sets is often encouraged. When you hear three sets of 10 or see 3x10 written, the first number refers to the number of sets that should be performed.

Stretching: Movements that increase the ease and amount of movement a joint and associated muscles and tendons can turn, bend or reach. Stretching can help to improve to your flexibility.

Universal weights: Often found in gyms. Machines and pulleys that are attached to weights and used as resistance during strength training.

Weight-bearing exercise: Exercises that use your body weight for resistance (e.g., walking, jogging, stair climbing). Some resistance training exercises are weight-bearing as well.

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Technical Stuff
Let’s try to understand some of the scientific and technical terminology.

Atrophy: This is a decrease in muscle mass. Sometimes referred to as muscle wasting. This can occur simply due to regular inactivity. If you don’t use your muscles, they tend to decrease in mass over time. Atrophy is a huge concern with the elderly. It can also occur with severe diseases like cancer and AIDS.

Hypertrophy: Every man’s dream. This is when muscles cells get bigger. Often, regular strength training can lead to this. The hormone testosterone helps with hypertrophy; therefore it is much easier for men to achieve larger muscles as they have this hormone in abundance.

Heart rate / beats per minute (BPM): How fast your heart contracts. The actual number of times it beats in a minute.

Lactate / lactic acid: These two terms are often used interchangeably, but really they are two different things. Lactic acid breaks down into lactate. Both often get blamed for the fatigue you feel in your muscles or for DOMS. However, this is not the case. Lactic acid is a byproduct of your body’s fuel systems when it operates with low oxygen, such as during high-intensity exercise. Why exactly we feel fatigued is still being worked out by scientists.

Maximum heart rate (HR max): The absolute fastest your heart can beat. Often thought to occur during very high-intensity exercise. Can be predicted by calculating 220 minus your age, though, as with any prediction, this may not be completely accurate. To determine an accurate HR max, a maximal aerobic test must be performed. This test should be done by a certified personal trainer.

Target heart rate zone / training zone: Are often given as ways to set intensities for aerobic workouts. Typically determined as a percentage of your maximum heart rate. The most often recommended zone is 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. So, to figure out your training zone, take your maximum heart rate and multiply it by 0.6 and 0.8. This provides the range your heart rate should be during your workout.

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VO2 max / maximal volume of oxygen: How much oxygen your body can breathe in and use. VO2 is a measurement of aerobic power and a good indicator of aerobic fitness. The higher the value, the higher your aerobic power. VO2 max can be influenced by your age (decreases with age), your gender (women tend to have lower values), and of course your aerobic fitness (the fitter you are, the higher the value).

VO2 max can be expressed in two ways: absolute VO2 max, which is mL of oxygen / minute, and relative VO2 max, which takes into account the size of the person and is expressed as mL of oxygen / kg of body mass / minute.

A direct measure of a person’s VO2 max is done by having a person breathe into a machine that measures oxygen and carbon dioxide while they perform a maximal aerobic exercise test (the intensity increases until the person can’t go any longer). Sounds like fun, right?

Though not as accurate, you can also have your VO2 max predicted. This is done by performing a sub-maximal aerobic exercise test (not high intensity). Whatever your preference, both tests need to be administered by a certified personal trainer.

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Weight and Energy
Here are some commonly used terms having to do with weight and energy.

BMI / Body Mass Index: A measurement often used to indicate obesity. BMI is calculated by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by the square of your height in metres. A BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered healthy. However, determining obesity or weight concerns should never be done with BMI alone. Other measurements need to be taken into account as well.

Body composition: What your body is made of. In the fitness world this is often simplified into fat mass and lean body mass.

Body mass: Fancy term for your weight.

Basal (resting) metabolic rate: Your metabolism: how much energy your body uses to survive.

Energy expenditure: How much energy your body uses throughout the day. This includes your basal metabolic rate along with any activity you do throughout the day.

Fat mass / % body fat: Both of these terms refer to how much of your body is composed of fat. Fat mass is how much of your weight is fat. % body fat is what percentage of your body is fat. It is important to remember our bodies need fat to function and be healthy.

Lean body mass / % of lean body mass: Both of these terms refer to how much of your body is not fat (e.g., muscle, bones, organs, etc.).

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Has the exercise mystery become more clear? As with any health questions or concerns, be sure to ask when you don’t understand terminology. Knowledge is power, and you deserve to know what’s going on when you participate in physical activity.

Learn More

Provincial Fitness Unit of Alberta
Learn more about fitness trainers and their certifications.

Helpful Definitions
There are many more helpful definitions on this webpage by the Public Health Agency of Canada Healthy Living Unit.

Obesity, Physical Activity, and Weight Control Glossary
A glossary of terms from the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Definitions: Health, Fitness, and Physical Activity
This information is provided by the U.S. President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.