Gym Lingo: 90+ Fitness Slang Terms and Their Meaning
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It is natural to feel intimidated when you first step into the realm of gym training. Complex gym terminologies are one thing that may frighten novices or even intermediate lifters.

There’s nothing wrong with not understanding all the gym jargon when you’re first getting started. Remember that every pro bodybuilder started as a beginner.

However, learning what those gym jargon terms mean will help you work out with more expertise and confidence.

And we will assist you in learning them!

This post will introduce you to 93 different gym terms in alphabetical order. Examine our selection of gym terms to find out what they imply!

90+ Gym Slang ExpressionsGym Lingo: 90+ Fitness Slang Terms and Their Meaning

Here are 90+ gym lingo terms you should know if you plan on going to the gym regularly:

The 1RM, or One Repetition Maximum, is the most weight you can lift in a single repetition.

AMRAP

AMRAP is an abbreviation for As Many Reps as Possible. It is a term used by fitness professionals at the gym.

AMRAP is executing the highest number of reps you can for that particular exercise with little or no rest in between.

Anabolic

When your body is in an anabolic condition, it is gaining muscular mass.

Barbell

A barbell is a long steel rod with weighted plates at each end. Barbells are utilized for a wide range of exercises that target nearly every muscle group in your body.

Bench

A gym bench, like the usual meaning, is essentially a bench on which you can perform a variety of activities. The bench press is, of course, the most popular bench exercise!

BMR

BMR is an abbreviation for Basal Metabolic Rate. It is the number of calories burned by your body when you are sleeping.

Science for Men

Bro Science is a gym slang term for various claims and ideas about training, diets, and so on. But keep in mind that Bro science is not a science in and of itself, but rather a set of statements, occasionally falsehoods, that lack empirical support.

For example, consuming soya can lower your body’s testosterone levels while filling it with estrogen, according to bro-science. However, there is insufficient evidence to support it!

Split, Bro

One of the most popular training splits (or workout regimens) among gym attendees is the Bro Split. You will train each muscle group on a different day of the week with bro split.

  • Here’s a Bro Split workout example:
  • Day One: Chest
  • Day 2: Return
  • Day Three: Shoulders
  • Day 4: Weapons
  • Legs/lower body on Day 5
  • Bulking

Bulking is simply the process of gaining additional muscle or mass. When bulking, you should focus on eating more calories than usual.

Cables

Cables, as you may know, are just thick wires that connect various components of a machine. By connecting several pieces of equipment with cables, you can perform a variety of workouts.

You execute low pulley ‘cable’ curls for your biceps, for example!

Calisthenics

Calisthenics is a gym name for exercises that employ largely body weight rather than machines. Push-ups and pull-ups are two exercises that calisthenics enthusiasts would undertake!

Cardio

Cardio is a fitness slang term for routines that improve heart health and burn fat. Cardio activities raise your heart rate, causing your body to burn more energy.

Cardio activities include jogging, sprinting, interval training, and so on.

Catabolic

Your body is in a catabolic state, which occurs when it breaks down fats and occasionally muscle mass to provide energy for its tasks.

Chalk

Chalk is simply a powder (typically comprised of magnesium carbonate) that you use to improve your grip while performing difficult workouts.

Gymnasts, weight lifters, and even basketball players use chalk to improve their grip!

Circuit Conditioning

Circuit training consists of performing several exercises, typically six, for a set number of repetitions. Most circuit training regimens consist of a series of exercises designed to improve your strength, stamina, flexibility, and balance.

Clamp

Clamps are essential safety components in gym equipment. They are snugly placed after weight plates to keep them safe and balanced.

When performing squats or bench presses, place the clamps after loading the weights.

Compound

Compound workouts target numerous muscle groups at once rather than just one. Compound exercises include bench presses and squats.

Concentric

As you lift the weight, your muscle tightens in a concentrated movement. Consider dumbbell curls: as you pull the weight higher, your muscle contracts or shorten. As a result, this portion of the Dumbbell curl is a concentric exercise.

