Glossary
Disclaimer: Please note that this glossary is not intended to be a comprehensive checklist or guide, but a basic resource to understanding most jargon that is commonly used across fitness. Although this glossary will be updated from time-to-time, it will not contain all terms and words; what is included is subjective and to the discretion of the blog. If you wish to learn more about certain words you come across here (or even ones you don’t), it is recommended you research them further to get a full grasp of their significance.
A
Accessory Lifts/Exercises: these are the exercises within a workout program that accompany the primary/main exercise(s). Accessory lifts are meant to complement/help the main, more intensive, exercises within a workout program. Since accessory lifts (typically) hit less muscle groups and are less intensive than primary lifts, they are usually performed after the main lifts within a program (when you are tired down from having done the main lifts). There are countless of accessory exercises whereas there are only a handful of main lifts.
Active Recovery: the act of recovering from a previous, recent workout by engaging in a new workout. In this situation, because you are recovering, the new workout is intentionally less strenuous in order to give the body a chance to fully recover from the last workout session. Swimming, yoga, and walking are examples of active recovery workouts.
Aerobic/anaerobic (exercises): the use of oxygen differentiates these two. Aerobic is “with oxygen”, anaerobic is “without oxygen”. Any exercise can fall into either category depending on how they are performed, but in general aerobic exercises will see you perform work that elevates your heart rate for an elongated period (like cardio), whereas anaerobic will have you perform intense exercises for a short time span (like HIIT or weight lifting).
Amenorrhea: the absence of monthly menstrual periods. This can occur in women for a variety of reasons, but with regards to exercising, one of the ways it may occur is from continuously engaging in very intense and physically taxing workout sessions. If this occurs, a medical expert should be consulted.
B
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): this is the number of calories your body burns at rest every day. Another way to look at it is that BMR is the number of calories required by your body to fulfill basic everyday functions (like being alive).
Body Composition: the percentage of fat, bone, water, and muscle that makes up an individual’s body. Typically, the percentage of fat a person has compared to their muscle is the main interest of body composition.
Body Dysmorphia: a mental illness involving an obsessive focus on one, or more, perceived flaws in appearance. The perceived flaw(s) may be minor, major, or even imagined by the individual. If having never been present before, this mental illness can emerge in those who exercise because an individual is overly obsessed on attaining certain physical goals or eliminating certain physical flaws.
Body Fat Percentage (BFP): not to be confused with body mass index. Like the name suggests, this allows you to know how much of your body (in percentage) is made up of fats (essential and non-essential). Outside of equipment (an electronic scale, caliper, or DXA body scanner), one way of getting a rough estimate of someone’s body fat percentage is by visually assessing how visibly defined their abs are: in general, the more visible your abs are, the lower your body fat percentage; whereas the less visible your abs are, the higher your body fat percentage is.
Body Mass Index (BMI): differing from body fat percentage, BMI is interested in an individual’s body mass and height. The two pieces of information are used to provide a general indication of a person’s total body fat. With that said, BFP is a more accurate system because it actually gives a breakdown of how much of a person’s weight is down to fats, whereas BMI is meant to provide a rough guideline as to how much fats is healthy/unhealthy for a person of a certain height and weight range.
Body Recomposition: typically, when exercising to lose fat, programs will focus on fat loss first and then, once that is done, the next step is in developing muscles. Body recomposition focuses on doing the two together (lose body fat while simultaneously gain muscle) by focusing on diets and workout regimens that complement one another.
Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs): they concern themselves with three essential amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) that assist in muscle growth. Your body can’t produce these and must be gained from eating food; they build muscles, decrease muscle fatigue, and help with muscle soreness. There are BCAA-specific supplements available but it is not necessary to purchase them as other supplements already contain BCAAs and consuming more than required provides no additional benefits. It should also be noted that the act of consuming food alone is typically enough to meet the required levels your body needs.
