Thirty gym words,
in plain English.What the words on the whiteboard mean, and where each one turns up at Sanctuary Fitness. Nobody is expected to know these before their first class.

HIIT Interval Tabata EMOM AMRAP Rep Set Superset Tempo RPE Progressive overload Compound lift Hinge Squat Deadlift Kettlebell swing Functional fitness Conditioning Core Unilateral Warm-up Mobility DOMS Rest day Calorie deficit Maintenance calories Protein target NEAT Measurements Consult

HIIT

High-intensity interval training. Short bursts of hard work with short rests between them. Hard means you cannot chat during the work part. Monday 5:40pm and Tuesday 6am.

Interval

One block of work followed by one block of rest. A HIIT class is forty of them strung together, with the clock doing the nagging. How the Sanctuary Conditioning hour is built.

Tabata

A specific interval: twenty seconds on, ten seconds off, eight times, four minutes total. Simple to write down, horrible to do properly. Turns up in Sanctuary Conditioning and on Saturdays.

EMOM

Every minute on the minute. Do the set, rest for whatever is left of the minute, go again when the clock ticks over. The faster you work, the longer you rest. A regular in Sanctuary Functional.

AMRAP

As many rounds as possible in a set time. You pace it, you count it, you write the number down so next time has something to beat. Saturday finisher, most weeks.

Rep

One repetition of a movement. One squat is a rep. The exercise library shows the cue for each one.

Set

A group of reps done back to back before a rest. Three sets of ten means thirty reps with two rests. Sanctuary Strength is built on sets.

Superset

Two exercises done back to back with no rest between them, usually opposite muscles: a push then a pull. Saves time, keeps the heart rate up. Common in the evening classes.

Tempo

How fast each part of a rep is. A three-second lower on a squat is tempo work. Slower is harder with the same weight, which is the point. Used in one-to-one sessions when the weight cannot go up yet.

RPE

Rate of perceived exertion, one to ten. Ten is nothing left. Eight is two reps in the tank. Most working sets live at seven or eight. How I ask you to pick a weight in class.

Progressive overload

Doing a little more over time: one more rep, a bit more weight, one less second of rest. Without it the body has no reason to change. Why the eight weeks are written down.

Compound lift

A movement that uses several joints and muscle groups at once: squat, deadlift, press, row. The most work for the least time. The backbone of Sanctuary Strength.

Hinge

Bending at the hips with a flat back, the way you would pick up a heavy bag. The deadlift and the kettlebell swing are hinges. Most bad backs come from squatting things that should be hinged. Taught in your first week, every time.

Squat

Sitting down and standing up under control, with or without weight. Knees and hips bend together. Everybody can squat; the depth and the load are what we work on. The first thing I look at in a consult.

Deadlift

Lifting a weight off the floor with a hinge. The most useful lift there is and the one people are most scared of. Taught light, then loaded. Sanctuary Strength, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kettlebell swing

A hinge with a kettlebell, driven by the hips, not the arms. Cardio and strength in one movement. The one-kettlebell home programme is built on it.

Functional fitness

Training the movements you use outside the gym: carrying, pushing, pulling, getting up off the floor. Less about a mirror, more about the shopping. Wednesday 5:40pm and Friday 6am.

Conditioning

Work that gets you fitter rather than stronger: rowing, bike, sled, bodyweight circuits. Cardio, without the treadmill. The second half of most sessions.

Core

The muscles round your middle, front, sides and back, that hold you steady while your arms and legs work. Trained by holding positions and carrying things, not by hundreds of sit-ups. In every class, usually without being announced.

Unilateral

One side at a time: a single-leg deadlift, a one-arm row. Finds the weaker side and fixes it. A staple of the one-to-one programmes.

Warm-up

The first ten minutes: joints moving, heart rate up, the pattern of the day practised light. Not optional, and never just standing about. What the first ten minutes of a class look like.

Mobility

How far a joint moves under your own control. Different from flexibility, which is how far someone else can push it. Built with slow, loaded movement, not just stretching. Part of the warm-up, and homework when something is tight.

DOMS

Delayed onset muscle soreness: the stiffness that turns up a day or two after a new session. Normal, temporary, and worst in week one. Moving helps more than resting. When to push on and when to stop.

Rest day

A day without training. The body adapts while it recovers, not while it works. Sleep matters more than any supplement. The sleep guide.

Calorie deficit

Eating a bit less energy than you burn, so the body uses what it has stored. The only way fat loss happens, whatever the label on the tub says. Work yours out with the calculator.

Maintenance calories

The amount that keeps your weight where it is. The deficit sits a few hundred below it. Guess it and you are guessing everything. The calculator gives a starting number.

Protein target

How much protein to eat in a day to keep muscle while losing fat, roughly 1.6 to 2 grams per kilo of bodyweight. Spread across meals, not one big steak at night. Set in your nutrition plan.

NEAT

Non-exercise activity: the walking, the stairs, the housework. It burns more over a week than any class does, which is why the step target is in the plan. Part of the 8-Week Package plan.

Measurements

Tape round the waist, hips, chest and arms, photos in the same spot, done in week one and week eight. The scales miss muscle; the tape does not. How I measure, and why not the scales.

Consult

Ten minutes with me before you start, in the gym or on WhatsApp. What you want, what has stopped you before, what the plan looks like. Free, no pressure, no contract. Book one.

A word missing? Message me on WhatsApp and it goes on the list. The exercise library covers the movements themselves, cue by cue.