Weightlifter Lingo

Weightlifter Lingo

            I’ve noticed that a lot of people in the gym that may have even been weightlifting for years don’t understand basic weightlifter vocabulary and slang.  This is vital in the gym because what if someone walks up to you and says, “hey man can you help me throw on a plate and give me a spot on that bench, I need to get my pecs and horseshoes bulked”.  You don’t want to look like an idiot and have no idea what he’s saying.  So this post will be going over your basic talk in the gym so you’re not in this awkward situation.

            So to start off with I will be describing the different names and nicknames of muscle groups.  The chest muscles are usually called the “pecs” because this is short for its scientific name “pectorals”.  It can also be called, “chesticles”.  Biceps have many different nicknames just because of their popularity and showy-ness.  These include “guns” “pythons” “apples” “mountain peaks” “baseballs” and “balls”.  Some lesser known nicknames are those for the triceps, these are “trys” and “horseshoes”.  Now for the back muscles, these are commonly called  “lats” short for their scientific name laterals.  Also known as “shield”  “muscle plate” “the V” and “muscle blanket”.  The stomach muscles are very popular as being called “abs” short for abdominals and “six pack”.  Legs are called “quads” and “hammies”.  Shoulders are called “delts” because of their scientific name deltoid also known as “boulders”. 

            Also throughout the gym slang is used while lifting.  A rep is one repetition of a lift, while a set is a series of reps for an exercise.  A bar used in terms of weight is only forty five pounds, also a plate is a forty five pound weight put at the ends of a bar to lift with.  A half plate is a twenty five pound weight also used for lifting.  Pronated, supenated, and nuetral are referring to types of grips.  Pronated is up, supenated is down, and neutral is in between. 

            Also one more thing, when someone is describing there weight lifted and they say something like they had a two plates, they really mean that they had two plates on each side not two plates altogether.  Remember, we’re all in this together, keep your stick on the ice.

Greatness of Weightlifting

Greatness of Weightlifting

            Of course I feel that weightlifting is an amazing thing that everyone should do, but the sad truth is that most people have never done it, don’t do it anymore, or very rarely do it.  For many reasons, I feel that this is a bad decision for people to make.  In this post I will be talking about all the benefits of weightlifting that everyone could gain personally from.

            Obviously, America is the fattest country on earth, and I feel that is every American spent at least a half an hour to an hour exercising, we could go from being one of the fattest countries, to one of the healthiest.  Exercise, strengthens the muscles and burns fat, but also can cleanse pours from sweat, give more positive attitudes, teaches discipline and control, relieves stress, and even has a chance to increase intellect.  All of this just from working out. 

            The obvious symptom from working out, increasing strength, can help you in life more than most people might believe.  Watching yourself get stronger increased your confidence in everything you do in life, it makes you feel better going through your day, and as a man makes the females notice you more.  Every aspect of your life changes when you begin to workout.

            One of the biggest things that tick me off is when people that really are in dire need of exercise and who constantly have nothing going on, but still don’t weight lift.  I know a guy that can seriously without exaggeration, not be able to bench press the bar at the gym, which is only forty five pounds.  He has absolutely no life and is never busy, but he is underweight for his height and age and wants to become a professional basketball player.  He started to weight lift for about a month or so and then decided to quit because he thought it was too hard.  He desperately needs exercise and weightlifting instead of all the lazy crap he does now. 

            Then there are the total opposite, people who are way too heavy and real busy in life with jobs, kids, relationships, all that stuff to be able to weight lift, even if they need to exercise or else it could cause health problems.  You don’t need a lot of time to work out about all the time you need is a half an hour, if you are going extremely hard and intense, than a half an hour a day five to six days a week is all you need.

            So exercise should be a part of everyone’s lives, whether you like it or not.  So many benefits from working out that you probably didn’t even know about that will make you happier in life.  Remember, we’re all in this together, keep your stick on the ice.     

What to Expect

What to Expect

            Many people who have never worked out or haven’t worked out in a long time don’t know what is about to be ahead of them.  This can be scary for some people because they are scared of what could happen to them, forcing some people to just not work out at all.  This became apparent to me when I just very recently took on the role of training one of my friends in weightlifting who hasn’t even been in a weight room for most of his life.  He will soon be going through what most of us experience in about the first three months of weightlifting. 

            So throughout the first three to four weeks of intense weightlifting, the person should feel quite a bit of soreness and fatigue, this in completely normal.  It shouldn’t be pain necessarily but sometimes the feeling could be described as stiff, sore, or maybe even aching.  Unless this becomes to the point of agony, you will be perfectly fine.  This is just a sign that your body and muscles aren’t use to this kind of functioning and intense training, soon they will be and you should find it harder and harder to feel soreness from your workouts.  That being said, when working out you should only work certain muscle groups once to twice a week, any more could strain and over train your muscles. 

            Another very common occurrence that happens to almost everyone I’ve known that works out, tends to happen a few weeks after your “beginner stage” is over.  This is what happens after your body is used to working out and no longer sore from exercise.  This is a sharp, almost unbearable pain in the sides of your forearms.  I have no idea why this happens to some and not others, but it just does.  When doing exercises like curls, you begin to feel a very discomforting pain in your forearms that makes it harder to do curls.  Don’t worry it should only last about two to three weeks, until then try to do less reps on curls and lighter weight.  The only thing that you can to lessen the intensity of this pain is just carry on with your normal routine, don’t let up on your exercising.  If you let up on or stop your exercising then the next time that you do exercise it will just be there again and be even more painful, because your body is not used to it anymore.

            When you make it through these short few weeks about the only other thing that you need to worry about is just basic injury and soreness from breaks.  All of these aspects aren’t hard and are just basic things that all beginning weightlifters go through.  Remember, we’re all in this together, keep your stick on the ice.