The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

195. Gym Lingo 101: Key Terms and Tips to Help You Feel Confident While Lifting

• Kristy Castillo

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When it comes to the gym, it can almost feel like another planet with an entirely different language! 


Between the acronyms, weird phrases, and overly complicated terms, it’s no wonder you feel like you need a translator sometimes!


In this episode, I’m breaking down common gym terms and lifting lingo in a way that actually makes sense. From reps and sets to volume and intensity, you’ll finally understand what the hell people mean when they say “progressive overload”, “time under tension”, “glute activation”, and more!


**Spoiler alert: you DON’T need to increase your weight every week (and you shouldn’t). Honestly…if you just slow down more often, you’ll build more muscle AND boost the powerful mind-muscle connection (one of my favorite things to focus on)!


The bottom line is, you don’t need to memorize every.single.term. to crush your workouts.


But…I DO want you to feel empowered to ask questions, tweak your training when needed, and lift with confidence. The gym shouldn’t be a place that intimidates you. This is YOUR fitness journey that you can own + totally kick ass with!!


In this episode, we cover:

  • What reps, sets & volume mean + why they matter for your workouts
  • Intensity & effort + what “failure” looks like
  • 5 simple ways to gradually increase intensity over time 
  • Why “time under tension” can help you build more muscle 
  • Using tempo to boost your results & improve your form
  • Understanding the concept of “movement mechanics”
  • Why “mind-muscle connection” is the underrated gym secret that changes everything
  • How supersets & circuits can spice up your workouts + save you time
  • Various exercise formats like drop sets, AMRAP, EMOM, and more
  • Common gym phrases that can sound confusing (but really aren’t)


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take. Let's go.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, what's up, welcome to today's episode. We are going to be talking all about different gym terms today and gym lingo, and I'm going to break it down because we are working on building our bodies and building our confidence and I feel like this is something that it's confusing. It's overwhelming to go to the gym, you know, if you're feeling kind of intimidated. It's overwhelming to start a program and not really understand the lingo. I feel like there is a certain lingo and there are still terms that I hear and I have to kind of stop and think like what are we talking about here? So it takes a while and I'm hoping to create kind of a cheat sheet, a little PDF to go along with this that I'll put out on social media or link here in the show notes. But I think it's really helpful because there are just little abbreviations or, you know, talking about even sets and reps and volume and things like that. It can be overwhelming and so I just want to break it down for you in a real way so that you can understand and so that you can feel smart, so you can feel confident, so you can feel aware when you are having a conversation with someone at the gym or online, or if you're talking to me and having a question, whatever, whatever it is right, or if you're just starting a program and you see one of these abbreviations. Of course there should be a glossary of terms right inside of the program. But and you can Google it, you can ask, chat, gpt, like there are ways to find out. But it is nice, once you are, you know you have these goals of becoming stronger, and becoming this stronger, more confident version of yourself, that version of yourself should know what a few of these things are anyway, and you may not even use all of them, but I definitely want to dive in and talk about what they are, because the more educated you are, the more confident you are. The more confident you are, the more badass you are. So let's dive in.

Speaker 2:

I want to talk about them in different segments because there are, like I said, there are some rep sets volume, which is the first kind of segment here that I broke it up into that you will hear a lot, which is the first kind of segment here that I broke it up into that you will hear a lot. And then you know there are some again that you won't really, maybe even ever do and maybe won't concern you or you will think, oh, I'm never going to have to worry about that. That's something you know. Way too advanced for me and not true. So I definitely want to break them down into kind of these segments, these different phases, that kind of I don't want to say that they are separated by importance, but definitely kind of where you're going to start out in your journey when you start a workout program. Every single workout is going to have reps, right, it's going to have sets and it's going to have volume. So we need to kind of start there and then be more advanced.

