- Hypertrophy
- Growth in the size of muscle fibers, driven primarily by mechanical tension from resistance training plus adequate protein and recovery.
- Progressive Overload
- Gradually increasing the demand on a muscle over time — more weight, reps, or sets — so it keeps adapting. The core driver of long-term progress.
- Mechanical Tension
- The force a muscle produces under load. It's considered the primary stimulus for hypertrophy, especially with challenging sets taken near failure.
- RIR (Reps In Reserve)
- How many more reps you could have done before failure. Training at 0–3 RIR is the common effective range for muscle growth.
- RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
- A 1–10 scale of how hard a set felt. RPE 8 roughly equals 2 RIR. Used to autoregulate training day to day.
- Autoregulation
- Adjusting your training load or volume based on how you're actually performing/recovering that day, rather than following fixed numbers rigidly.
- Volume
- Total work done, usually counted as hard sets per muscle per week. More volume generally means more growth up to a point of diminishing returns.
- MPS (Muscle Protein Synthesis)
- The process of building new muscle protein. Training and protein feedings raise MPS; when it exceeds breakdown over time, muscle grows.
- TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
- All the calories you burn in a day — resting metabolism plus activity and digestion. Eat below it to lose fat, above it to gain.
- BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
- Calories your body burns at complete rest to keep basic functions running. The largest single component of TDEE for most people.
- Caloric Surplus / Deficit
- Eating more (surplus) or fewer (deficit) calories than you burn. A deficit drives fat loss; a modest surplus supports muscle gain.
- Macros
- The three macronutrients — protein, carbohydrate, and fat — that make up your calories. Protein is prioritized for muscle and satiety.
- Recomposition
- Losing fat and gaining muscle at roughly the same time. Most achievable for beginners, those returning from a layoff, or higher body-fat individuals.
- Deload
- A planned lighter week of reduced volume or intensity to let fatigue dissipate so you can push hard again afterward.
- 1RM (One-Rep Max)
- The most weight you can lift for a single rep. Often estimated from higher-rep sets and used to set training percentages.
- Time Under Tension
- How long a muscle is under load during a set. Controlling the lowering (eccentric) phase can increase it, though total effort still matters most.
- Eccentric / Concentric
- The lowering phase (eccentric, muscle lengthening) and lifting phase (concentric, muscle shortening) of a rep. Eccentrics are strongly linked to growth and soreness.
- DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
- The soreness that peaks 24–72 hours after unfamiliar training. It signals novelty, not growth — you don't need soreness to build muscle.
- Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy
- Emerging evidence that training a muscle hard in its lengthened position may enhance growth. Promising but still an active research area.
- Interference Effect
- The way heavy concurrent endurance training can blunt strength/size gains if volume and timing aren't managed. Usually minor for typical lifters.
- V-Taper
- The aesthetic look of broad shoulders/lats tapering to a narrow waist. Driven by delt and back development plus a lean midsection; frame width is partly genetic.
- Wolff's Law
- The principle that bone remodels in response to the loads placed on it. Real for adaptive loading like lifting — not a justification for the dangerous "bonesmashing" trend.
- Maintenance Volume
- The minimum weekly training needed to keep the muscle you've built, useful during busy periods or deloads.
- Nutrient Timing
- When you eat relative to training. Total daily intake matters most; timing (like protein spread across the day) offers smaller, secondary benefits.
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