Bodybuilding Terminology

Antagonistic Muscle Groups- Body-parts that are on the opposite sides of each other ( chest+back, triceps+biceps, and thighs+hamstrings).

Drop-Set- To perform a drop-set, execute a set of a particular exercise with a substantial amount of weight. After you reach the point of failure, immediately put that weight down (or take a couple of 5lb,10lb, or 25lb plates off the bar if you are using a barbell) and continue another set with a slightly lighter weight to squeeze out more reps. Keep repeating this process until you conclude with the execution of reps for your given exercise with an extremely light weight, such as merely the bar for the bench press or 5lbs for dumbbell shoulder presses.

Push-Pull Feature-All exercises must be categorized as either a “push” movement or a “pull” movement. “Push” exercises consist of all movements which involve  pushing weights such as the bench press, shoulder press, and tricep extensions. In the upper-body, the “push” body parts are the chest, shoulders, and biceps. Conversely, “pull” exercises consist of all movements in which weights are pulled and involve all movements for the back and biceps. The “push-pull feature” involves working “push” and “pull” body-parts on separate days.

Pyramiding: Increasing the amount of weight you use for each consecutive set for an exercise.

Rep: One execution of a lifting movement. For example, if you press a barbell over your head one time, you have performed one rep of a barbell press.

Set: One full cycle of multiple and consecutive reps performed until exhaustion. Or simply put,  if you perform an exercise until you cannot execute in anymore one time, you have completed one set.

Superset- A cycle consisting of 2 distinct exercises which are performed consecutively without rest. A very brief rest may be taken after the completion of a full cycle. Supersets may be performed with two exercises which work the same muscle group (eg. shoulder presses and side laterals for only shoulders)  or antagonistic muscle groups (bench press and barbell rows for both the back and shoulders).

Training Split- How you set of your weekly bodybuilding schedule at the gym in terms of deciding which body-parts to train on each day of the week.