Speaker 2:

So in terms of reps, sets and volume, a rep, a repetition, is one complete movement of an exercise. So one full bicep curl is one rep. I get this question a lot because sometimes if I have a combo movement right, let's say we're doing an RDL with you know you have a dumbbell in each hand and you go down into a dumbbell RDL and then you stand upright and then you go into a bicep curl that would be like a combination movement and then I'll have like one let's say I have 10 reps listed on the app for that particular workout If it's a combo movement. I personally am counting that entire movement as one rep. So I'm not saying the RDL would be one rep and then the bicep curl would be rep two. I'm saying you do the whole thing, that's one. So it's nice that and I make mistakes on the app all the time because I'm entering it in myself but it's nice to be able to know which one is which. So I do get questions a lot from people either just not understanding what a rep is or is it alternating? If you're doing one leg, the other leg, you're kind of alternating. Is that one rep? So it is confusing.

Speaker 2:

Make sure that you can ask the person that created the program if there's any way possible, but then also use your own judgment. If you feel like you can do, use your own judgment. If you feel like you can do more, do more. If you feel like it's you know you can lift heavy and do less reps and count the combo, you know each rep then just kind of use your judgment. It's not gonna, it's not the end of the world if you mess it up. So a repetition, shortened as rep, is one complete movement of an exercise.

Speaker 2:

A set is a group of reps. So an example of that is three sets of 10 reps is the same as you're doing 10 reps of the bicep curl and then you do that again and you do that again three times so you can group it into a set and then volume is the total workload. So you take your sets, you times that by your reps and you times that by the weight that you lifted. That is your total volume for that set. So my app calculates that for my clients. On its own It'll say like you lifted X amount of weight. On its own It'll say like you lifted X amount of weight, which is great. So more volume in smart progression equals more stimulus for muscle growth. So when we're talking about progressive overload, we want to either be increasing the amount of sets that you're doing, the amount of reps that you are doing or the amount of weight that you are lifting. All of those in smart, progressive overload will equal more stimulus for your muscle, which will equal more muscle growth. You do not have to increase the sets and the reps and the weight. You can just increase one of the three and that will be a form of progressive overload.

Speaker 2:

So now let's talk about in this next phase I want to talk about intensity, failure and effort. So now that you understand your reps and you understand your sets and your volume, which is your entire workload right, that makes up the workout, that's the basis of it, and then you can kind of move it into different ways of being more challenging. Instead of just doing the same workout with the same effort, same reps, right, every single time, there are ways to make it more challenging. Instead of just doing the same workout with the same effort, same reps, right, every single time, there are ways to make it more advanced. And this is where it gets more advanced and more interesting. And these are the ways that you can again implement progressive overload, or challenging your muscles, or making it different and just challenging yourself, even mentally. If you're like, oh, this workout's getting a little boring, change up these types of things, okay.

Speaker 2:

So RPE, which we talked about in a couple episodes back, is the rate of perceived exertion. So on a scale of one to 10, how hard the set felt, if you have an RPE of nine, you could maybe do one more rep. If you have an RPE of seven, you could maybe do three more reps. So that's kind of how you would judge that as far as the difficulty of your workout. So if you're hearing RPE, that's what that stands for.

Speaker 2:

Failure is the point when you physically cannot complete another rep with good form. Failure, okay, whether you cannot get that by that last bicep curl up. You just are gritting and grunting and you just cannot get it all the way up to where it needs to be complete that rep. That is going to failure. You should train close to failure, but not to failure all the time. You should train close to failure all the time.

Speaker 2:

Otherwise, what's the point? If you're just picking up five pound dumbbells week after week, month after month, year after year, that's not much stimulus on your muscle. You are not going to grow much muscle. Your body will not change following along a video and you're so tired. This was like insanity for me from Beachbody. I was just doing what they were doing Every single week. I would do the same amount of reps and the same amount of weight and I'd be hands on my knees, tired, and I wasn't ever getting stronger. Maybe endurance wise, I was getting a little bit better or more fit, but I wasn't getting stronger. Literally felt every week like I was getting weaker actually, which is crazy. So that is the point of going to failure. So we have the intensity of the workout. We have going to failure. Challenge yourself If you get to the end of the reps that are listed on that particular exercise and you can still do four more reps, do them.

