Fitness Testing Glossary
Below is a list of fitness and fitness testing terms which sometimes get confused, may not always be clear, and may require defining. If you have other words that you don't quite understand or cannot find a definition for, let me know and I can add them to this list.
- Aerobic fitness - A measure of how well your blood transports oxygen around the body, and how well your muscles utilize the oxygen.
- Aerobic metabolism - The metabolic process that occurs in the cells, by which the body uses oxygen to produce energy.
- Aerobic - Meaning with oxygen. Aerobic training is at a lower intensity, with the purpose of stimulating aerobic metabolism to improve.
- Aerobic endurance - A term for someone's aerobic fitness capacity - their ability to do prolonged exercise without fatigue.
- Anaerobic - Anaerobic processes occur in the cells of the body without the presence of oxygen. Anaerobic training is of high intensity and short duration, with the aim of the efficiency of the body's anaerobic energy-producing systems.
- Anaerobic Threshold - The physiological point during exercise at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the muscles. It occurs around the point of the exercise intensity increasing such that anaerobic processes are becoming more dominant. See also Lactate Threshold, and here for more details on Anaerobic Threshold.
- Anterior - Anatomical term for the front side.
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR) - The lowest rate of body metabolism (rate of energy use) that can sustain life, measured after a full night's sleep in a laboratory under optimal conditions of quiet, rest and relaxation. See here for more details.
- Body composition - Has two components: the amount of fat mass (weight) and the amount of fat-free mass (muscle, bone, skin and organs) in the body.
- Body mass index (BMI) - A number calculated using a persons height and mass, which gives a indication of total body fat content. See here for more details
- bpm, beats per minute - The units of heart rate, the number of heart beats each minute. See also Heart Rate.
- Cardiorespiratory - Concerning the heart and respiratory system. Cardiorespiratory or Cardiovascular endurance is a term used interchangeably with aerobic endurance.
- Cardiovascular - Concerning the heart and blood vessels.
- Dehydration - A decrease in body fluids.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) - A recording of the heart's electrical activity by placing wires on the anterior chest wall. See ECG Store.
- Endurance - The body's ability to exercise with minimal fatigue. Often used with other terms such as; endurance training, muscular endurance and cardiorespiratory endurance.
- Fat-free mass - The combined mass of the body of everything that is not fat (e.g. muscle, bone, skin and organs).
- Heart rate - A measurement of the work done by the heart, commonly expressed as the number of beats per minute (bpm). See also bpm and maximum heart rate.
- Isometric - a form of exercise involving the static contraction of a muscle without any visible movement in the angle of the joint.
- Lactate, Lactic acid - Lactate is a salt formed from lactic acid. Anaerobic exercise produces lactic acid, which quickly forms lactate in the muscles. because of this, the terms "lactate" and "lactic acid" are often used interchangeably.
- Lactate threshold - The point during increasingly intensive exercise at which blood lactate (Lactic acid) begins to accumulate above resting levels.
- Maximal exercise test - A test performed until volitional exhaustion.
- Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) - The maximum capacity for oxygen consumption by the body during maximum exercise. Also known as aerobic power or maximal oxygen intake/consumption. VO2max is commonly used as a measure of aerobic fitness. See also VO2.
- Maximum heart rate - The highest number of heart beats per minute (bpm) when exercising maximally. See also bpm.
- Norms - Norms (short for normative values) are determined from previous fitness scores of a group and used for comparison. For example, you can use the norms to see how you went in the test, to see if you are better than average compared to football players or some other comparison group. See also Standards.
- Oxygen Consumption - Oxygen consumption (VO2) may be defined as ones ability to extract oxygen from the atmosphere via the respiratory system and transport it in the blood to the working tissues (eg. muscles) for the energy production by the oxidation of carbohydrate and fat. The highest rate at which you can uptake oxygen is termed the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). Research has shown VO2max to be one of the most important determinants of aerobic or endurance performance.
- Respiratory Exchange Ratio - The ratio of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the body to the amount of oxygen consumed. At rest it ranges from 0.6 to 1.0 depending on what fuels the body is using. During exercise, it may go above 1, and can be used to measure anaerobic threshold and indicate when VO2max is reached.
- Resting heart rate - The number of heart beats in one minute (bpm) when a person is at complete rest. A person's resting heart rate decreases as they become more fit.
- Resting metabolic rate (RMR) - The body's metabolic rate (rate of energy use) in rested conditions. This is different than Basal metabolic rate, which is measured after more restricted conditions.
- ROM (Range of Movement) - the measurement of movement around a specific joint or body part.
- SI - Abbreviation for System Internationale, an international system of defining units of measurement, based mainly on the metric system.
- Standards - Standards are fitness levels that are required to be achieved, such as setting a standard of level 8 in the beep test in order to make the football team. See also Norms
- VO2, VO2max - VO2 is a measure of the oxygen consumption/uptake by the body. It is usually expressed in the units ml.kg-1.min-1, sometimes in l.min-1. The measured maximum VO2 is called VO2max. See also maximal oxygen uptake.
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