Bulking (clean/dirty): the act of eating more food (eating in a caloric surplus) to increase weight/mass and potentially simultaneously maximize muscle growth. “Clean” bulking is consciously eating healthy and avoiding unhelpful food sources (like processed foods) to pick up weight, whereas “dirty” bulking is largely about eating everything and anything in order to maximize weight gains.
From this, clean bulking is typically a slower process but a better strategical path in muscle growth while dirty bulking is usually a quicker process, but involves picking up unwanted weight in fats that has to be shredded off after.
C
Calisthenics: a form of exercise that works the body and its muscles through (mostly) bodyweight exercises.
Calories (surplus/deficit): without getting into the science, calories are the amount of energy contained within any type of food or drink. Our bodies use up calories (energy) to function and stay alive therefore we must consume food to gain more energy to continue living. The basic act of staying alive consumes calories and with everyone having different bodies, genetics, energy levels, and habits, we all use a different amount of calories to stay alive (basal metabolic rate).
When you eat in a caloric surplus, it means you are consuming more calories than your body requires to maintain itself and this will cause you to gain weight, whereas when you eat in a caloric deficit, it means you are eating less than your body requires and this will cause you to lose weight. Add exercising into the mix and now when you eat in a surplus you can encourage muscle growth, whereas exercising and eating in a deficit can encourage quicker weight loss.
Carb Cycling: the act of varying your carb intake on a daily, weekly, or monthly intake. Typically, one implements carb cycling around their perceived need or use of carbs. For example, you may increase the amount of carbs you eat on a day you exercise because you would require more energy, and then reduce the amount of carbs you eat on a rest day.
Chain (anterior/posterior): the anterior chain relates to the muscles and structures at the front of the body, whereas the posterior involves the structures of your body at the back of the legs and spine. They deal with coordinated muscle movements across your body. Having a strong anterior chain helps with stability and explosive movements while a strong posterior helps with posture, reducing injuries, and lifting heavier. Training both chains are necessary to avoid muscle imbalances.
Clamps/Clips/Collars: the names used to refer to the stoppers on a bar that keeps weights from falling off of the bar.
Conditioning: training or accustoming a person or thing to behave in a certain way. In an exercise sense, this means you are getting your body used to performing and accomplishing certain physical tasks by repetitively engaging in trainings or doing specific movements.
Contraction (concentric/eccentric/isometric/isotonic): when a muscle becomes shorter or tighter.
A concentric contraction causes muscles to shorten (i.e. when curling up a dumbbell during a biceps curl); an eccentric contraction causes muscles to elongate (i.e. when lowering down a dumbbell during a biceps curl); in an isometric contraction muscles do not change length (i.e. holding/maintaining a position); and, lastly, an isotonic contraction simply means a constant tension is maintained in muscles as they change muscle length, therefore an isotonic contraction can refer to either a concentric or eccentric contraction.
Creatine: a compound that improves strength and helps quicken muscle recovery. Your body naturally produces creatine but at such a small quantity that if you’re exercising, to meet the demands placed on your body you must get creatine from food and supplement sources. With that said, consuming creatine to exercise isn’t a must, it just helps a lot.
CrossFit: a branded fitness workout lifestyle that employs strength and conditioning exercises at high intensity levels. It’s more or less the big daddy of high intensity interval training.
D
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): this is soreness that emerges across the portion of muscles you worked after you’ve had an exercise session. It can surface anywhere between a few hours after exercising to a day or two after the exercise session, and typically it acts as a physical representation of your worked muscles feeling the aftershocks of a vigorous workout session.
It should be noted, however, that everyone experiences DOMs to differing degrees, and its presence (or lack of) after a workout does not necessarily signify a hard or easy session; you need to exercise for a while and understand your own body and how DOMS affects you, individually. Also note, that the more experienced you become, the less impactful DOMs become as your body adjusts to the experience.
E
Ego Lifting: when you sacrifice form and control just for the sake of lifting a weight that is, otherwise, too heavy for you.
Electrolytes: essential minerals found in specific foods and drinks. They regulate nerve and muscle functions, hydrate the body, rebuild damaged tissues, and possess other helpful functions.
Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC): also known as the “afterburn effect”. It refers to how your body requires extra energy and burns more calories in order to return your fatigued body to a level, resting state after an intense exercise session.
Exercise (compound/isolation): compound and isolation exercises refer to the amount of muscle groups used in an exercise. Compound exercises involve more than one muscle group in order to do an exercise (think of squats and deadlifts) whereas isolation exercises target a specific muscle group when performing an exercise (think calf raisers and biceps curls).
Exercise (high-impact/low-impact/no-impact): exercises can be thought in two categories; low- and high-impact, and how much strain the body (specifically joints) is put through when engaging in them.
Low-impact exercises are a lot more accessible for those who are new to exercising, unhealthy, injured, old, or with a disability. These exercises are great for building core strength, stabilizing the body, and preparing the body to handle more strenuous activities while typically being slow, methodical, and (above-all) generating low force/exertion on the body. Examples are yoga, Pilates, and walking.
In comparison, high-impact exercises are better suited (but not exclusive) to those who are young, energetic, able-body, or athletic. These exercises improve strength and endurance by being quick, explosive, and generating high force/exertion on the body. Examples are CrossFit, HIIT, and running.
Lastly, no-impact exercises are those where there is no contact between you and another force to exert strain on your body. These are exercises that are very friendly towards those who are unhealthy or recovering from an injury. Swimming and cycling are examples of such exercises.
You can pick and do any of the exercise types above, they are not exclusive or limited to one group of people as they each provide different types of benefits. However, when trying to pick what is right for you, think of the impact placed on the body and the amount of exertion that goes into the type of exercise.
F
Frequency: the amount of times you do an exercise or program (typically) in a week.
G
Giant Set: these effectively compress an entire exercise routine into one big superset.
You perform a number of exercises (between four to eight, depending on your level of fitness) back-to-back without any rest between them. When you finish, that counts as one giant set. At the end of a set you take the necessary rest (two to five minutes) and then redo the entire set again. Once again, your level of fitness determines how many giant sets you will accomplish.
Ghrelin: a hormone involved in appetite regulation. It is a hunger hormone (that drives up appetite) and works in opposite function to leptin.
Glycogen: a source of energy that comes from glucose which, in turn, comes from carbs. It fuels muscles for exercises.
H
Heart Rate (maximum/resting/target): when you exercise, typically, you increase your heart rate, and an elevated heart rate can imply a more intense exercise session. For this reason, it is helpful to know your maximum heart rate (your theoretical limit), resting heart rate, and target heart rate (the zone where you’re most efficient). Knowing these things allow you to carry out more effective and purposeful aerobic exercises.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): any workout that switches between intense bursts of activity and moments of less intense activity. The intense interval is typically between 30-60 seconds long while the following lower intensity interval is about twice the length of time of the intense section.
During the high intensity portion, the end goal is to completely exhaust yourself within the set time limit (that is why the time frame is so short), and then the recovery period is used as an active recovery session. When the high intensity portion comes back, once again, you exhaust yourself; there should be nothing left in your tank during these moments, otherwise you’re not doing HIIT correctly.
Hypertrophy: the increase of muscular size achieved through exercising. Progressive overload is the most basic, straightforward tool to achieve hypertrophy.
I
Intensity: indicates how close you are performing an exercise to your one-rep max. Measured in percentages (%). The higher the intensity, the lower the reps will be (since you’re getting closer to your one-rep max).
Intermittent Fasting: a diet plan that involves following a scheduled meal time and fasting time along the course of a day.
Interval Training: see high intensity interval training.
Intra-workout: a term referencing period during a workout where you consume food or supplements in order to replenish and fuel tiring muscle cells. This is not scientifically proven and is largely pushed by individuals trying to sell products.