Speaker 2:

That is increasing the activity, that's increasing the stimulus on your muscle. That is increasing the activity. That's increasing the stimulus on your muscle. That is increasing the difficulty, that is progressive overload. And then we have progressive overload. So gradually increasing intensity over time. Let me say that again. Gradually increasing intensity. Right, this can be more weight, more reps, more sets. It can be better form, so you could go deeper in your squat. That is a way to implement progressive overload. You are getting better, increasing the intensity, shorter rest. So let me say those again More weight, more reps, more sets, better form and shorter rest. Those are five ways. In case you want to write those down or kind of have them in your brain all in a row, those are ways that you can increase intensity over time, gradually.

Speaker 2:

Okay, when I'm talking about progressive overload, you do not have to increase your weights every single week. A lot of people thinking progressive overload when I say progressive overload or when anyone says progressive overload, for whatever reason we hear. Okay, if I'm doing bicep curls with five pounds this week, I need to go up to 10 pounds next week. I need to go up to 15 pounds the next week. I need to go up to 20 pounds the next week. Then what are you doing? 25, 30. You're not curling 50 pound dumbbells anytime soon. So you have to use the weight, the reps. You can, in better form, like I said, put a hold in there for time under tension, which we'll talk about here next, or increase the sets. There are so many ways to implement progressive overload. It doesn't mean that you have to pick a heavier weight every single week. It means you can squeeze out one more rep. You can do a full, an entirely different or an entirely separate additional set.

Speaker 2:

I was trying to say there there are different ways to implement progressive overload than to just be increasing your weight. So don't always think that that's the only way that there is to challenge your muscles, because there's so many different ways, which we're going to talk about here in this phase three, where we're talking about time, tempo and control. So, time under tension this is what I was just talking about. You can do an isometric hold where you are holding it longer when your muscle is contracted, so the total time that your muscle is under a load contracted during a set. Slow is harder. So if you slow down the movement, that's one way actually is to just progressive overload. Okay. These are things that we're talking about. As far as changing up the movement without increasing reps, without increasing sets, without increasing weight, without any of that right. These are different ways that you can do that. Slowing down the movement instantly makes it harder because you have to have it, you have to have more control and you have to hold the weight longer. If you are just like I'm going to rep these out so quickly, slow the fuck down, okay. So this helps with hypertrophy and it helps with mind muscle connection.

Speaker 2:

I've heard so many people rip on the bicep curl, like the isometric hold where you're basically holding it where your elbow is at a 90 degree angle. I love to do slow and controlled bicep curls and then for my last rep I will curl just half the way up so that my elbow is at a 90 degree angle and I'm holding it like kind of like the servers they call it like you're going to serve a platter. You have your dumbbells in that position for a bicep curl. Instead of curling up, you just bring them out to the side. So you're kind of doing a rotation, keeping your elbows tucked into your side and rotating.

Speaker 2:

I've heard so many coaches and personal trainers say that that is bullshit, that that is not a good movement, that it is not working anything and blah, blah, blah. I love it. It is at the end of you know, my reps would say I'm doing eight to 10 bicep curls, whatever. That last one I am almost a failure. And then I hold it in that concentrated space where my muscle is contracted and it's exhausted and it's having to work really hard to hold the muscle there. And then I put a little rotation in it. Okay, that is huge. That is time under tension, without adding a different movement, without adding a ton of weight. I actually didn't pick up any more weight, it's the same amount of weight. So that is such a good way to help with hypertrophy and to help with that mind muscle connection, because I really have to think. That's a really small movement that I have to really think about my body executing properly.

