Top 15 Gym definitions you NEED to hear

Starting something new can be challenging as everything needs to be researched and everything is new. That can take a lot of time and energy. When l first started my fitness journey, l was struggling to understand and remember all of the different terms. Having them laid out here for you guys can also help you become more familiar with them and hopefully it will be easier for you to start using all different ways to exercise.

1. Rep or repetition - one movement once (eg. squat, curl). Number of repetitions can be anything between 1 to 20 (usually), depending on the purpose of training. I would not do too often more than 12.

2. Set - is a set of an exercise, where you do certain amount of repetitions.

3. Hypertrophy - means increase in muscle cell size, thus muscle growth.

4. Superset - two separate exercises done together without rest in between.

5. Triset - three different exercises done together without a rest in between.

6. Delayed Muscle Soreness - DOMS - feeling soreness in muscle usually within 24-48 hours after exercising. Remember that you can still do progress without feeling sore after exercising. All of us feel soreness in our own way or not at all.

7. Drop set - performing an exercise almost to failure, after which decreasing the weight and performing it again almost to failure. (No rest between dropping weight). Normally drop the weight two to three times in one drop set. (this works wonders for me on hip thrust strength progression, when l drop weight once by 10kg in the set)

8. HIIT - High intensity interval training; is not cardio, but done as cardio as a trend. HIIT includes different exercises done together with rest. Rest can be anything between 1-5 minutes. Purpose is to make your heart rate go up and keep it up as long as you humanly can. After HIIT you will be exhausted.

9. Progressive overload - gradually building performance with higher weight, repetition or set. Usually to build muscle size or muscle strength. This can be done by increasing the intensity of training.

10. Pyramid set - Building up weight with same exercise. This can be done in separate sets or in one continuous set. Starting with low weight and high reps, building up to heavy weight and decreased reps. And back down again to the start; low weight and high rep.

11. Compound exercise - working on multiple muscles on one same exercise.

12. Isolation - exercise that focuses to work (target) a certain muscle at a time. This may require mind-muscle connection.

13. Mind muscle connection - being able to feel certain muscle working. Sometimes can help if you lower the weight and focus on the quality of reps.

14. Barbell - it's the shiny thingy you will learn to love. Usually weighing 20 kg but sometimes smaller ones are 15 kg.

15. Dumbbell - those scary things girls are not allowed to pick up ( jk ). Dumbbells are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways.

Happy training gals! Stay motivated!