composition

Definition

In fitness circles, this refers to the ratio of fat, muscle, bone, and water in your body—basically your body's ingredient list. It's what trainers obsess over instead of just looking at the scale, because apparently weighing 150 pounds of muscle is vastly superior to weighing 150 pounds of anything else. The buzzword that launched a thousand DEXA scans.

Example Usage

Despite losing only five pounds, her body composition improved dramatically after switching from cardio to strength training.

Source: Fitness and health terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

lifting

The act of repeatedly hoisting heavy objects for the express purpose of creating microscopic muscle tears that supposedly make you stronger. In gym culture, this has evolved into an entire lifestyle complete with its own vocabulary, protein shake requirements, and unspoken rules about reracking weights. Also used as a verb by people who make going to the gym their entire personality.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Intermediate

HIIT

High-Intensity Interval Training, a workout method that alternates between going as hard as humanly possible and desperately gasping for air. It promises maximum results in minimum time, which is fitness-speak for maximum suffering in minimum time.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Beginner

bodybuilding

A competitive sport where the goal is to sculpt your muscles into such cartoonish proportions that you need to turn sideways to fit through doorways. Participants spend years eating chicken breast and lifting heavy things repeatedly, all to be judged on whose muscles look the most aesthetically pleasing while slathered in bronzer. It's basically professional muscle modeling with a side of extreme dedication.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Intermediate

chipper

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.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Intermediate

giant set

Four or more exercises performed consecutively without rest, targeting the same or different muscle groups. A superset that went to graduate school and got ambitious.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Intermediate

proprioception

Your body's ability to sense its position and movement in space without looking. The mysterious force that usually works great until you try to touch your nose with your eyes closed after spin class.

⚽ Sports / Fitness

Translate This Term

See “composition” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

Statute

A law written down by legislators who probably did not read the whole thing before voting on it. Statutes are the rules ...