Speaker 2:

Next we have tempo. So this would be something like if you are doing a workout program and it's there's numbers next to it, right? So you have your reps and then it will say like, say like, for example, 3-1-1-0. So this is the tempo of your movement and this next to that it will say next to the 3-1-1-0, it'll say eccentric pause, concentric pause. That translates to three seconds lowering, which is the eccentric movement, one second pause at the bottom, one second lift, which is the concentric, because your muscle is contracted, and then a zero pause at the top. So 3-1-1-0 is three seconds down, one second pause, one second lift and you're going right back into it. Okay, that's very random. That's a very random number.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I picked this builds, control and improved gains because your body doesn't know that's coming. Your body picks up a bicep curl and your brain thinks, okay, we're going to curl this up and we're going to put it back down. And we're going to curl it up and we're going to put it back down when you slow down, either concentrically and count to three while you're lifting it, or, even better, if you lift it at a regular pace and then you lower it for three seconds, because so many times when you do a bicep curl, you're maybe focused on the weight up, but when you go out of that movement you're not thinking at all. That eccentric phase is so important. If you think about lowering any kind of a weight after you've done the movement and you're going back down, you think, okay, the movement's over, think about it not being over and think about controlling it in that eccentric phase. So good, that's how I got my first pull-up was by kind of quickly jumping up into a pull-up movement and then really focusing on that slow eccentric movement. This builds control and it improves gains. So again, that was time. Tempo and control, focusing on those things inside of your reps and sets is game-changing.

Speaker 2:

Next, I want to talk about movement mechanics, which is kind of what we were just talking about a second ago with the eccentric and the concentric. I want to break that down. Just talking about a second ago with the eccentric and the concentric, I want to break that down. So the concentric contraction is where the muscle shortens under tension. So example, lifting the dumbbell in a bicep curl, like I was talking about, when you are lifting it up, the muscle is shortening and this is the working phase. On the contrary, the eccentric contraction is when the muscle lengthens under tension. Under tension Okay.

Speaker 2:

So, like I said, lowering that dumbbell in the bicep curl, when you're putting it back down to your side, you're often so. This is where you're often the strongest and this is where the muscle damage happens, because a lot of times when you curl it up again, like I just said, when you're curling that bicep curl, up that dumbbell up, you got it up there and you think, okay, good, you kind of lower it back down, you can hurt your elbow, you can kind of like overextend it even out into that movement. So controlling that eccentric contraction is so important. And when I learned that I kind of just do it now without even thinking, but when I really focused on that, really kind of doing a one, two, three count on the way down, I really noticed how much gain I was actually leaving on the table, because I'm like God this is, I could be working my muscle obviously concentrically and eccentrically, and I'm just focusing on one of that. You're really leaving gains on the table and that strength on the table.

Speaker 2:

Another one I just talked about was the isometric hold. So when that muscle is under tension without changing the length of the muscle example, holding a plank or pausing at the bottom of a squat or holding that bicep curl where it's contracted. That's great for stability and it's great for strength. So so good, your muscles working, but your joints aren't working, so that's perfect. Range of motion is how far you move through a joint's movement. This is also abbreviated into ROM. So if someone's talking about your ROM, they're talking about your range of motion, how deep you get into a squat, how deep you get into a lunge, things like that. You want to focus on full ROM, full range of motion, over partial reps. Most of the time there are good things you know as far as like pulses, things like that you know doing, let's say, a hip thrust, for example. You want to focus on that full range of motion most of the time. But there are there is, you know, is a good squeeze at the top or a good pause or things like that. That can be done. But most of the time, for the just overall health and strength, you want to focus on a full range of motion Stabilizer muscles.

Speaker 2:

These are muscles that support a movement, so they're not the prime movers of the exercise that you're doing, the rep that you're doing, but still essential. So, for example, during heavy rows, if you're doing back rows, your core and your shoulders are supporting you because you're bent over. You're doing a bent over row so you're bent over. You've got your core contracted to hold you in the bent over position and you've got your shoulders stabilized to help you pull with your back. So just because you're doing a back row doesn't mean that your back is the only thing working. So if there's kind of tips saying you know, a back row will main muscle work, your back stabilizer muscles are other muscles that are being worked because they are stabilizing your body so that it can execute the movement.

