Please explain exercise terms

Roger_Williams · March 2010

Today I went to a training gym for the first time in my life. I got the beginners' orientation from a very young woman who spoke too fast for me and assumed I would know a lot more than I did. Well, that's not hard, because I know nothing.

This evening I wanted to enter my exercise in my diary, under "Strength" and searched for "weight training" but nothing came up. It asked me if I wanted to enter my own. So I said yes. But then I found it was REQUIRED to say how many sets, then reps/sets and weight/reps.

What is a Set? What is a Rep? What are (is?) Reps/Set, or a Weight/Rep?

What are the names of these things (so I can search for them) and what do they consist of? She explained the machines in Japanese, which was fine, but I don't know enough about the English used for these things to know what's what. Can you suggest some terms I could search for?

I rode a bicycle machine which was fine, because I could enter that under "Cardiovascular" but then there were some loops attached to cords with weights hanging from them that you could pull in different directions either with your hands or your feet, then there was a thing you sat in and lifted up bars with your feet, then there was one that forced your legs apart and you had to push them together until the knees met, and there was one for arms and chest where you have to put your arms up as if you were surrendering, then bring them together in front of you. Oh, and one where you gripped a handle and twisted it from side to side, and another where you put your hand under a bar, with the palm facing up, and lifted it up and down with wrist movements. If someone can help me get these entered into my diary I will feel that two hours of sweat and strain may have been worth while. TIA.

SHBoss1673 · March 2010

hello Roger. I understand your issue completely. To answer your more general questions,

a rep is 1 repetition of an exercise. for example if you were doing push ups, 1 rep would be 1 complete pushup.

A set is exactly what it sounds like, it is a number of repetitions.

so if someone told you to do "3 sets of 10" which is a common statement in a gym, you would translate that into the following:

do 10 pushups, to complete 1 set, and repeat two more times to complete 3 sets, usually each set is demarked by having a short rest period between it.

Weight/rep is just that. Each repetition on a machine with weights will have it's own weight.

Just for your information, the weight training section of My Fitness Pal is for recording purposes only, it does not add exercise calories to your profile. It's basically there so you can keep track of your weight training, and no other purpose. Only the cardio section of My Fitness Pal will add exercise calories to your daily profile.

izobel · March 2010

At least she wasn't too scared to talk to you Roger. I've been going to the same gym in Japan for 17 years - the only gaijin - and the staff are absolutely petrified of me. Those bicycle appendages sound a bit upmarket. I'm with Konami and they brought in secondhand Nautilus equipment about ten years ago. One upside is it came from the States so suits my 180cm (scary) height well!!
Anyway weight training is really important so keep at it. Recommend indoor climbing gyms too. I was at my local today and one of the regulars scampering up a 110 degree wall told me he was 82!!! Mind you, I'd scamper faster if I was only 40kg!
Good luck.

abin · March 2010

Hi,

You can still calculate the calories you burnt by strength training under cardio. There is a column saying strength training (weight lifting, weight training). Just type in the number of minutes you did the exercise and it will show approx. calories you might have burnt.

Also please note that you dont have to necessarily enter only the values from exercise done at gym. Even your routing walking (e.g. walking from home to tube station) or any house hold work (cooking, moving furnitures, etc), burns considerable calories. If you click the search tab under cardio, there are number of options for these 'informal' way of burning calories.

I have a friend who hates to go to gym. But she is a home maker who does a lot of house hold works including picking up the daughter from the nursery (by walk). When I calculated how much calories she burnt just by doing her routine, I was surprised
to know that it was at least 360 calories per day. With a proper diet (less fat, more fibre, lean meat) she lost 4 pounds last month.

One of my colleagues who says she is too busy to go to gym, (which I disagree, because you can always find time if you have the motivation) but followed her dietary schedule so religiously that lost about 11 Kgs over a period of 4 months' time.

IF you want your weight loss/fitness more efficient, please concentrate both on diet and exercise. I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

Roger_Williams · March 2010

Thanks, SHboss! That all makes perfect sense and I must admit I guessed some of it--if "rep" meant repetition. And I guess the machines that resisted me will have somewhere an indication of the equivalent weight. In fact I noticed some numbers that didn't mean anything to me at the time. Bet those were it!

I do know that strength training is not counted against diet calories. That makes a weird kind of sense because there were a whole RANGE of different kinds of people in the gym from old guys like me taking it gently and warily to young men and women who were really going at it hard and FAST! So the calories lost must be very widely different.

I don't care about the calories lost in strength training. I'm there for the muscle, and I understand that if I replace fat with muscle, which is the general idea, I may end up thinner but not necessarily lighter. That's quite OK!!

That's a very impressive picture of your chest, by the way.

