Bodybuilding Terms

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             When i first started bodybuilding it took me a while to learn what all the terms meant so i've listed the most commonly used bodybuilding terms to get beginners up to speed.

BULKING UP

Gaining body weight by adding both muscle and fat

 BURN

 The burning sensation in a muscle that comes from lactic acid and ph build up when exercising the muscle to failure

 CHEAT REPS

 When muscle fatigue begins to set in a bodybuilder can use improper form to complete the movement. Using a swing or a jerk which allows the surrounding muscle groups to assist in the movement.

CIRCUIT TRAINING

 A workout technique in which the individual goes from one exercise to another doing only one set per exercise with little or no rest between sets. Individual gains some aerobic benefits at the expense of maximum muscle strength gains.

CUTTING UP

Stripping the body of excess body fat while retaining maximum muscularity

 CYCLE

A length of time set aside for specific types of training like cutting, bulking up, strength training. Another meaning is taking a supplement for a specific period of time. For example taking Creatine you would have a loading phase, a maintainence phase and stopping phase, all together would be the complete cycle.

DEFINITION

Extremely low body fat added to superior muscle separation and vascularity

 DIALING IT IN

The process of training and dieting to get shredded for a competition.

 FLAT

Describes muscles that have lost their overall fullness, usually caused by overtraining or a lack of nutrients and water

FLUSH

To increase the blood supply to a muscle so to bring in more nutrients

FORCED REPS
Additional reps of an exercise performed with the help of a training partner when you can't do anymore reps on your own.

FREAK

Someone of inhuman size or someone who has fantastic muscle building genetics.

FULL

The appearance of muscle pressing up against the skin. The best competitive bodybuilders aim to look full and shredded.

GEAR
A slang word for anabolic steroids

GLUTES 

The largest muscles forming each of the human buttocks. Glutes is short for Gluteas Maximus.

GUNS

A slang word for biceps

H.I.T
High intensity training. A method that states it not about doing 'more' or 'less' exercise but doing an appropriate amount of exercise to stimulate maximum muscle growth.

INTENSITY
It can mean that the pace you are training at is higher than normal, as in taking shorter rests between sets. It can also mean that the weight you use during those sessions is heavier than usual. It can also mean that the workload within a given time period, combined with the weight and pace is increased.

ISOLATION
A technique that focuses training on an idividual muscle, without secomdary or assisting muscle groups being involved. An example is the seated dumbell concentration curl which only works the bicep and no other muscle group.

JUICE
A slang word for anabolic steroids.

LATS
The abbreviated word for Latissimus Dorsi which in Latin means 'lateral muscles of the back'

MASS
Mass basically means size. If you are adding muscle mass you are adding muscle size.

MUSCLE CONFUSION
A technique used to counteract the slowing of muscle growth that occurs when muscles adapt to the training demands placed on them. To keep the muscles growing and getting stronger a bodybuilder needs to vary their reps, sets, rest, exercise angles and weight used during their training session.

NEGATIVES
The lowering of a weght against gravity, specifically, resisting gravity by lowering the weight slowly and under control.

PEAK
When a bodybuilder prepares for a competition they cut their body fat to an unusually low level to bring out maximum muscularity that can only be maintained for a short period of time.

PERIODIZATION
Also called cycle training, an approach to strength and muscle building in which a bodybuilder trains light for several weeks, then heavier, and then really heavy, and the process is cycled. Helps avoid burnout and injury.

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
Gradually adding more resistance during strength training exercises as your strength increases.

PUMP
 The look and feel a bodybuilder experiences when their muscles engorge with blood as the result of intense exercise

PYRAMIDING
The act of increasing your poundage while decreasing your reps on successive sets

RIPPED
A condition of extremely low body fat with superior muscle separation and vascularity

REP
Abbreviation of repetition. Moving a weight through a range of motion and then back again one time.

ROIDS
A slang word for anabolic steroids

SET
A group of reps that is followed by a rest interval.

SHREDDED
A condition of extremely low body fat with superior muscle separation. The same meanig as ripped.

SITE INJECTIONS
A term which means injecting steroids into a specific muscle group to help bring them up to lagging body parts.

SIX PACK
Abdominal muscles so well developed that you can see each separate stomach muscle under the skin.

SKULL CRUSHER
The lying French Press, in which you lower a barbell from full extension above your head down to your forehead and then extend at the elbows to press it back up.

SPOT
Spot means to stand over someone who is lifting heavy weights. A spotters main aim is to prevent injury in case someone cannot finish their reps.

STACKING
Usually means taking  more than one supplement together.

V TAPER
A person with big shoulders and a small waist.

VASCULAR
The visibility of veins on a bodybuilder as a result of exercise and low body fat.

WASHBOARD

Abdominal muscles so well developed that you can see each separate stomach muscle under the skin.





Tom from Stoke