Speaker 2:

This one's huge mind-muscle connection I'm sure you've heard of this, but I freaking love it and it's so important Focusing on the feeling of the muscle that you're working. Don't just whip through these bicep curls. Don't just whip through these dead lifts. Think what muscle am I supposed to be moving right now to engage and lift these dumbbells or this barbell? Don't just move the weight, engage with it. Get your whole body involved and that will change so much of your progress, honestly.

Speaker 2:

And then let's get into a couple different things. As far as like sets and what they're called, so in my programming we do supersets. I don't really do circuits anymore which are more of like five work, like five exercises, that you do all five and then you go back and do all five again. We don't do that so much anymore, but that would be what a circuit would be. Would be what a circuit would be let's talk about, like the formats and the methods of different ways to train. So a superset is two exercises back to back with no rest. This can be the same muscle group or it can be different muscle groups. There are benefits to both and I really like doing supersets. I think it saves a lot of time, I think it helps people from getting bored. But there are definitely benefits to doing, let's say, like a bicep curl and then you go right into a hammer curl. Obviously that's going to be back-to-back bicep movements. You can also do superset of doing bicep curls and then you can go into squats. Those would be obviously completely different muscle groups. It doesn't matter. Well, it does matter based on your goals. But it doesn't matter as far as it's still a superset.

Speaker 2:

Drop set means that you hit failure with a certain weight and then you drop the weight and you keep going. So typically when you're doing a drop set, you're going to do like this for hypertrophy and you're going to do like burnout sets kind of at the end. Let's say you've got bicep curls again. It seems to be a popular one today. You pick up the heaviest dumbbell that you can do. You do it until failure. You drop that weight. You pick up a lighter weight, you do the same thing. You do that until failure. You drop that weight. You pick up a lighter right, and you just keep going and keep going, and keep going. This would be a drop set. I hate those. They're so hard Because by the end you're curling like no weight, like one pound, and it feels so heavy. But that's great because it means your muscles are really, really taxed. So that's a drop set.

Speaker 2:

If you've seen AMRAP, a-m-r-a-p, that means as many reps or rounds as possible. So if it doesn't say 10 reps, it just says AMRAP, you're going to do bicep curls and for as many reps as possible, usually within a certain amount of time frame. So you're going to push maximum effort for a certain amount of time and see how many reps you can get done in that amount of time. Speaking of time, now we have EMOM, which is E-M-O-M every minute on the minute. These are kind of fun my clients like it when I put these into Fit Club.

Speaker 2:

You're going to start a new exercise each minute and you're going to rest with the time that you have left. So you will essentially set a timer to go off every minute. Every minute you're going to start a new movement. So let's say you're going to do bicep curls and then you're going to do crunches and then you're going to do whatever jumping jacks I don't know Every minute you're going to start. So you'll start with the bicep curls, you'll do your 10 reps and then you stop and you rest the remaining time in that minute and then the next minute you start your. What did I say? I don't even remember your jumping jacks and you do your 10 jumping jacks, your 20 jumping jacks, your jumping jacks, and you do your 10 jumping jacks, your 20 jumping jacks hopefully like 30 or 40. Honestly, you do your reps for those and then you stop and you rest for the remainder of that minute.

Speaker 2:

The goal is for you to push and kind of do that as fast as possible because you want more time to rest. The faster you get the movement done, the more time you have to rest. The faster you get the movement done, the more time you have to rest. Those are fun. They're really challenging and they're hard, but it is fun to have kind of a goal to work towards. And then we have rest pause training. So you do a near failure set and then you rest for 10 to 15 seconds and then you do more reps. This maximizes volume in less time.

