As the name “Ready Steady Strong” suggests, I started this blog with the aim of making strength training more accessible. This blog is usually aimed at people in the first 1-3 years (ish) of their lifting career, but I’m ashamed to say I never took the time to discuss the most common gym terms.
After over a decade in the gym it’s easy to forget that people who train regularly have their own gym language. Don’t be daunted if you don’t know all the lingo yet though – you’ll come to understand these gym terms in no time.
Reps/Reptitions
One unit of work of a particular exercise, where you move from point A to point B, and back to A again, completing the full “journey” of the exercise. Many exercises are measured by the number of reps you can do with a given resistance.
Sets
One bout of work. Each set is usually measured in reps or duration. Each set is separated by periods of rest.
Supersets
A group of exercises performed together with minimal rest between sets (for example a bicep exercise followed straight away by a triceps exercise). People use different terms based on how many exercises are grouped together, for example tri-sets (3 exercises) and giant sets (4+) but the principle is the same.
Read more: The Best Supersets For Your Workout Type.
Circuit
A series of exercises grouped together that may include short breaks between each. Similar to a superset, but on a larger scale. Circuits often have a more whole-body/cardiovascular intent than supersets.
Range of Motion/ROM/Range
One of the most important gym terms! Range of motion is how far you travel on a given exercise. This is usually assessed by how the angle of a given joint changes, and how this lengthens the key muscles being trained. The aim is for all reps in a set to have a consistent ROM, provided that range comes from the appropriate joint. For example, rounding your back on a squat may appear to make you squat lower (through a larger range of motion), but the leg muscles will not be working through a bigger range of motion when this happens.
Failure
Not as negative as it sounds! Failure simply means the muscle we’re working is too fatigued to complete the exercise to the standard we have set so far. This doesn’t always mean the weight isn’t moving – it could also mean the technique has become dangerous, less effective, or the range of motion has been reduced compared to previous reps.
Sometimes we use failure as a reference point to determine difficulty – a common aim is to stay approximately 2 reps away from failure. That’s because going to failure is highly fatiguing and can diminish performance on other sets/exercises.
Intensity
A way of measuring difficulty. In strength training this usually means the weight you’re lifting, and may be represented as a percentage of your maximum. It can also refer to heart rates (cardio) or subjective rating of effort, or your intent to produce maximum speed/power (explosive work). It can also be measured by our distance from failure, as mentioned above.
Volume
A collective term for the amount of work you do. Used to describe your sets and/or reps. May refer to the total work in a session or over a week. Can be used to track how your training demands change over time, especially in strength or hypertrophy training.
Personal Best (PB)/Personal Record (PR)
The maximum intensity you have achieved on a given lift, for a given number of reps. In strength training terms, this will often be a one-rep maximum, although many feel it is risky to lift at this intensity and may use 3 or 5 reps to assess their maximum instead.
That’s enough for part one! If you’d like a part 2, let me know on social media (bottom of the page) and sign up to the newsletter to stay up to date!