| Repetition (Rep/Reps) |
A Repetition or ‘rep’ is the act of completing
an exercise movement ONCE. This usually involves moving the weight from a
starting point to an extended or contracted point and then returning to the
start again. (Example – Lifting a bench press bar from the starting point,
raising the bar above your chest and then lowering it back to your chest is one
rep) |
| Concentric/Eccentric Phase |
Each rep consists of two phases. The concentric is
contracting a muscle (shortening it) and pushing or pulling the weight. The
eccentric phase is releasing a muscle (lengthening it) and lowering or
controlling the release of a weight.
(Example – Bench press - the concentric is pushing the bar
away from you and using your muscles to power the bar up, the eccentric
controlling the lowering of the bar back down carefully controlling its descent)
|
| Set |
A set is a complete unit of reps performed
without a significant rest. For example a ten rep set would be one lot of
ten reps performed one after another. Once the tenth rep was complete that
would be a set completed. You will often see the set number written before
the rep number. For example 6 x 8 would mean do six sets of eight reps. So
that would be eight reps of an exercise followed by a rest period, then
repeated five more times. This is imaginatively entitled a ‘set/rep scheme’.
You may hear of common schemes such as 5 x 5, 3 x 10 or 4 x 8 but different
programmes may call for all kinds of different methods. |
| Rest Interval |
Fairly simple. The time taken between each
set of an exercise. You may have to time this at first until you can tell
how long it is naturally. You will usually see this as defined in seconds.
60 sec rests are a common answer, although for big power lifts there are
often much longer rest periods and for fat burning intense conditioning
training these rests may decrease rapidly too. For times like these it is
very important to time the rest as 55 seconds is a big difference to 60. |
| Tempo |
This refers to the time taken to complete a rep and its
phases. Many exercise programmes use a tempo scheme to explain the best speed to
train at, some are less strict than others, and some advanced ones simply
suggest a more ‘instinctive’ feel. However you will often see tempo guides
written like this “3 – 1 – 3” The first number is the eccentric phase time, the
middle number the transition or hold time and the third the concentric phase
time. In this case it would be 3 seconds to lower the weight, a second pause and
then three seconds to lift the weight. The pause or transition usually refers to
a contracted ‘squeeze’ of the muscle rather than letting go or relaxing as it is
usually a good idea with most exercises to remain focused and contracted and not
to go loose.
You may occasionally see an x in place of a number this means
‘explosively’ – in other words, forget how many seconds just lift or lower as
fast as possible!
|
| Superset |
A superset is when you combine two exercises
next to each other without separate rests. So for example you could superset
bench presses and chins. In this case you might perform 10 reps of bench
press, get up and perform 10 reps of chins without a break. Then you rest
and return to the bench press for another superset. Supersets are one of the
ways of using antagonist muscles to improve lifts and also to reduce time in
a workout. |
| Pre-exhaustion |
A type of set where you exhaust a single
muscle group with an isolation exercise in order to force the connective
muscles to take more load when you perform a big compound exercise
immediately after. Allows more rapid loading of a muscle for volume work and
also helps very strong guys avoid injury through over lifting. (Example
would be dumbbell flyes
preceding a heavy bench press) |
| Post-Exhaustion (or post-fatigue) |
Opposite of Pre-exhausting a muscle. Here you
do the big compound movement and then follow it up with a small isolation
one to hit any remaining muscle fibres but without ruining the big set
first. |
| Compound exercise |
A lift that requires multiple muscle groups,
motor units or balance chains to complete. An example is the Squat which
works all of the thigh and hip muscles, from feet to buttocks, to lower back
and includes neck and shoulder muscles too, as well as core stability. This
is a high complexity, high energy, and high difficulty exercise and usually
stimulates more overall growth than small isolation exercises. |
| Isolation exercise |
A lift that uses only a single joint or
concentrates on one muscle or muscle chain. For instance the bicep curl.