J
K
Ketogenic (Keto) Diet: a diet that increases the consumption of fats and decreases the consumption of carbs while maintaining a levelled consumption of proteins. Fats, carbs, and proteins each have different main purposes in the body: proteins are used for muscle growth, carbs for energy, and fats for balancing hormones and backup energy. In this diet, because the consumption of carbs is low, the body doesn’t have its primary source of energy therefore fats are used instead. This disallows consumed fats to sit and be stored in the body and instead they must be burnt through to continue powering the body.
L
Lean Mass: part of body composition. It is your total body weight excluding the weight from fat.
Leptin: a hormone involved in appetite regulation. It is a satiety hormone (that suppresses appetite) and works in opposite function to ghrelin.
Loading Phase: when supplementing, like with creatine for example, there is typically a recommended “loading” phase when you’re beginning a new cycle. At the start of the cycle you take a higher dose of the supplement for a short length of time before eventually decreasing the amount and maintaining a new, lower quantity. The point of this is to jump start the benefits of the supplement instead of slowly easing into the beneficial effects.
M
Macros (macronutrients): the three categories of nutrients that we eat the most of, provide the most energy, and our bodies need the most of: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Metabolic Window: a term used to describe the 30-minute period after an exercise session where nutrition can help the body switch from a catabolic to anabolic state. A number of studies have shown that this window is actually much larger than people claim. As long as you eat within 24 hours of having exercised, you will still experience the benefits of replenishing depleted muscle cells. See metabolism, and intra-workout.
Metabolism (anabolism/catabolism): the chemical process undertaken by your body when converting consumable products into energy. In this process we have anabolic and catabolic reactions. Catabolism relates to the body breaking down complex molecules into simpler ones (like the food you eat or the cells across your body after exercising), whereas anabolism has to do with creating complex molecules from simple ones (repurposing the broken, simplified molecules for specific use and growth across your body).
Micros (micronutrients): unlike macros, these are required by our bodies in smaller quantities. Despite being required in smaller quantities, they are still essential in proper bodily functions and they relate to vitamins and minerals.
Mind-Muscle Connection: the conscious awareness of feeling a muscle work through the range of motion involved in an exercise. Being focused and mentally present during a movement can improve performance and growth in the muscle(s).
Muscle (agonist/antagonist/synergist): when muscles perform action, different muscles perform different roles in the movement to complement the action. In a movement, the main activated muscle is called the prime mover, or agonist; any assisting muscle to the movement that supports or provides stabilization is a fixator, or synergist; and a muscle that performs the opposite action of the agonist muscle (or no action at all) is an antagonist, which at times acts to counterbalance and control the prime mover.
Muscle Fibers (fast/slow): also known as Type I and Type II (A and B) muscle fibers. Type I are slow twitch muscle fibers that are primarily for endurance exercises, while Type IIA and IIB are fast twitch muscle fibers intended for short, explosive exercises. However, IIA contains characteristics from Type II and Type I muscles (best of both worlds) whereas IIB are muscle fibers solely focused on explosive exertion.
For better or for worse, your genetics determine which muscle fibers you’ll have more of (therefore you can be genetically better suited for one type of sport/exercise over another, and ill-equipped to partake in other physical activities), however, the type of training you undertake can promote the development of muscle fibers to a certain extent.
Muscle Imbalance: is in effect when a muscle or group of muscles on one side of the body is/are larger, smaller, stronger, weaker, tighter or looser than corresponding muscle(s) on the other side of the body. These can occur from neglecting to train muscles, overtraining muscles, or even from performing exercises with poor form and control.
Muscle Memory: the ability of your body to memorize the feel and skill involved in a motor skill through repetition. If you have not been training for an extensive period through muscle memory, you can relearn or regain certain lost skills/abilities/perks quicker than someone who is new to the action.
N
Natty (fake natty): a slang term short for “natural”. It refers to someone who exercises without the use of performance enhancing drugs to achieve their desired training results. Fake nattys are people who privately/secretly use PEDs but publicly claim that they’ve achieved their results solely through genetics, time, and hard work.
