When going to the gym, a lot of people will call things whatever name they see fit. There are however what I believe to be a lot of accepted verbiage used throughout the lifting community. I have found from experience that a lot of people do not feel comfortable asking what things mean in the gym because they feel embarrassed they don’t know. So I decided to think about all of the terms I feel most people who don’t frequent the gym would know. Some of them may have my own personal spin on them, but hopefully this will act as a guide to help others understand what people mean when they say certain things when describing their training.
Volume - This refers to the total amount of work being done. A lot of times when people say they are doing more “volume” it means they are doing more work/exercises/reps It can be calculated in exact terms by multiplying weight x sets x reps.
Intensity - This refers to the amount of effort put in during training. It is a way to allude to a person's rep scheme. Low intensity would mean someone is doing a lot of volume, or high rep sets (above 5 reps). And high intensity would be someone doing little volume, or low rep sets that are very heavy (lower than 5 reps).
Sets - How many times you are going to perform an exercise.
Reps - The individual amount of times you perform the exercise movement within a set.
So a low volume, high intensity workout could include 4 sets of 3 reps for squats (notated as 3x3) and then 3 sets of 2 reps for deadlifts (notated as 3x2). This means the person is not doing a lot of overall work (low volume), but the exercises will be very heavy (high intensity). For the squat they will perform the exercise 4 times (sets), in which they will physically squat the weight 3 times for each set (reps). Then they will perform the deadlift 3 times (sets), and physically deadlift the weight 2 times for each set (reps).
AMRAP - This stands for, As Many Reps As Possible. It is usually used as a metric to gauge your progress. You can perform an amrap (usually but not always in a specific amount of alloted time) for an exercise and jot down what you did. Then after a period of time goes by when you have been consistently training, you can perform another amrap of the same exercise to see if you did more reps.
RPE Scale - This is way to gauge how hard/heavy an exercise was after it was performed. It can also be thought of as Reps in Reserve, because that is what the number is referencing to, how many more reps you could have done. Many coaches will use this tool to help guide clients by letting them know how hard an exercise should feel, and also assess how certain exercises feel after they were performed.
Super Set - This is when you perform two exercises back to back. A good example would be dumbbell curls and tricep rope push downs. To perform a superset, you would perform a set of curls as normal, then without taking a break you set the dumbbells down and immediately start doing your push downs, then take your rest break. You would then repeat this process for as many super sets are prescribed in your workout.
Negative - More formally known as the eccentric part of the movement. This is when you’re lowering the weight. So it could be after you curled a dumbbell up and are letting it down, or when you lower the barbell during a squat. Not only is it an important part of any exercise itself, it can also be utilized as a way to perform exercises. A good example of these is with pull-ups. Many people may not be able to do even 1 full pull-up, but a lot of people can at least jump up to where they reach the top of the bar. Performing a negative would be when you do this then lower yourself down as slowly as possible. These are a great way to overload your muscles and get stronger.
Circuit/Cluster set - This follows the same idea as a super set, except it is with more than 2 exercises. A cluster set is almost the exact same as a superset, but utilizes 3 exercises instead of 2. Circuit training sort of follows the same principle of going from one exercise to another, but there are a multitude of how many exercises you do and how long of rest breaks you take while doing the circuit.
EZ-Bar - This is a shorter sized barbell that seems to zig zag. The angled part of the bar helps take some tension off of people’s wrists when performing various exercises. It will probably be most commonly seen being used on curls or skull crushers, but I’ve seen utilize this bar for all sorts of movements.
Bar - So as a general rule, a full size barbell in most gyms in 45lbs. They do have 35lbs barbells, and some of the smaller bars may be less than 45 as well. There are also safety squat bars that weigh 65lbs But if someone says warm up with the bar, or perform this exercise with just the bar, you know they usually mean a 45lbs barbell.
X Plates - You may hear someone say I benched 2 plates today, I squatted 3 plates today, or even I deadlifted 5 plates today! When people say this they are talking about how many 45lb plates they put on ONE side of the bar. So for my first example, you would count that as 2 45lb plates on one side + the 45lb bar + 2 45lb plates on the other side which adds up to 225lbs.
HIIT (Pronounced Hit) - This is short for High Intensity Interval Training. It is a form of cardio that ranges from only a few minutes up to about 20. It is usually done in a circuit fashion, and is very taxing to do. When performing HIIT, it is all about explosiveness and giving it all you got. A lot of people like to do this when they are short on time or just want to be efficient with their time, or as a good way to really change things up from your normal walking on a treadmill. When setting up a HIIT workout, ratios are usually used of work to rest. Common ones are 1:1 or 2:1. An example of a beginner HIIT workout could be treadmill sprints. You could sprint for 30 seconds then briskly walk/jog for 1 minute, and continue this pattern for 5-8 minutes, which would mean you do 5-8 rounds.
LISS - This is short for Low Intensity Steady State. It is a form of cardio that is not as taxing as normal training. It is when you perform an exercise such as jogging or biking at a pace that makes you breathe heavy but allows you to still be able to talk. This type of cardio should be done in the 20 - 90 minute rep range. Many people associate this with staring at wall while walking on a treadmill, but this is a great chance to get outside. My favorite way to do this is to take my dog for a walk. If the weather isn’t the greatest out, you could still pick other machines such as the stairmaster, elliptical, or bike. I try to always change it up so I do not get bored choosing the same exercise each time.
Tabatta - This is a form of if HIIT cardio that I happen to like very much. It consists of 8 rounds, each round is 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest. The whole little circuit only takes four minutes, but I’m usually super tired after doing 2 or 3 tabatta circuits. To make it easy on myself I actually just downloaded a free tabatta timer app on my phone which keeps track of time for me. An example of how it would work is, let’s say I wanted to do jump rope, so I would start my timer and then start jump roping for 20 seconds and the rest for 10 seconds. As soon as my 10 second break was up I would start jump roping again for 20 seconds and then take another 10 second break. I would do this for a totally of 8 rounds. You don’t have to stick with just one exercise while doing this. You could mix them up from round to round, say jump rope and kettlebell swings, or mountain climbers and box jumps. If you are going to mix up the exercises within a tabatta circuit, just make sure any equipment you need is easily accessible because you want to stick to that 10 second rest period between rounds.
Drop Set - This is when you perform all the reps in a normal set, then drop the weight a little bit, and perform more reps right away without taking a break. It is usually only done on the last set of an exercise. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend for bigger lifts such as squats or deadlifts, especially for anyone in the beginning stages of lifting. But they are a great tool to use on most movements to get a little extra volume, such as curls, cable rows, tricep push downs, and lateral raises.
Strip Set - This is just like a drop set, but instead of dropping the weight only once to do an extra set, you drop the weight multiple times and perform multiple sets back to back. These are usually reserved for the last exercise of a muscle group for the workout, and are a great way to really get a good mind muscle connection.
Pyramid Set - These are when you start at one weight and do an certain number of reps, then each set you change the weight and reps. You can either go up in weight/down in reps, down in weight/up in reps, or perform both which would make a full pyramid. I don’t do too many of these anymore personally, but I know a lot of people still refer to them.