When you are new to the fitness world, you may find that the words used in explanations almost feel like they should have a definition included with them. Don’t worry...that is understandable. The key to being in the fitness world is understanding the terminology as well. Which is why we have included ten words that you are going to hear a lot in the fitness world, and these are words that you need to understand their definition, as well as why they are so important.
Active Recovery
Active recovery is where you are doing something that is meant to help slow you down during a fitness routine, while still going. It is meant to be a low intensity type of exercise that keeps the blood moving, but helps to reduce the fatigue in the muscles later. For example, you may hear of an active recovery day of exercise. This is the day that you still do some sort of workout, but it is not going to be as intense. People may do a session of yoga, walking, tai chi and many other slower exercises that are not going to stress the muscles as much.
Circuit
A circuit in the fitness world refers to the set of exercises that you are doing. There are tons of workouts out there and many of them are classified as a circuit style workout. In this you cycle through several exercises that target different muscle groups with minimal rest in between these exercises to complete the circuit.
DOMS
DOMS stands for delayed-onset muscle soreness. This is the muscle pain that begins after you have worked out, usually a day or two after the workout. If you have ever felt like every muscle in your body is aching a few days after a workout, then this is DOMS.
High Impact
High impact refers to those exercises that are considered “high impact”. In other words, these high impact exercises are going to place a great deal of stress onto the body, namely the joints throughout the body. These are exercises that are going to a great workout, but they do put you a higher risk of injury.
Isometrics
Isometrics are exercises that are still a form of strength training that are not going to be impacting the body as much. These are often given as the exercise to do for those who have experienced injuries so that the area is not as weak but there is no chance of more damage happening.
Lactic Acid
This is an organic acid that is present in the muscle tissue as a result of exercising, most often during intense strength training exercises. If you are lifting and start to feel the burning in your muscles, this is lactic acid building up in the muscles due to the exercise.
Plyometrics
Plymoetrics is a high impact activity that is going to take these exercises to a whole new level. You are just not jumping rope, but you may be doing exercises that involve jumping, bounding and pushing to maximize the stretch reflex of the muscles.
Sets
Sets are what you are going to hear when it comes to how many times you do an exercise. For example, you may have to do three sets of 10 reps to get the desired effect. This means that each set is made up of 10 of these exercise repetitions.
Tabata
This is a high-intensity interval training that many people do. This exercise consists of 8 rounds of exercises that are 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off intervals to keep the blood pumping.
Target Heart Rate
Your target heart rate is the area in which you are being safe while working out. For the most part, people try to keep at 50 to 70% of their maximum heart rate to avoid any injury to their heart with this exercise.
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