Learn the Fitness Lingo

Once you become immersed in a subject it is good to become acquainted with the terminology of that subject and fitness is no different. There are common fitness terms that you are used to hearing over and over, but there may be some that you weren't too sure of their meanings. Below is just a quick rundown of some of the fitness terms you may or may not be familiar with:

• Cardio: Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any exercise that raises your heart rate and keeps it elevated for a period of time. Another name for it is aerobic exercise. Examples of cardio exercise include running, brisk walking and swimming.

• Resistance Training: Exercises that increase muscle strength and endurance by forcing the body against an external resistance. The external resistance can be dumbbells, resistance bands, your own body weight, bottles of water, or any other object that causes the muscles to contract. It is also known as strength or weight training.

• Cross Training: Cross training is the use of more than one type of exercise to achieve your training goals. It takes advantage of the particular effectiveness of each training method, while at the same time attempting to neglect the shortcomings of that method by combining it with other methods that address its weaknesses. For example, a long distance runner may do cycling as a cross training exercise. Cross-training is an easy way to add variety to your exercise program.

• Circuit Training: Circuit training is a combination of high-intensity aerobics and resistance training designed to be easy to follow and target fat loss, muscle building and heart-lung fitness. The circuit training format utilizes a group of 6-10 strength exercises that are completed one exercise after another with little to no rest in between. An exercise "circuit" is one completion of all prescribed exercises in the program. Each circuit is usually separated by a longer rest period.

• Progressive resistance exercise: Progressive resistance exercise is exercise whereby load or resistance is applied to a muscle and is increased over time. For example, increasing the number of weights and the number of sets. This is done for strengthening.

• Interval Training: Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high intensity activity with periods of rest or low activity (the intervals in interval training). The term can refer to any cardiovascular workout (e.g. cycling, running, swimming, etc.) that involves brief bouts at near-maximum exertion interspersed with periods of lower-intensity activity. For example, start out by walking briskly and adding one minute bursts of jogging or running before returning to brisk walking. This method of training may be more effective at inducing fat loss than simply training at a moderate intensity level for the same duration.

• Warm-up: A warm-up is a combination of rhythmic exercise - performed before the exercise routine - which begins to raise the heart rate, muscle temperature and blood flow to the working muscle which results in decreased muscle stiffness, less risk of injury and improved performance. For example, before running or playing an intense sport one might slowly jog to warm muscles and increase heart rate.

• Cool down: Cool down is done after an exercise session, that allows the body to gradually transition from an exertional state to a resting or near resting state. Depending on the intensity of the exercise, cooling down can involve a slow jog or walk, or with lower intensities, stretching can be used. Cooling down helps remove lactic acid which can cause cramps and stiffness and allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate.

• Body mass index (BMI): A number calculated using a person's height and mass, which gives an indication of total body fat content. Though it does not actually measure the percentage of body fat, it is used to estimate a healthy body weight based on a person's height. Due to its ease of measurement and calculation, it is the most widely used diagnostic tool to identify weight problems within a population, usually whether individuals are underweight, overweight or obese. BMI is defined as the individual's body weight in kg divided by the square of his or her height in meters.

• Basal metabolic rate (BMR): BMR is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed asleep all day. In other words, it is the rate at which your body consumes calories when at rest. It is measured after a full night's sleep in a laboratory under optimal conditions of quiet, rest and relaxation.

• Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max): VO2 max is a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen that an athlete can use. It is one factor that is linked to aerobic endurance and can determine an athlete's capacity to perform sustained exercise. It is measured in milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min). As you increase your effort when you exercise, the amount of oxygen you consume to produce energy increases. However, there is a maximum level of oxygen consumption, beyond which increases in exercise intensity don't lead to further increases in oxygen consumption. This level of oxygen consumption is called the VO2 max.

• Resting heart rate (HRrest): The number of heart beats in one minute (bpm) when a person is at complete rest. A person's HRrest decreases as they become more fit.

• Maximum Heart Rate (MHR): Maximum Heart Rate is the highest number of times your heart can contract in one minute. Finding your maximum heart rate gives you an idea of where your aerobic threshold is for a particular sport. The most accurate way of determining your individual maximum heart rate is to have it clinically tested (usually by treadmill stress testing) by a cardiologist or exercise physiologist. The easy way to estimate your MHR is to subtract your age from 220, but this will give only an estimate.

• Target heart rate (THR): The Target Heart Rate, or Training Heart Rate, is a desired range of heart rate reached during aerobic exercise which enables one's heart and lungs to receive the most benefit from a workout. This theoretical range varies based on one's age, gender and physical condition. Experts generally recommend that your target heart rate should range between approximately 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. While exercising, you can use a heart rate monitor to keep track of your heart rate per minute, and see how it changes during exercise. You can aim at maintaining a target heart rate during a workout, and increase it over time.

• Fat-free mass: The combined mass of the body of everything that is not fat.

• Lactate threshold (LT): Lactate threshold is the point during increasingly intensive exercise at which lactate starts to accumulate in the blood stream. Lactate is a by-product of anaerobic metabolism that is produced across all exercise intensities. During light and moderate-intensity exercise, the body is able to absorb lactate faster than the muscle cells are producing it. However, as exercise intensity increases, there comes a point at which lactate removal fails to keep up with the rate of lactate production. This point is sometimes referred to as the anaerobic threshold (AT). The lactate threshold is a useful measure for deciding exercise intensity for training and racing in endurance sports (e.g. long distance running, cycling and swimming), and can be increased greatly with training.

• Core strength: Core strength is a multi-joint exercise, involving larger muscle groups such as the chest, back, hip/thigh, and shoulder muscles. Core exercises should receive priority because of their direct application to a sport.

• Repetitions (commonly called "reps"): It is the number of times one repeats a movement. For example, if you lift a weight with your arm 10 times, you have performed 10 repetitions.

• Set(s): Set refers to a group of repetitions of a particular resistance exercise. For example, if you lift a weight 10 times, rest, and lift the weight 10 times again, you have performed "two sets" of 10 repetitions each.

• Straight Sets: A group of repetitions (sets) interrupted by brief rest of 30-90 seconds.

These are just a few of the most basic terms you would encounter. Becoming aware of these fitness terms makes it a lot easier when you are trying to follow along with a program or are attempting to explain to someone else what you are doing.