Speaker 2:

This is something that I feel like is mostly done in like group training. I personally don't really do any of this inside of fit club. Again, some of these are things that you're never going to have to do or never going to have to worry about. But if you hear someone talking about like okay, I've been going to this class and they're doing rest pause training, it means that they're doing a set near to near failure, then they're resting a certain amount of time and then they're doing more reps of that. So it's just controlled. Whereas I'm more of like a rest until for strength, I would rather have you, me, my clients, rest until they feel completely rested to be able to lift a heavier amount of weight for their next set. If you're always only resting for 10 to 15 seconds, you're never going to be able to max out on weight Again, just depends on your particular goal.

Speaker 2:

Now I want to talk about some kind of gym slang that confuses people. Okay, so, these are things that definitely I hear a lot, but I just feel like it kind of it's a little bit confusing. So, the pump, chasing that pump, it's kind of like that swole feeling, that thick feeling, that literally swollen feeling after a lift where you're like, oh my God, my muscles are just so juiced and plumped and they look big. It's not necessarily a sign of long-term gains, but it feels really, really good to look in the mirror and have just done all these bicep movements and you flex and you're like, oof, I'm feeling the pump, doms, which is D-O-M-S the acronym, which is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, which is muscle soreness that is delayed.

Speaker 2:

So it's like 24 to 72 hours after your workout you're like, oh my God, it's been two days since I did that glute workout and my glutes are just now killing me. It's delayed onset muscle soreness. You're like, oh, I'm feeling the doms today. That's what that means. Pr is personal record or PB, personal best, it's your best performance on a lift. So if you're like, oh, I PR'd today at the gym or I hit a PR on squats today. It's a personal record. It doesn't have to be max weight, it can be again, reps, tempo, form, anything like that.

Speaker 2:

Form check Reviewing your technique for safety, making sure it's effective. You're doing a little form check. Everybody benefits from this, whether you're a beginner or whether you're pretty experienced like me. Doing a form check is nice. That just means basically, you're going to record yourself on your phone, go home and watch it, or you're going to turn sideways in the mirror to actually check and see is my back straight? Am I going as low as I thought? Things like that. So doing a form check is really, really important.

Speaker 2:

If someone asks you hey, can you do a form check for me real quick? They want you to stand next to them and kind of give them a little overview on their form. Maybe say, hey, straighten your back a little bit, get lower, things like that, lifting cues. So these are things like little reminders that are like some cues to remember for helping to activate muscles and helping to improve performance. So these would be things like brace your core or drive through your heels, things like that. So it's just a cue that helps you to think. You know to, yeah, brace your core when you're going into a movement. Sometimes I will post on my Instagram stories, just you know, tips or cues for this particular exercise, and that's what that is referring to just short little reminders to cue your brain into doing the movement, with mind-muscle connection, basically. And then these are a couple things that I want you to know going into. I feel like these are just things that we talk about a lot and I feel like they're very important. So glute activation Activating obviously means that you are just warming up, you are getting it started and primed for movement.

Speaker 2:

So glute activation is something that I feel like no one ever talks about. Bicep activation, or you know, I'm activating my shoulders. It's always the glutes. I like this, but it's not necessary. It depends If you are someone who feels like when you're doing a glute something that's supposed to be a glute movement let's say, if you're doing a hip thrust and you feel like you feel it in your quads, or if you're doing an RDL and you feel like you're feeling it in your hamstrings, that means you're going down too far, but still, it basically means to activate your glutes to get them ready, to get them swole, to feel that pump.

Speaker 2:

You're basically warming up the glutes so that they fire, so that they turn on, so that they take over during your compound lifts. So if you were to activate your glutes meaning do a couple glute kickbacks just something that really, really isolates your glutes glute kickbacks, maybe doing some banded squats, doing some banded monster walks or you know sidesteps, things like that, where it's just making your glutes work, typically, then if you go into an RDL or a squat, your glutes are going to be what fires first to initiate that movement, which is what you want if you're working your glutes, obviously. So glute activation is something that I hear a lot, so I wanted to make sure to kind of bring that one up.

