Posted on June 26, 2015 by Kate Halsall

I once covered a training session for another Motive8 Personal Trainer. I had a session plan so I knew what exercises the clients needed to work through. One of these exercises was called “Humphrey Squat”. What?! I had never heard of it! I even searched the internet for a Humphrey squat – and funnily enough it only brought up men called Humphrey squatting (there’s more than you think!). I couldn’t contact the trainer as they were out of the country, so I explained to the clients that there was something unusual on the plan and asked had they done it before. It turned out that our big water ball in the studio has the nick name of Humphrey! I had no idea! And that’s the thing, we often assume that people know what we mean when we refer to an exercise in a particular way, or use fitness/training language in our blogs. So just to help, here’s our Motive8 North Gym Jargon Buster.

Anabolism – This is the building part of your metabolism. In the simplest terms, it’s the process in the body which uses chemical reactions and energy to make bigger things out of smaller things – such as muscle mass and bone growth.

ATG Squat – How low can you go? This is a deep squat or “Ass To Grass”. It helps increase hip and ankle flexibility

Anaerobic – This is simply exercising without oxygen – for example when you sprint 100% you will be working anaerobically. As you are working without oxygen, you can only work at this intensity for a short time

Aerobic – The opposite of anaerobic, therefore working with oxygen. You can work for longer when working aerobically as you have a plentiful supply of oxygen.

Catabolic – The opposite of Anabolism; it’s the breaking things down part of the metabolism. It’s the part of the process which provides our bodies with energy for physical activity.

Concentric – Concentric muscle contraction shortens the muscle. For example, it is involved in the lifting phase of a bicep curl – going from a straight arm to bending the elbow

Eccentric – Eccentric muscle contraction lengthens the muscle. For example, it is involving in the lowering phase of a bicep curl.

Hypertrophy – in it’s simplest form, this refers to muscle growth

HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training – one of the buss words which has been around for a while now. There are lots of forms of HIIT but in a nutshell it is short periods of high intensity exercises interspersed with lower intensity periods. For example 30 seconds full out sprinting, alternating with 60 seconds of walking/jogging.

Sweet Gainz – everything you get from going to the gym, a class or a Personal Training Session! Muscle gain, fat loss and that feel of euphoria after a workout!!

Tabata – Tabata is a form of HIIT training where you alternate 20 seconds of high intensity exercise with 10 seconds of rest/low intensity exercise for 4 minutes. The original research for Tabata training was performed on a stationary bike.

VO2 Max – VO2 Max is a measure of your aerobic fitness levels, and is a measure of how well the lungs, heart and muscles can use oxygen during exercise. 

If you have any questions about any of our blogs, are not sure of a term we have used previously or are just confused by some of the sayings you hear Chris come out with eg teranasaurus flex or curls for the girls, just ask one of our Motive8 Trainers and we’ll try to help!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/bsp/hi/in_the_gym/jargon_guide/html/default.stm
http://stronglifts.com/squat/depth/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8871.php#anabolism_and_catabolism