Conditioning

Conditioning is what you do when you want to tone up your body, enhance your cardiovascular health, lose weight, or become more fit.

Conditional training, as opposed to weight training, focuses on more reps with smaller weights to achieve a greater heart rate.

Cooldown

After an intense workout, you should cool down by doing low-intensity workouts like stretching to gradually return to your resting heart rate.

A cooldown phase is just as crucial as a warmup period for avoiding injuries and improving recovery.

Core

The term “core” refers to your body’s midsection, which includes the muscles in your abs and lower lats.

Cutting

Cutting is a fitness term that refers to attempting to reduce your body’s fat proportion, or in simplest terms, your weight, to achieve a more appealing shape.

Decline

When you perform an exercise in which your upper body is slightly declining from your lower body, you are most likely performing a decline exercise. For instance, decline the chest press!

DOMS

DOMS is an abbreviation for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, which is the discomfort you feel in a muscle area 24 to 48 hours after training it.

Although DOMS is not a typical muscle injury, it is a symptom that you have overtrained your muscles.

Set Drop

In a Drop set, you perform an exercise with a heavier weight until failure, then instantly switch to a smaller weight.

Dumbbell

Dumbbells are free weights that are usually 10-16 inches long and have weights on both sides!

Eccentric

When your muscle group expands, eccentric activities, or eccentric parts of exercises, work. Eccentric movements include lowering your dumbbells while performing biceps dumbbell curls.

Elliptical

Elliptical machines or elliptical trainers are cardio fitness devices like a treadmill. They encourage stair climb, walking, and running movements.

MOM

EMOM stands for ‘Every Minute On the Minute’ when you accomplish a particular number of reps of activity inside a minute and take rest for the remaining several seconds till that one minute is complete. And after that one minute, you go to the next set of exercises.

EZ Bar

EZ bar is a modified form of Olympic bars, having a ‘W’ shaped angle on the central half. EZ bars are good for particular exercises like biceps curls.

Failure

The term ‘failure’ in gym language is used when you do a given workout set with as many reps as feasible. In simple words, you stop your failure set exercise when you can do no more repeats.

Foam Roller

A foam roller is a cylindrical form that you can use for stretching, enhancing your flexibility, etc.

Form

When you complete an exercise in the proper form, it indicates you are doing it the right way. You may have heard, ‘proper form is more important than how much weight you lift’.

Free Weights

Free weights are weights that are not attached to a machine. Dumbbells and barbells are examples of free weights.

Frequency

Frequency in gym terms means how often you train a given muscle group.

Full Body

Nothing to be confused about here. When you claim you are training your whole body, it indicates you are completing workouts for all main sections of your body in a single gym session.

Functional Training

Functional training is just a set of exercises that helps you enhance your daily life motions. Some examples are squats, push and pull, hip rotation, etc.

Gains

Gains in gym language mean any increases your muscles had from exercise. If your biceps expanded one inch by working out, it is a gain for you!

Group Training

When you train with a group of others, that is group training. You all will be practicing a combination of exercises in a set pattern, together!

Gym Bro

Gym bro is a gym slang word for those dudes (or gals) that like to spend most of their time or free time inside the gym. They also ponder and talk about working out even after getting out of the gym.

Gym Gear

Your gym gear is nothing but a collection of exercise clothes, shoes, gloves, headphones, and all such stuff you carry to the gym along with you.

Gym Rat

Gym rat is the name for someone who spends a lot of time, or hours inside the gym working out.

Half Rep

Half rep is when you complete a given exercise for one time, but only for the half range of motion. For instance, while doing half-rep squats, your knee won’t bend beyond 120 degrees.

HIIT

HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval training wherein, you will be doing intensive cardio activities for a short length of time, then taking a break for another short duration, and then shifting to another exercise or repeating it.

An example of HIIT is, that you sprint for 20 seconds, take a rest or slow walk for the following 40 seconds, and then sprint for another 20 seconds, and so on. Most HIITs go for roughly 12 to 20 minutes.

Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is when your muscle cells continue to increase as you lift varying/increasing loads over time. In simplest words, your muscles will develop bigger when you steadily increase your workout volume, and that is hypertrophy.

