An A-Z of fitness, health and nutrition terms that you may come across on this website:

Absolute Strength: The maximum amount a person can lift in one repetition.

Accommodating Resistance: Increasing resistance Nautilus machines are said to provide accommodating resistance.

Acquired Ageing: The acquisition of characteristics commonly associated with ageing but that are, in fact, caused by immobility or sedentary living.

Active Stretch: Muscles are stretched using the contraction of the opposing muscle, (antagonist). For an example stretching the triceps, requires the biceps to contract.

Adhesion: Fibrous patch holding muscles or other parts together that are normally separated.

ADP (Adenosine Diphospahate): This provides energy for muscular contraction.

Aerobic capacity: Another term for maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 Max).

Aerobic Exercise: Activity in which the body is able to supply adequate oxygen to the working muscles, for a period of time. Running, cross-country skiing and cycling are examples of aerobic activities.

Amino Acids: Twenty- two basic building blocks of the body that makes up proteins.

Anaerobic Exercise: Activities in which oxygen demands of muscles are so high that they rely upon an internal metabolic process for oxygen, resulting in lactic acid build up. Short bursts of “all-out” activities such as sprinting or weightlifting are anaerobic.

Anaerobic Threshold: The point at which you begin working your muscles without oxygen, from an aerobic level, believed to be at about 87% of your Maximum Heart Rate.

Antioxidants: Vitamins A, C and E, along with various minerals, which are useful to protect the body.

Assimilation: The process in which foods are utilized and absorbed by the body.

Ballistic Stretch: A more vigorous stretch by using a swinging or bouncing motion suited only for conditioned athletes.

Barbell: Weight used for exercise, consisting of a rigid handle 5-7′ long, with detachable metal discs at each end.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): Metabolic rate at rest, your bodies working output.

Bodybuilding: Weight training to change physical appearance.

Body Composition: The breakdown of your body make-up, i.e. fat, lean muscle, bone and water content.

Bone density: Soundness of the bones within the body, low density can be a result of osteoporosis.

Bulking Up: Gaining body weight by adding muscle, body fat or both.

Burn – As in “going for the burn”: In endurance exercise, working muscles until lactic acid build-up causes burning sensation.

Carbohydrate: Compounds that contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen used by the body as a fuel source. Two main groups are sugars and starch.

Carbohydrate Loading: Increase consumption of carbohydrates in liquid or food form normally three days prior to an endurance type event.

Cardiovascular Training: Physical conditioning that strengthens heart and blood vessels, the result of which is an increase in the ability for your body muscles to utilize fuel more effectively resulting in a greater level of exercising.

Cellulose: Indigestible fibre in foods.

Cholesterol: A fat lipid which has both good and bad implications within the human body. Good being known as HDL and bad being LDL. Bad cholesterol is associated with heart disease and stroke, whereas the body requires cholesterol for the production of many steroid hormones.

Complete Proteins: Proteins that contain all the essential amino acids.

Cool Down: Moderate then light activity, normally followed by stretching.

Coronary Heart Disease: Diseases of the heart muscle and the blood vessels that supply it with oxygen, including heart attack.

Crunches: Sit-ups done on the floor with legs on bench, hands behind the neck.

Deficiency: A sub optimal level of either one or more nutrients, often resulting in poor health.

Dehydration: Excessive fluid loss from the body, normally from perspiration, urination, evaporation or being sick.

Delts: Abbreviation for deltoids, the large triangular muscles of the shoulder which raise the arm away from the body and perform other functions.

Disease Prevention: Altering lifestyles and environmental factors with the intent of preventing or reducing the risk of various illnesses and diseases.

Diuretic: A substance that aids the increase of urine excreted by the body.

Electrolytes: Capable of conducting electricity in a solution. Used in many body activities, potassium, sodium and chloride are all forms of electrolytes.

Endurance: Ability of a muscle to produce force continually over a period of time.

Enzyme: Helpful protein molecules, responsible for a multitude of chemical reactions within the body.

Ergogenic: Something that can increase muscular work capacity.

Essential Fatty Acids: Required by the body, however only obtainable from food sources, such as flaxseed oil and safflower oil.

Exercise: Activity done for the purpose of keeping fit and healthy.

