Strength training glossary

The words that come up in training plans, gym conversations and this site’s guides, each defined in a sentence or two. Where a term deserves more, the link takes you to the guide or calculator that covers it.

AMRAP: As many reps as possible: a set taken to the last rep you can complete with good form, often used to test progress.
Compound exercise: An exercise that moves more than one joint and trains several muscle groups at once, such as the squat, deadlift, bench press or row. More: Your first gym workout
Concentric: The lifting phase of a rep, when the muscle shortens, such as pressing the bar back up in a bench press.
Deload: A planned lighter week, usually with fewer sets and sometimes lighter weights, that lets accumulated fatigue fade before you train hard again. More: Deload weeks
DOMS: Delayed onset muscle soreness: the stiffness and tenderness that appear a day or two after hard or unfamiliar training and fade within a few days. More: Muscle soreness
Double progression: A way to progress where you first add reps within a target range, then add weight and start again at the bottom of the range. More: Progressive overload
Drop set: A set taken close to failure, after which the weight is lowered and the set continues straight away, usually for one or two drops. More: Supersets and drop sets
Eccentric: The lowering phase of a rep, when the muscle lengthens under load, such as lowering the bar to your chest in a bench press.
Full-body workout: A session that trains all the major muscle groups, usually repeated two or three times a week. More: Choosing a training split
Hip hinge: A movement pattern that bends at the hips with a neutral back, as in a deadlift, Romanian deadlift or kettlebell swing. More: Your first gym workout
Hypertrophy: Growth in the size of muscle fibres, and so of the muscle: the goal of most bodybuilding-style training. More: How many reps
Intensity: In strength training, how heavy a weight is relative to your maximum, usually a percentage of your 1RM. Not the same as how hard a set feels. More: 1RM calculator
Isolation exercise: An exercise that moves mainly one joint to target one muscle, such as a biceps curl or a leg extension.
One-rep max (1RM): The heaviest weight you can lift for a single rep with good form. Usually estimated from a heavier set rather than tested directly. More: One-rep max
Personal record (PR): Your best performance on an exercise: the heaviest weight, the most reps at a given weight, or the highest estimated 1RM. More: Workout tracker
Plateau: A stretch of weeks in which a lift stops improving despite consistent training. More: Progressive overload
Progressive overload: Gradually increasing the demand on your muscles over time, by adding weight, reps or sets, so that they keep adapting. More: Progressive overload
Push pull legs (PPL): A split that trains the pushing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps), the pulling muscles (back, biceps) and the legs on separate days. More: Choosing a training split
Rep: Short for repetition: one complete movement of an exercise, such as lowering and lifting the bar once.
Rep range: The number of reps prescribed for a set, such as 8 to 12. More: How many reps
Rest interval: The time between sets. Typically longer for heavy compound lifts and shorter for isolation work. More: Rest between sets
Rest-pause set: A set taken close to failure, followed by a short break of about 10 to 20 seconds and a few more reps with the same weight.
RIR: Reps in reserve: how many more reps you could have done when you ended a set. RIR 2 means two reps left. More: RPE and RIR
RPE: Rating of perceived exertion: a score from 1 to 10 for how hard a set was. In lifting, RPE 10 is a maximal effort and RPE 8 means about two reps left. More: RPE and RIR
Sarcopenia: The gradual loss of muscle mass and strength with age. Strength training is one of the most effective ways to slow it. More: Strength training after 50
Set: A group of reps done one after another without resting, such as eight squats.
Superset: Two exercises done back to back with little or no rest between them, followed by a rest. More: Supersets and drop sets
Tempo: The speed of each phase of a rep, often written as four numbers such as 3-1-1-0: seconds lowering, pausing at the bottom, lifting, and pausing at the top.
Training frequency: How often a muscle group or a lift is trained per week. More: How often to work out
Training split: How you divide your training across the week, such as full body, upper/lower or push pull legs. More: Choosing a training split
Training to failure: Ending a set only when another rep with good form is no longer possible. More: RPE and RIR
Training volume: How much work you do, usually counted as hard sets per muscle group per week, or as weight × reps × sets. More: Sets per week
Upper/lower split: A split that alternates upper-body and lower-body sessions, often four days a week. More: Choosing a training split
Warm-up sets: Lighter sets before your working sets that rehearse the movement and build up to the working weight. More: Warm-up calculator
Working sets: The sets that count: the ones at your planned weight and effort, after the warm-up. More: Sets per week

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