Glossary of Terms
Glossary
Active Rest: a period where strength training is completely avoided but may still engage in aerobic exercises or general hobbies (e.g., dancing, hiking) to allow the body to recover and recuperate from the previous cycle of strength training.
Agility: the ability to change the position of the body in space with speed and accuracy.
Atrophy: decrease in size or wasting away of body tissue.
Balance: control of the center of mass over the base of support. Balance exercises can be categorized as:
1. Static: no movement and no change in base of support; usually performed in an unstable environment (e.g., standing on one leg; standing on a bosu ball).
2. Proactive: recovering from an unexpected perturbation (e.g., recovering from an unexpected push, pull, bump, or nudge).
3. Reactive: anticipating a perturbation and reacting in advance. These also include transitional balance exercises where movement occurs, but with no change in base of support (e.g., squat, lean, reach).
4. Dynamic: movement which includes a change in the individual’s base of support (e.g., lunge, step-down, backwards walk, grapevine walk).
Ballistic Stretching: a rapid, jerky movement in which the body part is put into motion and momentum carries it through the range of motion until the muscles are stretched to the limits.
Body Composition: the relative amounts of muscle, fat, bone, and other vital parts of the body.
Cardiovascular Endurance: the ability of the circulatory and respiratory system to supply oxygen during sustained physical activity.
Circuit Training (Resistance): modification of standard strength training emphasizing relatively light load (40-60% of maximum strength) and continuous exercise to provide a more general conditioning to improve body composition, muscular strength and endurance, and cardiovascular fitness.
Coordination: the ability to use the senses, such as sight and hearing, together with body parts in performing tasks smoothly and accurately.
Core: the musculature of the torso contained between the diaphragm on top, pelvic floor on the bottom, and including the hips.
Deload – A period where the client continues to strength train but at a significantly lower frequency, volume, and/or intensity to allow the body to recover and recuperate from the cycle of strength training just completed (Sands, 2012).
Dynamic Stretching: similar to ballistic stretching in that it utilizes speed of movement, but dynamic stretching avoids bouncing and includes movements specific to a sport or movement pattern (NSCA).
Exercise: a type of physical activity consisting of planned, structured, and repetitive bodily movement done to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness.
Face of Effort: the look of strain on an individual’s face when they are in close proximity to muscle failure or have reached muscle failure (Uchida, 2018).
Familiarization Phase: the initial program design that should be used for clients new to working out, or in individuals who have not been lifting weights for 4 weeks or more. The goal is to introduce (or re-introduce) the client to exercise movements, techniques, and program design features to improve self-efficacy. This phase should be lower in volume and intensity and last two weeks to two months. depending on how the client responds and progress.
Fitness: a set of attributes that people have or achieve that relates to the ability to perform physical activity. Health-related physical fitness components include body composition, cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility. (Wilder, 2006).
Flexibility: the range of motion around a joint.
Homeostasis: balance; a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism.
Interference Effect (Concurrent Training Effect): simultaneously incorporating both resistance and endurance exercise within a periodized training regime. This approach may attenuate gains in muscle mass, strength, and power compared with undertaking resistance training alone (Wilson, 2012).
Joint Integrity: the soundness of the anatomical and kinematic properties of a joint. It involves joint congruency, secondary soft tissue integrity, and muscle strength.
Joint Stability: ability of the kinetic chain (i.e., nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems) to stabilize a joint during movement.
Lactate (Lactic Acid): an end product of glycolysis; most common marker of increased anaerobic metabolism during exercise. (Coburn, 2012).
Lactate Threshold (LT): the exercise intensity at which blood lactate begins an abrupt increase above the baseline concentration (Coburn, 2012).
Mobility: the usable range of motion during dynamic, loaded conditions.
Muscle Failure: the point when a working muscle is fully fatigued to the extent that it can no longer complete another repetition of movement with proper form.
Muscle Hypertrophy: an increase in the cross-sectional area of the muscle fiber (Coburn, 2012).
Muscular Endurance: the ability of muscle to continue to perform without fatigue.
Muscular Strength: the maximum force a muscle group can produce at a specified velocity.
Neuromuscular Control (NMC): See Proper Form.
Neuromuscular Performance: the ability of the neuromuscular system to functionally control and drive movements by an appropriate integration, coordination and use of sensory feedback, reflex activity, central motor drive, muscle recruitment patterns, muscular excitation-contraction coupling, and energy availability (Faude, 2020).
Neuroplasticity: the ability of the brain to change in structure or function in response to experience; the ability of nerve cells to grow and form new connections to other neurons.
One-Repetition Maximum: the maximum load an individual can lift with proper form.
Periodization: a logical phasic method of manipulating training variables in order to increase the potential for achieving specific performance goals. (ACSM’s Resource Manual for Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription).
Power: the ability or rate at which one can perform work.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) Stretching: a type of stretching that involves a partner and both passive movement and active (concentric and isometric) muscle actions (Coburn, 2012).
Proper Form: any movement in which the right muscles produce the right amount of force at the right time. Appropriate Neuromuscular control manifests as proper form.
Range of Motion: the range a movement allowed at a joint, typically measured in degrees of a circle.
Rate of Perceived Exertion Scales (RPE): the effort the individual perceives they have exerted in the set (Tiggeman, 2010). More specifically, it is the effort the individual perceives they have put forth at the end of the set (i.e. the last repetition, or the last few seconds of a timed set, such as a plank).
Reaction Time: the time elapsed between stimulation and the beginning of the reaction to it.
Recover: to restore to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.
Repetition: a motion or exercise (such as a push-up) that is repeated and usually counted.
Repetitions in Reserve (RIR): the number of repetitions an individual could still perform when terminating a set prior to reaching muscle failure. (e.g., “I felt like I could have performed three more repetitions”) (Zourdos, 2016).
Rest-Interval: the total period of rest or relief between sets during exercise (De Salles, 2009).
Self-Efficacy: the belief we have in our own abilities, specifically our ability to meet the challenges ahead of us and complete a task successfully (Akhtar, 2008).
Set: a group of a specific number of repetitions of a particular exercise.
Slowing of the velocity of movement: the phenomenon that occurs when a client takes a set to within close proximity of muscle failure, causing neuromuscular fatigue, with a resulting decrease in the velocity of movement (Morán-Navarro, 2019).
Speed: the ability to perform a movement within a short period of time.
Stamina: the bodily or mental capacity to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity.
Strength: the maximal force a muscle group can produce at a specified velocity (Sands, 2012).
Strength-Endurance: the ability of a muscle group to execute repeated contractions over a period of time sufficient to cause muscular fatigue, or to maintain a specific percentage of the maximum voluntary contraction (1RM) for a prolonged period of time.
Sub-Maximal Exercise: any exercise where the effort put forth is less than maximal.
Super-set: performing two different exercises in succession--doing one set of an exercise and then immediately doing one set of a different exercise before recovering.
Tri-set: performing three different exercises in succession--doing one set of an exercise before immediately doing one set of a different exercise, followed by one set of a third exercise without resting or recovering in between the second or third exercise.
Valsalva Maneuver: holding the breath while the glottis is simultaneously closed.
VO2 max: the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilize during a specified period of intense exercise. (Merriam-Webster)
Work-to-Rest Ratio (work:rest): ‘the relationship between the duration of the exercise interval and that of the recovery interval’ (Coburn, 2012).