This means the same as bulking, where one tries to increase muscle mass through the appropriate exercise and nutrition strategies.

This typically applies to your core. When you brace your core for big lifts such as squats, you create tension in your midsection to protect your back and increase overall strength.

Synonymous with excellent and outstanding. If someone calls you a “boss” in the fitness world, he or she is holding you in high regard.

Cardio refers to aerobic exercise which delivers more oxygen to muscle cells and increases one’s heart rate. Typical forms of cardiovascular exercise include running, jogging, walking, and cycling.

Bulking refers to a process where one tries to increase muscle mass by performing muscle-building exercises and establishing a caloric surplus.

Exercises which one can perform using the body as resistance. Examples include push-ups, dips, chin-ups, pullups, and bodyweight squats.

A person who’s into bodybuilding or someone who has an aesthetic physique and joins amateur or professional physique-based contests.

This is a classic compound movement which primarily targets the pectoral muscles. The bench press also hits the posterior deltoids and rhomboids as secondary muscle groups.

A day dedicated to arm exercises at the gym. Examples include barbell curls, preacher curls, concentration curls, reverse-grip bent-over rows, skullcrushers, and close-grip bench presses.

Also known as an anterior pelvic tilt, this is a postural weakness where the front of your pelvis tips forward and the back portion rises. This creates a curve and ultimately, an imbalance, in the spine.

This usually refers to a state where the body obtains energy so its parts – particularly the muscles – grow. Normally, an individual reaches an anabolic state whenever he establishes a caloric surplus.

In bodybuilding lingo, this refers to an individual with a lean, muscular, and symmetrical physique

This means making a specific group of muscles more responsive before doing a compound lift. For example, doing a squeeze press and flye superset before doing bench presses activates the pecs.

These are strength-building isolation exercises which complement your bigger lifts. Examples include reverse lunges, stability ball hamstring curls, pull-ups, skullcrushers, and bent-over rows.

A warm-up is a prelude to the actual exercise session to increase blood flow to the working muscles and ramp up one’s heart rate. Fitness experts recommend doing dynamic stretching and light cardio for one’s warm-up session.

This is a shortened term for the trapezius muscle, which runs from the back of the head and neck to the shoulders and back. Your traps help you shrug your shoulders, move your neck, and stabilise your shoulder blades.

This is the type of stretching where you hold the stretch in place for several seconds to improve flexibility, range of motion, and performance. Experts recommend doing static stretching at the end of a workout.

Six-pack refers to your well-developed abdominals or abs. With proper nutrition and exercise, you can get an enviable six-pack.

Sets refer to a group of repetitions for a particular exercise. For example, your program requires you to perform three sets of barbell bench presses. Each set consists of 10 repetitions.

This is an acronym for range of motion, the distance you cover from one end of a repetition to the other. For instance, the ROM of a barbell biceps curl set is from your thighs to your shoulders.