Speaker 2:

Next, compound versus isolation movements we do talk about this. We used to talk about this a lot in Fit Club because I would have three compound workout days and two basically accessory or isolation days. So compound movement refers to a multi-joint exercise. So a squat, a deadlift, a row where you are having to brace yourself because you are moving multiple joints at the same time. Isolation movement is a single joint. So you're just doing your bicep curl, you're doing your leg extension. It's only moving one joint at a time. You're focusing on one area at a time. Both of those have value. So I don't like it when people say, no, we're not going to worry about isolation movements, we're just going to focus on compound movements. I don't like that because it leaves out the single joint, it leaves out the smaller muscle groups, it leaves out some of those fast twitch muscle fibers. So both are very, very, very important.

Speaker 2:

So if you see a workout program that has compound and isolation movements, that is one that you want to do, and then core engagement.

Speaker 2:

This is different than just like working your abs. When you think of core engagement, you want to think about your breathing, because your breathing affects your core. You want to think about bracing and holding your core tight and you want to think about those deep abdominal muscles. Your core really is so much of your body and it's so important. So when we say, engage your core, brace your core, that means we're wanting you to really think about breath bracing and deep, deep inside. Okay, so do a quick, you know, just breathe and feel that in your core and then brace yourself as if somebody is going to punch you right in the gut. How would your core brace, tighten up if you felt like somebody was just going to freaking sucker punch you. That's how you should be so tight in that movement, Like before the movement. You want deep inside of your core to be squeezed those deep abdominal muscles. That's also going to work your deep core, which is freaking fantastic. This protects your spine and also improves your posture, so that core engagement is so key.

Speaker 2:

A lot of times you don't even need a ton of core work or ab exercises If you just brace your core in the correct way. Again, I always think if somebody's just going to come up and punch me and I kind of almost like breathe too, like you're kind of scared, like somebody's gonna punch you, that will get you into that natural state of bracing your core. So those are really really important things. I know we covered a lot in this episode and it's kind of different for me to kind of go through a list and teach on these things, but I think it's really important again, as we go into the gym and as we move into this world of watching TikToks and watching reels and consuming content on exercises and movements and what it means, and you can then see for yourself.

Speaker 2:

I see a lot of programs, like I said, that are. We're just going to focus on compound exercises. This program focuses only on compound exercises and you know, glute, whatever and I'm thinking, no, I don't want to do that because I need a compound and isolation exercises. So you can now kind of take this information and think, okay, now I know what progressive overload is, I can increase my weight or my reps or my sets. I don't have to just increase my weights, I can also just or my sets. I don't have to just increase my weights, I can also just contract and hold it there and see how long I can hold it there after my muscles are fatigued. How long can I hold these dumbbells, maybe at a rotation? There are so many different ways that are going to make sense.

Speaker 2:

And then if you are at the gym and somebody says something to you, maybe tries to help and fix your form, you'll know right.

Speaker 2:

If somebody comes over to you and says, hey, work on your ROM, a little bit, work on your range of motion, right, it's just kind of that gym lingo that's kind of fun to be able to know.

Speaker 2:

So I wanted to be able to bring this to you in a way that's going to help you unfuck your fitness and to help you be able to understand this.

Speaker 2:

But the gym world is an entirely different world in itself and there's a lot of lingo and there's a lot of things and I know it's overwhelming. You don't need to know a lot of this to be able to have a great workout, but when you're feeling stuck, you're feeling plateaued, you can now go into. Okay, all I need to do is kind of control my tempo, add a couple reps, things like that. Like you are now more in control of what all of this means and what makes the most sense for you. Remembering to brace your core, remembering to push through your heels when you are going up into, you know out of the squat position, when you are pulling the barbell off the ground for a dumbbell, you can really push through your heels and get extra muscle activation in there. So it's good stuff, something we needed to talk about, for sure. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at ChristyCastilloFit. I will see you next time. Bye.