Incline

In an inclined workout, incline chest press, for instance, your upper body will be kept at an inclination concerning your lower body.

Isolation

Isolation movements are exercises that target only one muscle group at a time; the reverse of compound motions. An example of isolated motions is the Barbell Biceps curl.

Jacked

A jacked person looks bigger or has bigger muscles than others.

Juice

According to gym lingo, the term ‘juice’ denotes nothing but steroids. for instance, when you see a man with tremendous gains and veins popping out, you may think he is on juice, whereas he may or may not be on it!

Kettlebell

A kettlebell is usually a steel ball with a handle attached to its top. You utilize kettlebells usually while conducting cardio activities. They are also excellent for developing strength and flexibility.

Lifting weights

As it sounds, lifting weights is nothing else but executing a workout utilizing weight from barbells, weight plates, dumbbells, or even using machines.

Load

When you put the weight plates on your Olympic bar or other equipment, it’s called loading.

Machines

Machines are pieces of gym equipment that allow you to complete various workouts. For example, sitting chest press machine,

Macros

Macros is a fitness term used as a short for ‘macronutrients’, such as protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

Medical Ball

Medical balls are round balls that come in varied sizes, with up to roughly 14 inches in dia, and somewhere between 2 pounds and 25 pounds in weight.

Micros

Micros are nutrients that your body requires at lesser levels, such as iron and calcium.

Natty

Natty is yet another workout slang for ‘natural’. If you see a gym person with excellent growth and who utilizes no steroids, he may be natty!

Negatives

Negative movements are those movements when you focus entirely on the expanding aspect of that workout.

For instance, when you do negative pull-ups, your upward pull doesn’t matter; you can simply grip the bar with no proper pull action.

And while releasing, you take your time, follow the appropriate form, and slowly come down. After finishing that rep, you again jump towards the top utilizing support, and then slowly descend.

Newbie

If you are new to the realm of working out (maybe what brought you here!), then you are a newbie. But there is nothing negative about it, every pro bodybuilder was a rookie once, including Arnold Schwarzenegger!

PB

PB stands for Personal Best. If your greatest ever bench press lift is 200 pounds, that is your PB in that exercise.

Plank

Plank is an exercise targeting your core or abdomen, wherein you keep your body in an inclined position similar to the relaxed position in push up and then try holding your position for a particular period.

Plates

See those enormous round (typically metallic) devices that you use as weight during most exercises, those are plates or weight plates.

Plateau

When you have reached a new maximum of gym gains, but have been stuck there for a time and can’t develop further, you have probably reached a plateau.

It happens when you are not going for progressive overloading or in simplest words when you persist in lifting the same weight instead of gradually increasing it.

Post Workout

Post-workout is a workout supplement that you take for speedier recovery and also for greater benefits. Post-exercises will also replenish the energy level that you lost throughout a tough workout session.

Powerlifting

Powerlifting is a mixture of specific exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, which are done for a few reps. The major purpose of powerlifting is to improve strength, and powerlifters go for the greatest possible weights.

PPL

PPL stands for Push-Pull, which is a frequent workout strategy wherein you train your pull muscles (Back, biceps) on one day and push muscles (chest, triceps, shoulders) on another day.

In addition to your push and pull days, you may also have a specific day for your leg or lower body.

Pre Workout

Pre-workout is the supplement that you take shortly before your workout session. A decent pre-workout will keep you energetic and offer you energy throughout your workout session.

Progressive Overloading

Progressive overloading is a steady process in which you increase your workout volume for a given exercise, over time.

For instance, if you lift 30 pounds of dumbbells for hammer curls this week, and take it to 40 pounds two weeks later, and then to 50 pounds later, that is progressive overloading!

PT

PT stands for personal trainer, who will provide you with customized one-to-one (typically) training as you work out.

Pump

The pump is the expansion or expanding of muscular groups, although transitory while lifting weights with increasing effort. You get the best pump when you do a higher number of reps with shorter rest periods.