Roger_Williams · March 2010

At least she wasn't too scared to talk to you Roger. I've been going to the same gym in Japan for 17 years - the only gaijin - and the staff are absolutely petrified of me. Those bicycle appendages sound a bit upmarket. I'm with Konami and they brought in secondhand Nautilus equipment about ten years ago. One upside is it came from the States so suits my 180cm (scary) height well!!
Anyway weight training is really important so keep at it. Recommend indoor climbing gyms too. I was at my local today and one of the regulars scampering up a 110 degree wall told me he was 82!!! Mind you, I'd scamper faster if I was only 40kg!
Good luck.

Well, she acted pretty scared at first, but it was her job to explain, so explain she did. I had to slow her down a few times. It's not the Japanese so much as my poor hearing. Oh, and all the new vocabulary too, of course. And I cracked a few jokes which lightened things up a bit... The atmosphere in the gym was FAR TOO SERIOUS. I mean, I'm hooked on FUN. Very few people seems to be having FUN. More like sturm und drang, if you know what I mean.

Hmmm. Rock climbing, huh? I used to do that 50 years ago, some time before I came to Japan. Took one look at the friable rock they climb here and said "No more" and have never climbed another rock face.

So you are in Japan too! And 180cm tall. That's 1cm more than me!! I'm in Chofu (Tokyo). Where are you?

How often should I do the weights thing? I have plenty of cardiovascular exercise, bicycling all year round and swimming when it's not too cold. And both on the same day seems a bit too much for me, although being semi-retired I guess I have the time for it. I was thinking once a week. Should I make that twice? I could always cut out one bicycle ride and substitute 15 or 20 minutes on the cycling machine before I go on to the weight machines. The scenery isn't as good, of course. <grin>

SHBoss1673 · March 2010

Thanks, SHboss! That all makes perfect sense and I must admit I guessed some of it--if "rep" meant repetition. And I guess the machines that resisted me will have somewhere an indication of the equivalent weight. In fact I noticed some numbers that didn't mean anything to me at the time. Bet those were it!

I do know that strength training is not counted against diet calories. That makes a weird kind of sense because there were a whole RANGE of different kinds of people in the gym from old guys like me taking it gently and warily to young men and women who were really going at it hard and FAST! So the calories lost must be very widely different.

I don't care about the calories lost in strength training. I'm there for the muscle, and I understand that if I replace fat with muscle, which is the general idea, I may end up thinner but not necessarily lighter. That's quite OK!!

That's a very impressive picture of your chest, by the way.

Ha, thanks, I'm what you would call "In the Middle" with my physique. I want to be a lot better but I'll get there. Anyway, it sounds like you have it right. Just remember, do what you can, and do enough to feel a little fatigue, but there's no reason to push it, you don't need to go to failure (failure means you couldn't do another repetition if you tried because your muscle is just to fatigued to do so), but you do need to be able to "feel" the exercise. Being uncomfortable is ok, but don't go until it hurts, at least not until you are very experienced and know what thresholds you can surpass without injuring yourself.

Best of luck,

-Banks

Roger_Williams · March 2010

Hi, abin: You wrote...

>You can still calculate the calories you burnt by strength training under cardio. There is a column saying strength training (weight lifting, weight training). Just type in the number of minutes you did the exercise and it will show approx. calories you might have burnt.

I'm not doing weight training to lose calories, although I wouldn't mind it happening. I just want to turn some fat into muscle.

>Also please note that you dont have to necessarily enter only the values from exercise done at gym. Even your routing walking (e.g. walking from home to tube station) or any house hold work (cooking, moving furnitures, etc), burns considerable calories. If you click the search tab under cardio, there are number of options for these 'informal' way of burning calories.

Ah, how many calories do I burn sitting at a desk? <grin> That's what I mostly spend my days doing...

>I have a friend who hates to go to gym. But she is a home maker who does a lot of house hold works including picking up the daughter from the nursery (by walk). When I calculated how much calories she burnt just by doing her routine, I was surprised
to know that it was at least 360 calories per day. With a proper diet (less fat, more fibre, lean meat) she lost 4 pounds last month.

Well, I'm not too sure that I'm going to LIKE it myself. The atmosphere is a tad too serious for my taste. The young instructress seemed to find my attitude a little, ah, too light-hearted.

>One of my colleagues who says she is too busy to go to gym, (which I disagree, because you can always find time if you have the motivation) but followed her dietary schedule so religiously that lost about 11 Kgs over a period of 4 months' time.

I'm semi-retired (old enough to retire but not rich enough to be able to stop working), so my time is pretty much my own to decide.

