I can still remember sitting at a table with two wanna be bodybuilders in University and listening to their conversation as they ate three pieces of leftover grilled chicken with a large side of cottage cheese (This after-workout eating menu should have been hint #34 to change my approach with regards to fitness but I was a sucker for trying to get lean and mean back then).

The terms and language thrown around in discussing their current workout routine made them sound like they attended a private middle school on Mars. I felt intimidated to jump in and tell them I did 50 push-ups and sit-ups last night before bed.

[You don't need to be a smarty pants to understand fitness lingo... Kinda of looks like Jennifer Love Hewitt in disguise?]

For those who watch The Biggest Loser, read through the latest Fitness magazines, or follow one of the fat loss programs reviewed here, you’ll be familiar with this language. For others just starting out, it’s time to stop feeling embarrassed – read through the glossary below to help you decode some popular gym jargon.

Note: Even I rolled my eyes at the thought of a fitness-glossary-type-of-post but you know what? Sometimes we, as fitness enthusiasts, get so wrapped up in what we’re passionate about that we fail to communicate effectively with those just starting out. Fitness and health is for everybody so let’s take a step back and review some of the exercise jargon we’ve accumulated or crossed paths with.

REPS: It has nothing to do with your rep-utation as a stand-up guy or rep-resenting your hood? In a gym setting the term “reps” is short for “repetition” – as in the number of repetitions in a set of exercises. For example, you can do three sets of push-ups with ten reps in each set.

SETS: The kinds of sets you see in a gym have nothing to do with the lovely kitchen and dining set you see at your furniture store. Rather, the term “sets” refers to a group of repetitions of a particular resistance exercise. For example, Ah-nuld did five sets of bicep curls.

CORE: Every time I hear the word core, I remember wasting my money on seeing this box-office bomb (The Core) that was chalk full of scientific inaccuracies, it made Peter Pan believable. But in a fitness setting, the core refers to the muscles that stabilize and align the body, especially the muscles of the lower back and abdomen. The importance of having a strong core is evident in just about every human movement. To make your core the serious strong point it should be, engage in activities that work the abdominal muscles, such as planks and total body movements.

CARDIO: Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise which really means aerobic exercise which really really means a constant movement that raises your heart rate. Traditional examples of cardio exercise include brisk walking, running, or moving along with Richard Simmons and his candy stripped Dolphin shorts. Kidding aside, cardio exercise can be effective for fat loss but other methods can burn fat faster and longer.

RESISTANCE TRAINING: Exercises that increase muscle strength by forcing the body against a weight such as a dumbbell or your own bodyweight. Movements such as squats, bench press, or chin-ups are common examples. Also known as strength training in weight lifting circles.

[Break time... Here's an interesting video someone sent me regarding last week's squat article. A nice little production for YouTube standards.]

WARM-UP: Like a basketball team doing layup drills, it’s a method of heating the body through gradual aerobic movement before tip-off, or in our case, exercise routine. For example, walking steadily for a few minutes before sprinting is a common warm-up approach. Experts recommend warming up for five to 10 minutes before an activity or exercise to improve muscle elasticity which decreases the risk of injury.

COOL-DOWN: Done after an exercise session, this is slow steady activity that gradually reduces the heart rate to a pre-exercise state. Allowing blood to adequately return to the heart and minimize the risk of blood pooling and lactic acid build-up in your muscles. Yikes!

INTERVAL TRAINING: It sounds fancy but simply put it’s alternating short bursts of intense activity with periods of active recovery or more moderate exercise. Read more here. For example: Start out by walking briskly and adding one minute bursts of jogging or running before returning to brisk walking. The amount of calories burned in a short period make this a highly effective fat loss strategy.

CIRCUIT TRAINING: Similar to interval training with more work being done in less time except it’s specific to strength and endurance activities. In circuit training, you would perform a group, or a circuit, of exercises with little to no rest in between. For example each circuit might consist of 10 reps of 5 different exercises: Try push-ups, squats, pull-ups, lunges, and finally bicep curls. Looks easy on paper but gaurantee sweat breaker. I love circuits and promise to include specific routines in the future.

RESTING HEART RATE: This is your heart rate at rest. Usually, the heart beats between 60 and 80 times in a minute at rest. General rule of thumb – the more fit you are, the lower your resting heart rate.

MAXIMUM HEART RATE: In order to calculate your target heart rate you need to know your maximum heart rate. Here’s a quick calculation to do just that: Subtract your age from 220 and ta-da… you now have your maximum heart rate.

TARGET HEART RATE: Experts generally recommend that your target heart rate should range between approximately 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. Any lower than this and you’re probably wasting your time and not burning fat effectively. Any higher, and you might end up on Dr. Grey’s operating table.

TALK TEST: A relatively new age approach to measuring your level of activity. It’s a less scientific measure of how hard your heart is working during exercise by your ability to carry on a conversation. Some experts take it a step further and say you shouldn’t be able to sing during exercise, but you should be able to carry on a conversation, even if it’s a little “choppy”. In general, it’s ok to be breathless during short, intense periods of interval training as long as other symptoms like dizziness or feeling light-headed don’t creep up on you.

There you have it, a basic list of good-to-know fitness terms that allow you to focus on the exercise program at hand instead of reaching for a dictionary. Most of the programs we review do an adequate job of explaining terms along the way but I was especially impressed with the job Mike Geary does in his book Truth About Six Pack Abs. Check out our review here because it’s bursting at the seams with other solid fat loss information .