Glossary

The words a program assumes you know, each in one plain sentence and one drawing.

Sets and reps

The kinds of set, and the ways sets are put together.

Pyramid sets Pyramid sets are sets in which the weight goes up from set to set while the reps come down.

A reverse pyramid starts heavy and gets lighter. In a 12-week study of 32 well-trained men, pyramid sets, drop sets and ordinary sets gave similar gains in muscle size and strength when total volume was equal.

Progress

How the numbers go up, and what it is called when they stop.

Plateau A plateau is a stretch of training in which a lift stops improving: session after session, no more weight and no more reps.

PR Personal record A personal record, or PR, is the best you have ever done at something in the gym: the heaviest weight, the most reps at a weight, the highest estimated max.

Progressive overload Progressive overload is the principle that training has to get a little harder over time: more weight, more reps or more sets than before.

Planning a week

How much, how often, and on which days.

Periodization Periodization is planning training in blocks of weeks, changing the sets, reps and weight from block to block on purpose.

Push pull legs Push pull legs is a split with three kinds of day: one for the muscles that push, one for the ones that pull, and one for the legs.

The bar and plates

The parts of a bar and the things you load on it.

Plate A plate is a disc of metal or rubber with a hole in the middle that slides onto a barbell's sleeve.

Plates go on in pairs, one each side. Competition plates run 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 2.5 and 1.25 kg. In gym talk "a plate" means the biggest common one, 20 kg or 45 lb, so "two plates" is two of them each side.

Power rack A power rack is a steel frame of four uprights that holds a barbell on hooks at a height you set, with bars across the sides to catch it.

The two-upright version, with no bars across the sides, is a squat rack or squat stand. Powerlifting rules under the IPF call them squat racks.

Lifts and their short names

What the letters in a program stand for.

Pull-up A pull-up is a lift in which you hang from a bar and pull yourself up until your chin passes it.

By the usual naming a pull-up has the palms facing away, an overhand grip, and a chin-up has the palms facing you. The names are used loosely, so check which grip a program means.

Numbers and scores

The figures lifters quote, and what each one measures.

Percentage of 1RM A percentage of 1RM is a way to set a weight as a share of your one-rep max.

"5 reps at 80%" means 80 kg for someone whose max is 100 kg. The ACSM's 2026 position stand found strength was enhanced by loads of 80% of one-rep max or more. The app's 1RM calculator prints the weight for each percentage.

Powerlifting total A powerlifting total is the sum of your best squat, best bench press and best deadlift, each a single rep.