Fitness Expert Katrina
by Katrina Hodgson, Diet.com Fitness Expert

"Now squeeze your triceps, and engage your core!"

This is something typical you may hear from a fitness professional or see in a description of an exercise in a magazine or a video. We all know that form is very important during your workouts, but if the words do not match up to the correct muscles then you can get hurt!

To better understand your workouts, the exercises, where you are supposed to feel them, and what is going on with your body, I have put together a list of terms for you to learn! You may know many of them, but it is important to know all of them.

Each word I could talk about for days, but for now we will just go over what they mean.

Abdominal muscles: your abs! Simply put, but these are the muscles that allow you to move your torso around and flex your spine.

Aerobic: Exercise that requires oxygen! An example of this could be jogging at a comfortable pace for a long period of time. Other examples could be swimming, an "aerobic" class, walking and cycling. Perform any exercise for more than 30 seconds and it is called aerobic.

What we don't hear very often is the term anaerobic. This means exercise that does not need oxygen, such as strength training or short bursts of exercise lasting just a few seconds.

Biceps: The muscles on the front of your arm running from your elbow to your shoulder! These muscles flex your arm.

Body Composition: The ratio of fat free mass and fat mass in your body.

BMI: Body Mass Index. A way to asses your appropriate weight according to your height quickly. This does not take muscle weight into account.

Calves: The muscles in the back of your lower leg that run from your ankles to your knees.

Cardiovascular Fitness: This simply means the health of your heart.

Circuit training: Beware! If your trainer tells you they are going to do circuit training that day, you are going to get a great workout! It is a series of exercises performed one after another with minimal rest!

Concentric: When your muscle exerts more force than is being placed on it. The muscle shortens. For example, on the way "up" during a bicep curl.

Core: The muscles in you abs, lower back, hips, gluts, obliques, and some muscles of the upper back and legs.

Cross Training: ...    Continue

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