We’ve already broken down the Freeletics terms every Free Athlete should know. Get up to speed with some common fitness lingo by learning some frequently used terms.
Aerobic
Any form of exercise that uses oxygen is aerobic. This usually involves sustained exercise in which the heart rate is gradually increased.
Anaerobic
Any exercise that is intense enough that the body cannot receive enough oxygen and lactate forms is anaerobic. Intense, high-resistance exercises fall under this category.
Barbell
A (usually weighted) bar that you add removable weights to.
BMI
Body Mass Index, or BMI for short, is a calculation using the ratio of height and weight to estimate your total body fat.
It’s broken down into different categories (i.e. healthy weight, underweight, overweight, etc.) and is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in square meters.
Calisthenics
A core component of the Freeletics brand, calisthenics involves exercises that rely on body weight as resistance to increase strength, flexibility, and overall athletic performance. It’s the beating heart of our “No Excuses” philosophy that empowers you to train anytime, anywhere.
Caloric balance
Striking the right balance between the calories you eat and the calories you burn to maintain your weight.
Cardiovascular exercise
Cardiovascular exercise, or “cardio” as it's commonly known, is a form of exercise that utilizes the aerobic energy system. This includes activities such as walking, hiking, long runs, and bike rides.
Contrast training
A training method where a heavily-resisted, weighted exercise is followed immediately by an unresisted, explosive bodyweight exercise. The fast twitch muscle fibers are activated, encouraging hypertrophy.
Compound movement
A movement or exercise that involves more than one joint or muscle group. Squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are all compound movements.
Core
Refers to the muscles in your torso, including the abdominals, obliques, and lower back. This muscle group is essential for stability and balance.
Cross-training
Cross-training is the idea of training across multiple disciplines. And you don’t need to be a jack of all trades to benefit from it. Pairing different kinds of training and exercise modalities is a great way to prevent injuries, keep things fresh, and challenge you in new ways. As with PB & J, it just works.
DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
The soreness or stiffness you feel one to three days after exercising. DOMS is caused by microtears in the muscle fibers.
Dumbbell
A short bar with two weights at the end. It can be used singularly or in pairs for various weighted exercises.
Dynamic stretching
Dynamic stretches are a series of smooth and controlled movements that get your heart pumping and your body primed for a workout. In the Freeletics app, this is known as the Warmup section of your Coach session.
Fascia
A soft, stringy layer of connective tissue that surrounds our muscles (and other body structures) and helps keep them in place.
Foam rolling
Foam rolling involves a firm, cylindrical foam roller that you roll over various body parts to promote relaxation and target knots or trigger points that relieve tension. It’s a simple tool that can offer several myofascial benefits.
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the ability of your muscles to stretch and is mainly determined by the elasticity of muscles and their associated connective tissues. Along with mobility, flexibility plays a central role in your performance and injury prevention.
HIIT
High-Intensity Interval Training. Its name says it all; short, intense anaerobic exercises with varied recovery periods. Short, snappy, and incredibly effective.
Hypertrophy
The process that occurs as a result of resistance training wherein the muscles grow in size. Find out more here.
Kettlebell
A kettlebell is a cast-iron, bell-shaped weight that can be used in weighted movements that involve swinging, lifting, snatching, squatting, and more.
Lactate
Lactate occurs when your body breaks down carbohydrates (glucose) under extreme physical strain. Also known as lactic acid, a widespread misconception is that it causes the muscles to burn during anaerobic exercise.
In fact, it's the hydrogen ions (H+), which are a byproduct of the same energy pathway (anaerobic glycolytic system, that make the muscles acidic and not the lactic acid.
Metabolic conditioning
Exercises that improve the efficiency of the body’s energy systems. Placing large demands on your body’s energy systems through intense, continuous exercise burns calories at a higher rate and leaves your metabolism higher for a period of time after your workout. Both HIIT and circuit training are forms of metabolic conditioning.
Metabolism
The process by which the body converts food into energy. It can be either aerobic or anaerobic. Having a faster metabolism means that you need to consume more food to fuel your body.
Mobility
Mobility refers to how well your joints can move throughout a range of motion, which is essential to improving your fitness. To avoid confusion with flexibility, think “mo-mo- movement” – combining flexibility with strength and control to complete exercises. Some examples of mobility exercises include a Deep Squat Hold or 90 to 90.
Muscle memory
After taking an extended break from training, muscle memory refers to how quickly muscles can return to their previous strength and skill. This happens because your nervous system and muscle fibers keep adaptations from previous training.
One repetition maximum (1RM)
The amount of weight you could possibly lift for an exercise, stating that as 100%.
Plate
A type of weight designed to fit on the end of a barbell. Usually in 2.5 kg increments.
Plyometrics
Exercises that involve a short loading period before an explosive movement - most plyometric exercises are jumps.
Progressive overload
Progressive overload is a type of strength training that helps you adapt and improve your athletic performance. It involves continually stressing muscles in specific ways to avoid plateauing in muscle strength and size.
It’s a gradual process and can happen by increasing one of the following areas over a period of time: intensity, volume, frequency, or tension.
Rack
The structure a barbell rests on. It usually features at least two vertical poles with holders for the barbell that can be adjusted to different heights.
Recovery
Recovery can be active or passive, but it’s just as important as your training. Active recovery is true to its name – some type of movement or Cooldown to bring down your heart rate and support blood flow.
Passive recovery is everything you do outside of your exercise, such as sleep, nutrition, stretching, and other mindfulness exercises that promote your overall well-being.
Reps and Sets
Reps (repetitions) are the number of times you perform an exercise in one go, while sets are the groups of reps performed with rest in between.
Resistance training
Resistance training is any exercise that uses resistance or weight to promote muscular contractions that build strength, endurance, and mass.
RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
RPE is a scale used to measure exercise intensity based on how hard it feels for you. It normally ranges from 1 (light effort) to 10 (maximum effort) and is used to tailor workouts to your fitness level and goals.
Sprints
Sprints are your all-out running efforts – the opposite of a walk in the park. You should be breathless and at a 9 out of 10 rate of perceived effort (RPE). It should be your maximum pace that you can hold for only a short time.
Stability
Stability is about maintaining and controlling your center of gravity during a movement.
Stamina
Your ability to sustain a prolonged effort of physical activity. Research shows that women tend to have better stamina than men.
Static stretching
Post-workout, it’s essential to cool it down and return your body to base level – that’s where static stretching comes in! Static stretching involves holding a stretch position for an extended time without moving, encouraging relaxation and that zen-like bliss after a tough workout.
Tabata
A fan-fave HIIT workout that is short and sweet. Tabata traditionally involves intervals of 20 seconds of all-out high-intensity work with 10 seconds off, repeated 8 times.
Training modalities
Training modalities encompass the various ways you can workout, train, and reach your peak athletic performance. And spoiler alert, there’s no “best” way to train.
Whether that’s resistance training, HIIT, plyometrics, running, or a hybrid training of sorts, the best type of training is the one you can stick with consistently.
V02 max
The maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise. It is often used to determine cardiovascular fitness.
ClapClap
A way to celebrate other Free Athlete’s achievements and build a sense of connection. A ClapClap is on par with “nice work” or “great job”, but with a Freeletics flare.