>IF you want your weight loss/fitness more efficient, please concentrate both on diet and exercise. I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

Thank you! What do you think is a good balance between the two. By inclination I would say probably one day in the gym vs. three days either on the road (bicycle) or in the pool (swimming). How does that seem?

izobel · March 2010

Yikes, who would cycle on a machine when they practically live on the Tamagawa?! I'm in Wakoshi - closer to the big city than you, but officially Saitama. Oh the shame! Only 10 minutes to the Arakawa though. Cycling is my new "thing". I'm a runner, climber, hiker really but want to cycle from Lhasa to Kathmandu in September so this Monday is actually my first hill training. Taking the train to Fuchu Honmachi, jumping on the Tamagawa then doing 100km around Sagamiko/Takao apparently. Looks hilly and horrible.

I am really no expert on sports but as cycling and swimming are not weightbearing activities I would definitely try for two days of weight training. As well as doing good things to the muscles and skeleton strength is just so helpful in daily life - I never complain about heavy suitcases!

A friend at a Tipness gym in Oiozumi Gakuen was told by the staff not to talk while on the treadmill. He was chatting to a Peruvian woman in Spanish and one of the members complained! Fun doesn't really feature at my gym but usually there is one character around. Just looking at the get-up some of them wear is great solitary entertainment.

OddSquid · March 2010

It's the Japanese thing. At a gym, you're there to WORK. You're TRAINING. This is SERIOUS.

(and for the record, I actually AM Japanese; just born, raised, and living in the States so familiarity with Japanese geography is nonexistent but I do know my people

)

Roger_Williams · March 2010

Yikes, who would cycle on a machine when they practically live on the Tamagawa?! I'm in Wakoshi - closer to the big city than you, but officially Saitama. Oh the shame! Only 10 minutes to the Arakawa though. Cycling is my new "thing". I'm a runner, climber, hiker really but want to cycle from Lhasa to Kathmandu in September so this Monday is actually my first hill training. Taking the train to Fuchu Honmachi, jumping on the Tamagawa then doing 100km around Sagamiko/Takao apparently. Looks hilly and horrible.

I am really no expert on sports but as cycling and swimming are not weightbearing activities I would definitely try for two days of weight training. As well as doing good things to the muscles and skeleton strength is just so helpful in daily life - I never complain about heavy suitcases!

A friend at a Tipness gym in Oiozumi Gakuen was told by the staff not to talk while on the treadmill. He was chatting to a Peruvian woman in Spanish and one of the members complained! Fun doesn't really feature at my gym but usually there is one character around. Just looking at the get-up some of them wear is great solitary entertainment.

Yes, cycling up and down the Tamagawa is really great. Depending how I feel I can strike left, or right, and ring the changes before I go back, either coming back along the same bank or crossing over and coming back along the other. Then I get to choose which bridges I cross. (I soon get bored doing the same thing.) I only suggested that I might use the cycle machine at the gym because combining my normal 60 to 90 minute cycle ride with weight training is probably too tiring for me to do on the same day. But I'd like to do SOME. As for solitary entertainment, well, I could time my cycling for when they are doing the aerobic dancing, which is fun to watch.

But cycling from Lhasa to Kathmandu? If the uphill is to much, why not cycle in the other direction <grin> Downhill all the way, Wheeeee!

Thanks for the opinion on frequency. My feeling after the very first day is that once a week (as I had thought initially) is probably not going to hack it. Provisionally I am thinking Tues and Thurs for weight training (with 10 min of cycling thrown in) then Mon and Wed for my usual cycling, and Friday for swimming. I find the latter quite exhausting, as I am trying to master the crawl and I have poor coordination and waste a lot of effort trying to keep my head above water. Then I have the weekend to recover! My wife is still working full time, so the weekends are the only time we have together for outings and other activities.

Roger_Williams · March 2010

It's the Japanese thing. At a gym, you're there to WORK. You're TRAINING. This is SERIOUS.

(and for the record, I actually AM Japanese; just born, raised, and living in the States so familiarity with Japanese geography is nonexistent but I do know my people )

Aha! But can you really continue to claim you are Japanese? Some people seem to think that you have to REMAIN in Japan to claim that. I wouldn't know, but it's a fact when I go back to England people ask me where I am from. When I reply rather frostily "From England!" people who don't take the hint say "No, I mean before you came here." I guess it's because my English has got a little strange, talking English mostly to Americans and much more Japanese than English in everyday life (my wife is Japanese and it's our language at home). One cabby said "I would have guessed you were from the colonies." As if we still had any these days...

izobel · March 2010

Well I AM from the colonies but with a private school accent and 20 years of trying to lose the flat vowels no Kiwi can pick me although you Brits still seem to derive great pleasure in imitating (very badly) and mocking it!!! Just last w/e I was asked how NZ could have "damaged" the native tongue in such a short space of time (ie since 1840). Good thing I have such a great sense of humour :-)

WeirdFish (love the name!) you would not pass as a native here because of body language. After 20 years around non-gesturing Japanese it is really interesting to observe Japanese Americans with our comparatively bold posture and gestures. I've got to say though the non-aggression and respect for one's space make Japan a very comfortable place to live.

Please explain exercise terms

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