Pyramiding

Pyramiding is when you, while completing a given exercise, raise your weight over sets while decreasing the reps.

Rack

A rack, or gym rack, is a piece of equipment that gives you support when doing particular weight workouts like squatting.

While doing squats, you first place your bar on the ‘rack’ and load weights, then bend down and raise it by placing it on your shoulder, and after finishing a set, you place your squat bar back on the ‘rack’.

Ripped

When you see a man with an aesthetic, well-defined physique with lower body fat, you say he is ripped.

Reps

Reps stand for ‘Repetitions’ and as you may expect, denote how many times you complete that exercise inside a set.

Rest

Rest day is when you don’t conduct weight training, and instead, give your body the chance to recover from the strain you have given it through your gym days.

Also, you take rests in between your sets.

ROM

ROM stands for Range Of Motion, and it is the path of movement that an exercise has. Or in other terms, to what extent does your body attain as you practice a particular workout?

Sets

When you finish an activity for 8 repetitions continuously and then stop, you have completed a ‘set’. And after a short amount of relaxation and then start repeating it, you are into your second ‘set’!

Shredded

You have a shredded body when you have highly defined muscles and extremely minimal fat proportion.

Spotting

Spotting is when you support another person lifting some large weights, and they may require your help to accomplish the last few reps.

There is nothing improper in asking someone to spot you while you are executing your failed set!

Superset

A superset is a set in which you complete two distinct exercises continuously without any pause in between. You complete exercise A for some number of reps and with no or little rest, you undertake exercise B.

Swole

Swole is a word in gym slang for when someone gets too big or overly muscular.

Tabata

Tabata is a form of high-intensity aerobic training that completes within 4 to 12 minutes. It is named for its founder, Dr. Izumi Tabata.

Tempo

Tempo is generally the rhythm you retain when executing a certain workout. For instance, how fast you lift, how fast you extend and contract your muscles, etc.

For example, while doing biceps curls with dumbbells, how fast you stretch and contract your arms does matter, for greater outcomes.

Adjusting your rhythm is key for greater results.

Tri-set

Tri-set is when you execute three separate exercises concurrently, with no rest in between.

TRX

TRX stands for Total Body Resistance Exercise, which uses only the body weight and is aimed at improving strength, flexibility, balance, and cardio health.

Some examples are- the TRX chest press, TRX plank, and TRX bicep curls.

Upper Lower

Upper Lower is a workout plan in which you train your complete upper body on one day, then the lower body on another day.

Unilateral

Unilateral exercises engage with only one arm or leg at a time. Bend-over dumbbell rows are a classic example of unilateral exercise.

Volume

Volume is how much work your muscles do as you work out. It is a consequence of how many sets and reps you accomplish, together with how heavy you lift.

Your workout volume is directly related to sets, repetitions, and weight.

Warm-Up

You will be conducting your Warm-up when you either go for a small aerobic session or lift lesser weights before your actual workout. Warming up is vital before you start your actual workout, as it helps you increase your body temperature, and blood flow to muscles before going for intense workouts.

Weightlifting

Weightlifting is an exercise, or perhaps a sport itself, in which you raise an Olympic bar filled with weight, above your head from the ground.

Work In

If you are doing an activity (using a machine or dumbbells), got a few more sets to do and another person asks you if they can work in, they are asking if they too may use that equipment while you take a rest.

Working Set

You do a working set when you do an exercise till almost close to failure. In other words, in a working set, you go for larger weights that yield the maximum outcome.

A working set follows a warm-up set that employs lesser weights.

Work Out

Work Out is when you hit the gym and start lifting some weights or doing some bodyweight or cardio exercises with a purpose in mind!

Final Words

That was a comprehensive list of gym terms that you will come to hear several times throughout your fitness journey.

Needless to say, mastering that gym terminology is vital and if you don’t, you may find yourself suffering when another gym dude uses some gym jargon, and you stay clueless.

But from now on, no need to get intimidated hearing them! And even if you find yourself clueless hearing them, just come back to our gym terms list, and grasp their meaning.