Fat: Often referred to as lipids, or triglycerides, one of the main food groups, containing nine calories per gram. It serves a variety of functions in the body.

Fructose: Often used as a sugar substitute for diabetics, because of its low glycemic index. A healthier option than normal sugar, as fructose comes from fruit.

Glucose: The basic fuel of the body, the simplest sugar molecule and main sugar found in the blood stream.

Glycemic Index: A measuring system to find the extent of which various foods raise the blood sugar level.

Glycogen: The principle form of carbohydrate energy (glucose) stored within the bodies muscles and liver.

Hormones: Regulators of various biological processes through their ability to control the action of enzymes.

Hypertension: High blood pressure.

Hypoglycaemia: A common occurrence in diabetics, this is low blood sugar levels, resulting in fatigue.

Incomplete proteins: Proteins which are low in one or more of the essential amino acids.

Lactic Acid: A substance caused by anaerobic training of the muscles, a build up prevents continuation of exercise.

Muscle: Tissue consisting of fibres organized into bands or bundles that contract to cause bodily movement.

Muscle Tone: Condition in which muscle is in a constant yet slight state of contraction and appears firm.

Pecs: Abbreviation for pectoral muscles of the chest.

Power Lifts: Three movements used in power lifting competition; the squat, bench press and dead lift.

Progressive Resistance: Method of training where weight is increased as muscles gain strength and endurance.

Pumping Iron: Lifting weights.

Quads: Abbreviation for quadriceps, muscles on top of the legs.

Repetition: One complete movement of an exercise.

Reps: Abbreviation for repetitions.

Set: Fixed number of repetitions. For example, 10 repetitions may comprise one set.

Strength Training: Using resistance weight training to build maximum muscle force.

Upper Abs: Abbreviation for abdominal muscles above the navel.

VO2 MAX: The maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize per minute of work.
Warm up: Light gradual exercises performed to get the body ready for physical activity.

Many people are under the impression that for exercise to be beneficial to our health it has to be strenuous exercise, in fact research has shown that exercise done in a mild to moderate form is actually more beneficial to our health.

In order to determine exactly how much exercise we actually need per week we have to be clear about what we actually want to achieve from our exercise routine, do you want to exercise for fitness or for a healthier you. This may sound confusing for often the terms are used to mean the same thing but they do have very different meanings.

Fitness

Fitness is defined in relation to something called physical work capacity, which in simple terms means how much the body can do. A scientific way of telling how fit a person is to measure how much energy they can produce using a cycle erogmeter when cycling at a specific rate or timing how far the person can run on a track in a given time.

Fitness also relates to endurance, strength, power and flexibility, professional footballers and boxers for instance have to have high levels of fitness and endurance.

Health

Health is a broader concept and to be healthy we have to be not only resilient to diseases but also our spiritual and mental wellbeing plays an important role, usually when we say a person is fit we use the term fit and healthy together but this isn’t necessarily true.

An example of this would be if someone exercised regularly say for example playing football but they suffered from a problem such as alcoholism.

It is important to be able to distinguish between healthy and fit for the amount of exercise differs between the two. You need more exercise to get fit and remain in top shape than you do to be healthy.

Fitness training

Many people need a certain level of fitness to enable them to carry out the job they do, for example a fire-fighter, or if they are chosen for a football or rugby team. In order to achieve fitness of this level and maintain it then you would have to follow a structured training regime.

Training such as this is usually carried out in a gym under the supervision of a trainer; examples of training regimes such as these are track running and weight lifting.

The key point to achieving such a high level of fitness is the intensity of the regime and you will probably do more vigorous training than if you were just working out to be healthier.

Exercising for your health

Everyone can benefit from regular mild exercise, not only do we feel better about ourselves but also exercising helps to ward off many diseases, such as heart disease and obesity.

To become healthier we don’t have to train as intensely as we would for fitness, you can gradually increase the amount of activity you do and fit it into your daily routine.

Exercising this way can consist of simple everyday activities such as walking; a lot of people can be put off starting out on the road to becoming a healthier person simply because they think they need to work out at a level of high intensity to feel any benefit but this is untrue.

