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Every part of life has its lingo, and the gym is no exception. Weve collected a list of the lifting-related words that most often confuse beginners, so read on to learn what you might be missing. EquipmentBarbellsA barbell is the bar that you load the plates on, either empty (the empty bar) or loaded (for example, a 225 pound barbell). A standard Olympic-sized barbell is 20 kilograms, or in many American gyms, 45 pounds. (20 kilos is 44 pounds, so it doesnt really matter which is which.) There are a variety of other barbells that exist, including Olympic womens bars that weigh 15 kilos, EZ-curl bars with an ergonomic curve to them, and more. We have a guide to all of these here. Cable machineA cable machine has a thin rope, or cable, that connects the weights to a handle through one or more pulleys. Typically you can choose the attachment you'd like to use as a handle, and you may also have the option of moving the pulley to your desired height. Pulldowns, pushdowns, cable flyes, and cable crossovers are a few exercises you can do on a cable machine. Here is a list of even more.Clips or collarsWhen you load weights onto a barbell (or an adjustable dumbbell), its handy to have something to hold the weights on there so they dont slide around. This may be a spring clip, which looks like a clothespin, or a round collar with a latch on it. DumbbellsDumbbells are the smaller hand weights around the gym. They typically come in pairs, and cannot be taken apart. (You can buy adjustable dumbbells for home gyms, though, which have their own teensy little plates on each end.) They are so named because some of the weights historically used for strength training were in the shape of bells (think of a kettlebell, but more...bell-shaped) and since they didnt make noise, they were silent, or dumb. Dumbbells are usually "fixed," with each dumbbell weighing a certain amount, but there are also adjustable dumbbells, popular for home gyms, that let you adjust the weight on the fly.Free weightsFree weights are the barbells and dumbbells in a gym, as opposed to the machines. They are free weights because they arent attached to anything; you can pick them up and do whatever you want.KettlebellsThese are the round weights with a handle on top. You can use them for most of the same lifts you'd do with a dumbbell (like rows, or overhead presses) but you can also swing them or do more advanced moves like kettlebell snatches.MachinesThe opposite of a free weight would be a machine. There are cable machines, where you hold a handle that is connected via a cable and pulley to a stack of weights; there are other types of selectorized machines, where you put a pin in a stack of weights and then do the exercise in whatever way is indicated on the instructions (for example, you may push or pull a set of handles, or move a pad with your legs). And there are plate-loaded machines, where you take a plate off a rack somewhere in the gym and place it onto the machine yourself. PlatesWeight plates are the heavy, round discs that typically load onto the ends of a barbell. In American gyms, the largest ones are typically 45 pounds. You can brag about your lifts by saying how many full-sized plates are on each end of the bar. One hundred and thirty-five pounds (45 pounds per side, on a 45 pound bar) is a one plate lift. Two hundred and twenty-five is two plates. Three hundred and fifteen is three plates, and so on. Weight lifting basicsCircuitA circuit, sometimes called a giant set, is when you do several exercises (usually three to six) by doing one set of each, then return to the beginning of the list and start over. (It's called a "circuit" or "rounds" because you keep going through the list in a circular fashion. While these can save time, the goal of circuit training is often to keep your heart rate high, so that youre getting a bit of a cardio stimulus even though the main focus is weight training. Compound liftA compound lift is one that uses many muscles at the same time. In a squat, for example, your quads (on the front of your thighs) are getting the most work, but your glutes, adductors, hamstrings, and core all do their part. This is in contrast to an isolation lift.FailureIf you do a lift "to failure," that means you cannot physically do another rep. You might do 10 bicep curls, 11, 12, thirnope, that's it, can't finish the thirteenth rep. You "went to failure" on that exercise. It's not necessary to go to failure, but it's a good way to make sure you're really squeezing as much work as you can out of each set. It's also common to stop a few reps before failurein our example, stopping at 10 reps would have still given you a good workout. Stopping at five would not have been very productive. In bigger lifts, like a squat, you may not want to go to actual, physical failure very often. So you might go until technical failurein other words, for as many reps as you can while you can maintain good form. Isolation liftAn isolation lift is meant to isolate just one muscle or muscle group. While a squat is a compound lift that works your quads and several other muscles, an example of an isolation lift for the quadriceps would be a leg extension machine. PercentagesSometimes lifting programs tell you to do a set at, say, 80% of your max. This instruction assumes that you know what your maximum, or 1RM, is. So, if you can bench press 100 pounds once, you might be asked to do a