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Fitness Terminology | 10 Popular Fitness Terms
Defined
Provided by American Council on Exercise
Fitness Terminology: 10 Popular
Fitness Terms Defined
Every
subculture has its own terminology for describing its way of life. The health
and fitness subculture is no different. A few years ago, complaining about the
HIIT in your WOD at your local box would have only made sense to extreme
fitness enthusiasts. Thanks to the explosive popularity of CrossFit and other
high-intensity training programs, we now know that HIIT refers to
high-intensity interval training and WOD is an acronym for the unique Workout
of the Day offered at CrossFit training facilities (commonly called a
‘box’).
Whether
you’re new to the fitness scene or have been working out in health clubs for
years, you’ve probably heard certain fitness terminology thrown around. Here
are 10 commonly used fitness terms along with a brief explanation of the
science behind each one.
Burning
When
it comes to exercise, burning is often used to refer to the feeling of when
muscles experience an accumulation of metabolic waste, which creates fatigue.
Acidosis is a change in blood acidity—specifically, elevated levels of lactic
acid and hydrogen ions—that is often the result of moderate- to high-intensity
exercise. A burning sensation in a muscle is an indication of acidosis. It’s
also a sign that it is time for a recovery period to allow the body to remove
metabolic waste from the working muscles and replenish the nutrients required
to continue performing muscle contractions.
Cardio
Cardio
is short for cardiorespiratory or cardiovascular exercise and refers to
exercise that elevates the heart rate to pump oxygen and nutrient-carrying
blood to the working muscles. Most often used for exercise performed on
equipment like treadmills, elliptical runners or stationary bikes, it is
important to know that ANY exercise that elevates the heart rate can provide
cardiorespiratory benefits. Circuit training with free-weights or performing an
AMRAP (as many rounds of a particular circuit as possible in a given amount of
time) can be considered cardiorespiratory exercise.
Core
Training
This
has become one of the most popular and overused fitness terms of the past
several years. It seems as if almost any fitness class, workout program or
equipment will provide “core training” benefits. The “core” most often refers
to the muscles that make up the mid-section of the body, including the
ever-elusive six-pack. However, it is much more effective to think of the
body’s core as the center of gravity and not an actual group of muscles. When
we look at how the body functions during upright movement patterns such as
walking, lifting an object off of the ground or moving an object from one place
to another, we have to consider the fact that any muscle that attaches to the
spine, rib cage or pelvis influences movement around the body’s center of
gravity.
High-intensity
Interval Training (HIIT)
We
have written previous blogs about the benefits of HIIT here and here. This term makes the
list because it is often used to refer to exercise performed at maximal
intensity. However, it’s important to remember that intensity can be
subjective—what may be low intensity for some may be high intensity for others.
For
individuals with a history of being sedentary or who have been dealing with
chronic medical conditions that limit their ability to exercise, simply walking
continuously for a few minutes at a time could be considered “high intensity.”
Metabolic
Conditioning
Similar
to HIIT, metabolic conditioning is often used to refer to high-intensity
exercise performed to the point of being out of breath or experiencing muscle
soreness. Here is why this overused term ought to be retired from the lexicon:
Metabolism is the chemical process by which a biological organism produces
energy for muscular contraction. That means that any exercise requiring a
muscle contraction (which in itself requires energy) is a form of metabolic
conditioning. Standing from your chair after reading this post requires your
metabolism to fuel your muscles. Therefore, it is more appropriate to describe
the level of effort required to perform the planned activity, such as
low-intensity, moderate-intensity, high-intensity or
maximal intensity.
Mind-body
This
term is commonly used to describe a general mode of exercise such as yoga or
Pilates, because they are traditionally performed with bodyweight (with the
exception of Pilates programs involving equipment such
as a reformer or barrel) and require concentration to execute challenging
movement sequences. However, any purposeful movement, whether it’s a biceps
curl or downward facing dog, requires conscious effort. Therefore, almost any
physical activity that involves learning and executing movement patterns, no
matter how basic, requires cognitive focus and should technically be classified
as mind-body.
Muscle
Confusion
A
popular consumer-oriented fitness program claims to be based on the science of
“muscle confusion.” This is simply a marketing term created to describe the
physiological effect of periodization, which is a method of organizing exercise
programs based on alternating periods of intensity. The concept of
periodization was developed by Soviet Union sport scientists who recognized
that periods of high-intensity exercise (high stress) should be followed by a
period of low-intensity exercise (low stress) to let the body to fully recover
from the workouts and allow the time for the physiological adaptations to
occur.
Plyometrics
Many
programs or fitness classes refer to using plyos,
which is short for plyometrics. Looking at the
etiology of the word, ‘plyo’ (from pleio) is a pre-fix for “more” and metric refers to length;
therefore, plyometric means “more length.” This describes the physiological affect of the involved muscles during jump training (the
most common application for the lower body) or explosive movements such as
medicine ball throws (often used for upper-body plyometric training).
Plyometric
training was developed by Soviet sport scientists who originally referred to it
as “shock training” because of the high forces experienced by the involved
tissue. That’s why it’s important to perform only a few repetitions at a time
to achieve the highest level of force output possible. Any program requiring
participants to perform more than five or six rapid movements (i.e., jumps or
explosive lifts) in a row can significantly increase the risk of injury by
placing too much force on the involved tissue.
Tabata
A
number of exercise programs and classes are called Tabata,
which is an actual person. Twenty years ago, Dr. Izumi Tabata,
an exercise scientist from Japan, and his colleagues conducted research on ways
to improve aerobic capacity using short intervals of extremely high-intensity exercise.
They found that exercising at 170% of aerobic capacity on cycle ergometers for
a work interval of 20 seconds followed by a brief recovery interval of only 10
seconds, repeated to exhaustion, was extremely effective at boosting aerobic
capacity. Since publishing the study in 1997, Dr. Tabata’s
name has been used to refer to a protocol of high-intensity interval training
featuring 20-second work intervals followed by 10-second recovery intervals for
eight cycles (a total of four minutes).
Toning
If
you ask most people what their general fitness goals, the answer often is to
“tone up and get in shape.” We have come to accept the term “tone” to mean
muscular definition, or the appearance of a well-defined muscle. The term is
actually short for tonus, which
is the technical term used to describe a state of contraction in a normally
functioning muscle. Using a muscle repeatedly during a strength training
exercise will leave that muscle in a state of semi-contraction, creating the
defined appearance we have come to expect as the result of exercise.
AUTHOR
Pete McCall
Pete
McCall, MS, CSCS, is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and long-time player in
the fitness industry. He has been featured as an expert in the Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Runner's World and Self. He holds a master's
degree in exercise science and health promotion, and several advanced
certifications and specializations with NSCA and NASM.