Slow and steady progress is all that is needed on a regular basis and the results will begin to show on your health, you’ll find yourself sleeping better, looking better and feeling better about yourself and have peace of mind knowing you’re doing something to help fight off the onset of early diseases.

Many of us at times feel we should do more to get fit and often we will go on an exercise crusade and rush into exercising like crazy for a few days only to get bored and give in again, but exercising this way can do you more harm than good.

A recent study was drawn over two years and tracked three million people who used a gym to workout, the study tracked how often the people used the gym and found that out of 70 fatal heart attacks that occurred during training or just after training over half of these were people who exercised less than once a week on a regular basis.

The research concluded that people who work out only occasionally are therefore at a slightly greater risk of having a heart attack relating to exercising vigorously on odd occasions.

Should we give up on strenuous exercise?

Common sense should be used, it is obvious that exercising strenuously if you are a complete beginner and haven’t exercised much over the past years is not the best way to start out.

If you are just starting out on an exercise plan then do it slowly don’t expect to jump right in and be able to run three miles or lift heavy weights straight away, your body obviously won’t withstand it.

You will only gain benefit from any exercise plan if the exercise plan is undertaken on a regular basis, it doesn’t matter how many sit-ups you do at one session, you will not get fitter if you only do them once a week.

Fitness experts recommend that for exercise to have any benefit on our bodies then exercise routines should be done at least 4 days out of 7.

This doesn’t mean of course that you have to spend hours each day for those 4 days exercising, gentle exercise and everyday activities such as walking the dog count towards exercise.

You have far more to gain from making exercise a part of your weekly routine than you do working flat out for two hours only once a week or less.

Don’t go flat out at your first session

Having decided to take the first steps towards a fitter you many of us will get carried away during our first session at the gym or exercise routine at home and be tempted to try and make up for time lost.

But remember it doesn’t work this way, steady and slow at first is much better and always remember to start off with warm up exercises before starting the main workout and just as importantly cooling off exercises when you have finished your routine.

Many gyms offer beginner classes for those first starting out with a fitness regime and it is worth joining one of these at first and then progressing slowly up through the ranks.

Not only will you be doing your body a favour by easing slowly into the routine but also you will be working out alongside like minded people and won’t feel pressured by seeing the guy next to you doing 100 sit-ups or lifting enormous amounts of weights.

All exercise is good for you and if done on a regular basis of at least 4 out of 7 days will lead to a healthier you, but exercise comes in many different forms from the simple everyday exercise we all get such as just walking, to more vigorous fitness routines such as an aerobics workout.

All forms of exercise use muscles and using our muscles on a regular basis can increase muscle size, strength and endurance, but not every form of exercise will have the same effect.

Exercises for endurance Forms of endurance exercising are cycling and running, exercises such as these build up and strengthen muscles; this type of exercise has several beneficial effects on our body such as:

• Increasing the amount of oxygen you take with each breath by increasing the capacity of the lungs.
• Enlarging the heart which enables it to pump blood more quickly around the body.
• Strengthens your skeleton.
• Helps with digestion.
• Improves your metabolism making it more efficient.
• Helps with improvements to the co-ordination.

This type of exercise suits someone who wants to improve overall health and strengthen and tone muscles, it is also good for the cardiovascular system but however if your aim in your fitness and exercise regime is to increase the muscles size then this type of exercise is not the best. For increasing the size of muscles resistance training is perhaps the best option.

Resistance training or Bodybuilding

Your muscle size will increase with a fitness plan based on resistance training; most resistance training involves using your muscles to lift heavy loads, which is known as bodybuilding.

Lifting weights of heavy loads forces the muscles to contract, training on regular occasions with weights will then cause your muscles cells to enlarge and as a result your muscles get bigger.

There are some forms of exercise which makes use of both resistance and endurance training, swimming for example is an endurance exercise as you have to push against the water to move and pushing against the water also causes resistance.

If your fitness routine is particularly intense then other parts of your body will begin to help your muscles, for example your heart will begin to beat quicker so that it can provide your muscles with more blood, and this in turn gives them more oxygen and valuable nutrients.

Once you have your muscles toned up with regular exercise and continue with your regime then your muscles will remain toned for they will be in a constant state of partial contraction which keeps them healthy and firm.

How many muscles does a body have?

