No pain, no gain, no idea what half these terms mean.
Performing cardiovascular exercise before eating, supposedly to enhance fat burning. The practice of running on empty and hoping science backs your suffering.
Using hip momentum to assist in pull-ups or other gymnastics movements, controversial for being either efficient technique or shameful cheating depending on who you ask.
The lifting or shortening phase of an exercise when muscle fibers contract, like the upward motion of a bicep curl. The part you actually brag about.
Exaggerated running movements emphasizing horizontal distance and hang time, used to develop power and explosiveness. Leaping through meadows, but with purpose and pain.
Cycling euphemism for crashing or falling off your bike. A gentler way to describe the sudden, intimate meeting between your body and the pavement.
Inflammation of the iliotibial band causing knee pain, primarily afflicting runners who've angered the running gods. Feels like someone is stabbing the outside of your knee with an ice pick.
The slow, awkward walk to re-rack weights after failing a lift or having to bail on a set. Not to be confused with the college version involving last night's outfit.
A training phase focused on developing aerobic capacity through high-volume, low-intensity work before adding harder efforts. The boring foundation that nobody wants to do but everyone needs.
A weight gain phase with no regard for food quality, eating anything and everything to maximize caloric surplus. The freshman year of college approach to muscle building.
A functional strength exercise where you grip heavy weights in each hand and walk a distance, mimicking a farmer carrying feed buckets, except farmers don't Instagram their buckets afterward.
A gym enthusiast stereotypically obsessed with lifting heavy things and building muscle mass to the possible exclusion of other intellectual pursuits, though many proudly reclaim the term as a badge of iron-pumping honor.
A compound movement combining a front squat with an overhead press in one fluid motion, efficiently destroying your legs, shoulders, lungs, and will to continue existing in a single exercise.
The designated human sacrifice positioned in front of a goal whose job is to stop projectiles with their body while their teammates skate around having fun. In hockey and soccer, they're the ones with trust issues and exceptional reflexes. Also called a goalkeeper or goalie, they're either the hero or the scapegoat, with no in-between.
The specific training blocks in a periodized program: base building, strength, power, peak, and recovery. It's a systematic way to get stronger instead of just randomly doing hard workouts until you get injured.
Walking while holding heavy objects in various positions (farmer's carries, suitcase carries, etc.). Simultaneously functional and humiliating.
Pre-workout supplements without stimulants like caffeine, for people who want focus without the jitters, heart palpitations, or 3 AM wakefulness. Decaf for gym rats.
A workout format with a long list of different exercises performed once in sequence, chipping away at the list. Starts cheerfully, ends with existential questions.
A high-intensity interval protocol of 20 seconds maximum effort followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated for 4 minutes. Named after the researcher, feared by everyone.
The target speed you aim to maintain during a competition, typically practiced in training to build familiarity and confidence. Hope disguised as a number.
Having the same osmotic pressure or solute concentration as another solution—typically referring to sports drinks that match your blood's chemistry so your body actually absorbs them. Medical solutions are isotonic when they won't cause your cells to shrivel or explode on contact, which is generally considered desirable. Also describes muscles with equal tension, though that meaning gets way less advertising dollars.
The primal fitness philosophy that strength training should focus on compound movements with substantial weight. Caveman approach to fitness that actually works surprisingly well.
The profuse perspiration experienced after consuming large quantities of protein, typically post-competition or during bulking phases. Your body's way of complaining about its new carnivore diet.
The painful skin abrasions resulting from sliding across pavement during a cycling crash. Nature's reminder that Lycra provides minimal protection against concrete.
Lifting one repetition at a time with maximal or near-maximal weight, primarily used by powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters. The minimalist approach to sets and reps.