set of five reps at 80%, which is 80 pounds. RepsWe dont usually lift a weight just once; we pick it up and set it down multiple times. Each of those individual lifts is a repetition, or a rep for short. You might do eight reps at a time, or 12, or five. Even if you only do one, you might still call it "a rep," because when youre in the gym for an hour your brain starts to melt a little. That was a good rep, you might say after a heavy single. We all know what you mean. RestIf your program asks you to rest between sets, that means you sit down and do nothing. Really. Depending on the exercise, you may rest anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes. Read my explainer here on how long to rest and why. RPERating of perceived exertion, on a 1-10 scale. A 10 means an all-out lift, you couldnt have done any more. (If you went to failure, that's a 10.) Nine means you could have done one more rep, but you stopped there. Eight means you could have done two more reps, and so on. For compound lifts like squats, sets are often done at a seven or eight RPE. Nobody bothers to track RPE below a six or so. SetsA group of reps is a set. You might do five sets of three reps, for example. This is usually written as 5x3 (sets x reps), although a few people out there will flip the numbers around. If youre not sure, ask. SupersetYou can superset two exercises by doing a set of each before resting. This can save time in the gym. Most often, a superset involves two lifts done with opposite or unrelated muscles: you can superset a bench press with a barbell row, or even a squat with an overhead press. Usually youll rest for a short time after you do both, and then do them again.WeightliftingWeightlifting doesn't just mean lifting weightsit's the name of a sport contested in the Olympics, where people explosively raise a barbell from the floor to overhead. They'll do it in one movement, called a snatch, or in a two-step process called the clean and jerk. To avoid confusion, this is sometimes called "Olympic weightlifting" or, if you're a Crossfitter, "oly lifting." Weightlifters commonly drop their barbells from overhead (intentional or not) and thus need rubbery bumper plates and plenty of space on a platform.Ways of lifting weights1RM, 3RM, 5RMThese are a one rep max, a three rep max, and a five rep max, respectively. (You can substitute any number. Want to find a 6RM? Go for it.) In other words, a 1RM is the maximum weight that you can move for one rep. When somebody asks how much ya bench? they are asking for your 1RM. This weight might also be called your max or your best, as in, my best bench press is 150 pounds. The others are rep maxes. Maybe you know that you can deadlift 225 pounds for five reps, but thats it, you know you couldnt get a sixth at that weight. (Maybe you tried for a sixth and failed.) Thats a 5RM.AMRAPAs many reps as possible. Or, if youre doing a workout with multiple lifts, it may mean as many rounds (of the whole circuit) as possible. Sometimes either of these may be written AMAP (as many as possible). If you're going to technical failure rather than true failure, I've seen that called "AMAP (as many as pretty)."Drop setsWhen you do a set of reps to failure, your muscles havent totally given out; they just cant lift any more of that particular weight. So bodybuilders will sometimes employ drop sets, dropping some of the weight to do the exercise again with something lighter. You might use 25-pound dumbbells, then put them back and do a few more reps with 20-pound dumbbells, then grab the 15-pounders, and so on. EMOMEvery minute, on the minute. For a 10-minute EMOM, youll start your stopwatch, do the exercise (say, 10 kettlebell swings), and then rest for the remainder of the minute. The quicker you get the lifts done, the more time you have to rest. (If you're doing an exercise every two minutes, that's sometimes written E2MOM.)Forced repsThis is another strategy to keep lifting past failure. Instead of grabbing another weight, ask a spotter to help you lift the last few reps of your set. Lets say you do as many reps of bench press as you can manage; then your spotter will put their hands on the bar and help you squeeze out a few more reps with their help. Those last few are forced reps. NegativesA negative rep of an exercise is where you just do the lowering-down, or eccentric, portion, while using assistance (often a spotter) to reset to the top of the rep. Negative pull-ups (jumping up to the top of the bar, then lowering yourself down) are a good way to build strength to be able to do even more pull-ups. SpottingTo spot somebody on a lift is to stand by, ready to assist if they fail. On bench press, you spot by standing at the head end of the persons bench. You keep your hands nearby (but not on) the bar. If they cant complete a rep, you grab the bar and help them safely place it back on the rack. Some lifts, like bench and squats, are commonly spotted. Others, like deadlifts and Olympic lifts, cannot be. Spotting is mainly for safety, but can also be used for forced reps (more on those below).SubmaximalSubmaximal training is work that does not go to failure. Your program might ask you to lift a certain weight until you feel like you have two reps in the tank. That means youd pick a weight you could lift 10 times if you had to, but to follow the instructions youll only lift it eight times. Submaximal training can be less fatiguing than taking your lifts to failure.