We have around 650 different muscles within our body and these are divided into 3 different categories, skeletal muscle, smooth muscle and cardiac muscle.

Skeletal muscle gives us our movement and maintains our posture, it also generates heat and stabilises our joints. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs in our body and the cardiac muscle is responsible for your heart.

Gaining weight in adulthood is a common thing but as long as we keep eating healthy and exercising this can be controlled and kept to a minimum, too much weight gain during middle age however increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease along with leaving us feeling lethargic.

Studies have shown that for every two pounds we gain the risk of developing diabetes over the next ten years rose by 20%. Not only does the risk of diseases such as these occurring but also too much weight gain can put a strain on the joints, the knees in particular.

Weight gain also increases the risk of several types of cancer including colon and breast cancer, a weight gain of more than 45 pounds during middle age can increase the risk of breast cancer in women by 20%.

The importance of having a healthy nutritional diet cannot be stressed enough as this is the only way of preventing unwanted weight gain in middle age and so preventing the risk of disease.

This can be achieved by reducing slightly the amount of calories you have per day, this reduction can be as little as 100 calories per day.

Daily nutritional needs

To get all the nutrients we need every day to keep our bodies healthy then it is recommended that we eat different types of foods from 4 food groups, these are categorised into the following

• Bread, cereals and potatoes – This group consists of bread, potatoes, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice and noodles and is sometimes called the starchy carbohydrates group.
• Fruit and vegetables – Fresh, frozen, tinned or dried fruit and vegetables all count in this food group as does vegetable juices or fruit juices.
• Milk and dairy products – this category includes milk, margarine, butter and cheese .
• Meat and fish – This category includes fresh lean meat, fish, chicken and eggs, it is important to remember that some of these products can be high in fat so trim off all outside fat and remove the skin from chicken.

There is a fifth food group which consists of foods containing fat and sugar; these should be eaten sparingly as part of a healthy diet but should never replace foods from the essential four groups. There are 8 top tips we should follow for leading a healthy diet, these are:

• Base your main meals on starchy foods
• Eat lots of fruit and vegetables
• Eat more fish
• Cut down on sugary foods and foods containing saturated fat
• Try to eat less than 6g of salt per day
• Get regular exercise
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day
• Remember breakfast is the main meal of the day.

If you’re thinking of attending a gym for the first time or have already made the effort and started attending you will probably have come away confused with the gym terminology used for your muscles and the different methods of training. Fear not here are some of the most commonly used terms in the gym explained in easy form:

• Abdominal muscles – These are more commonly referred to as a “six pack” especially when they are well toned, they are the six muscles which are grouped in pairs and run down your stomach from the mid region to your navel.
• Aerobic training – This is a particular strenuous exercise routine which requires plenty of oxygen, it is particularly helpful for strengthening the heart and lungs through using your bodies muscles to increase the heart rate.
• Anaerobic training – This form of training requires very little oxygen and a common form of this type of this exercise is sprinting.
• Agility – the ability to be able to move the limbs very quickly and easily, an example of an agile person is a gymnast.
• Cardiovascular training – many forms of exercise work particularly on the cardiovascular system, any form of exercise that strengthens the blood vessels and heart is called a cardiovascular workout. Examples of this are running, aerobics and cycling.
• Cool down – this is a from of light exercise which you do at the end of your workout to allow your body to gradually slow down.
• Lactic acid – this is produced in muscles during an anaerobic workout, if the lactic acid builds up too much then it will slow the body down.
• Pectoral muscles – these muscles are more commonly known as “pecs”, they are the muscles in your chest which help to push your arms forward.
• Repetitions – these are for example if you are doing sit-ups then 10 sit ups would be 10 reps.
• Sets – these are a fixed number of reps, for example when asked to do 2 sets of sit-ups then you would do 2 x 10 sit-ups if 10 was the amount of reps you do.
• Trapezius muscles – these are the largest muscles in the back and neck.
• Vo2 max – this is based on the amount of oxygen that a person can use in a work out of one minute, the higher the vo2 max rating the more efficient the body will be when performing regimes.
• Warm up – time should always be taken beforehand to prepare your body for a workout, this usually consist of bending and stretching exercises to loosen up your muscles and also to get blood flowing through them.