This does involve hand and wrist flexors, forearm and some shoulder
stability but primarily it affects the biceps and so minimizes impact on
other muscles. Isolation exercises cause less CNF (central nervous fatigue) and are more likely
to cause local soreness and stimulus than overall. Some people believe compound
exercises cover all bases and so isolation exercises are useless, however many
people who are training lagging body parts or following injury may require
isolation exercises. You probably need both, but remember compound exercises
cause more growth but more overall fatigue and need greater recovery. |
| Antagonist pairings |
A specific kind of superset where you pair
two muscle groups that oppose each other and cause both to prime and become
stronger. The biceps and triceps for instance work antagonistically to flex
and lower the arm and a superset that trains biceps and triceps one after
the other will often lead to greater recruitment of fibres and more rapid
strength and size gains. |
| Extended sets |
This is a large category of sets that are
drawn out past the normal rep schemes in various ways for various purposes,
eg Rest/Pause sets, Cluster sets, Partial Reps |
| Rest/Pause sets |
When reaching the point of failure the weight
is released or racked and a short pause taken while still holding the weight
then the next few reps continued and so on. This allows sets to be taken to
extremes but with heavy weights. |
| Cluster sets |
Similar to the above except a rest is taken
between every rep. So a cluster squat would involve one complete rep a five
second pause another complete rep and another five second pause and so on
until completion of the set. This allows extremely heavy weights to be used
but still keep a higher volume than using single reps. |
| Partial/half or burn reps |
These are usually performed once you reach
the end of your normal reps and consist of performing the movement only in
the strongest part of the movement or very quickly to cause a ‘burn’. For
example on a bicep curl, after 10 full reps, you add in three or four reps
using only the top of the curl motion to squeeze the bicep hard and work it
beyond the normal reps you could complete. |
|
Muscular failure (or just failure)
|
Failure usually refers to the point of
momentary failure when a muscle has contracted as much as it can on its reps
and can temporarily not continue to function enough to complete another
proper rep. This is caused by either accumulation of metabolites, lactate,
blood volume, nervous system shutdown or total failure of muscle fibres due
to exhaustion. Failure is sometimes sought as in H.I.T training where it suggests
you have pushed the muscle hard enough to force growth. Failure is also
sometimes warned against, usually in higher volume training where the sheer
pressure on the nervous system may lead to overtraining and inability to grow
due to stress. |
| Intensity |
The real meaning of the word intensity in
strength training is simply the closer the weight lifted is to your
theoretical 1RM (single one rep maximum weight – the most weight you could
manage in that lift at the time with only rep required). Generally the more
reps you lift the less weight you can manage. So 2 reps may be at 95% of
your 1RM weight and this would 95% intense. Whereas 10 reps may be 70% of
your 1RM and therefore be 70% intense. Different intensities are usually
required for different goals and different final results. High intensity low
reps usually result in strength changes whereas medium intensity medium rep
lifts usually involve muscle size gains and some strength gains, low
intensity very high rep lifts usually aim for muscle endurance and injury
protection. Many people use the word intensity to talk about the
‘difficulty’ or perceived ‘pain’ of a set. This is not usually what intensity is
referring to in weight training as it is such a difficult area to quantify. Most
users are best expecting to work hard but not worry too much about the exact
‘pain’ it causes (as long as it is not the sudden pain of injury!). For
proponents of low volume training such as H.I.T however, intensity refers to
BOTH. With a high percentage of 1RM and a high degree of ‘pushing’ yourself to
failure required for the goals in this case. |
| Volume |
This is the total amount of work undertaken
in a single workout. It has two definitions, the true scientific one is a
strict mathematical volume calculation of reps x weight x sets for a total
volume in imperial pounds or metric kilos. However volume, more commonly,
refers to the general number of sets per body part group. With 1-6 sets
being ‘low’ 7-12 ‘medium’ and anything over 13 generally ‘high’ volume.
There are variations on these numbers and it’s quite subjective depending
upon who you ask but generally you will traditionally find strength athletes
using lower volume workouts and bodybuilders aiming for higher volume. |