Negative Repetitions/Reps: has to do with putting more focus on the lowering/eccentric portion of a lift/movement. If you struggle at completing a full range of motion during a particular exercise (e.g. pull-ups), you can improve your strength and ability to perform the exercise by working on the lowering part of the exercise’s motion. One way to do this is employing and maximizing time under tension during the lowering; do it slowly, controlled, and try to implement a mind-muscle connection.
Newbie/Novice Gains: a term used to refer to the exponential muscle growth a beginner will attain when they first begin working out. Because the beginner’s body has never experienced such a body stimulus from working out intensely, their body responds very well in its attempt to adjust to the new demands being put on it. Newbie gains don’t last forever, as after some time the rate at which muscle grows reduces because the body becomes accustomed to the stimulus and because the individual is beginning to reach their natural physical limit in packing on muscles.
Muscle growth works on a principle of diminishing return; the longer you grow muscles and the more you have, the less muscle there is available to acquire until there is nothing more left to squeeze out, unless you then turn to performance enhancing drugs.
O
One-Rep Max: the maximum/heaviest amount of weight you, personally, can lift for one repetition. There are a number of ways available online in helping people calculate their one-rep max (1RM). Depending on how you program your workout, it can be beneficial to identify your one-rep max as it can allow you to calculate how hard or easy you should perform individual exercises to better help you achieve your end-goal(s).
P
Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet: a diet plan that mirrors the food consumed during the paleolithic age. There isn’t one exact version of the diet but a number of them as it mirrors the consumption of foods available to prehistoric hunter and gatherers, therefore its menu is dependent largely on location, but the basics remain the same. The main focus of this diet is weight loss and increasing consumption of whole foods.
Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs): these can come in a large variety of forms, with each one having a different purpose or direction of use (some PEDs can be ingested orally while others are injected). Because there are a variety of PEDs, different countries have different laws on them with some being illegal in certain countries and yet the same substance being completely legal in another country.
PEDs have a variety of effects or uses: they can increase muscle size, increase strength, augment bodily functions, or even assist in metabolism, for example.
Steroids are the most common PEDs that come to people’s mind when talking about performance enhancing substances but it should be understood that steroids are just one type of performance enhancers and not an umbrella term to refer to all, or most, PEDs.
Pilates: a form of low-impact exercise aimed at improving, stabilizing, and strengthening core muscles.
Plyometrics: also known as jump training. These types of exercises are fashion and used to increase speed, endurance, and explosive power through high-impact activities.
Primary Lifts/Exercises: these are the main exercises within a workout program that accessory lifts support. Primary lifts are meant to be the focus of an exercise program, and as they are compound exercises and are more intensive than accessory lifts, they are usually performed first in a program (when you are relatively fresh and at your best).
Progressive Overload: the act of gradually increasing the difficulty of an exercise by increasing the size of weights trained over a course of time.
It should be noted that progressive overload doesn’t only come in the form of increasing weights over time; it can be achieved by making any kind of gradual adjustments to your workout routine that increases the overall challenge and strain on the muscles. This can be achieved in a number of ways such as changing the numbers of sets and reps you do or even by just changing your rest time between sets.
Q
R
Range of Motion (ROM): the full movement potential of a joint. When instructed to use “full range of motion” in an exercise, that simply means to have the involved muscle joint go through the full range of flexion and extension associated in a movement (e.g., like standing tall in a squat to go as low as your knees will allow then going back up again).
Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE): perceived exertion is how hard/intense you feel like your body is working during a workout, and the rate of perceived exertion is a scale that helps you measure that intensity.
If you’ve trained long enough, you do not necessarily require the scale to get an idea of your work rate; experience becomes a good gauge for you to understand your own body and how hard or easy a workout is and whether you can go harder or need to ease up. Having an idea of your own RPE (whether through the scale or experience) can be beneficial as some workout programs instruct you to strive for a certain RPE range when doing particular exercises.
Repetitions (reps): the number of times you perform the motions belonging to an exercise.
Resistance Training: any type of exercise where you move your body against some form of resistance (such as lifting weights or even calisthenics). Sometimes this term is interchangeable with strength training.
Risk to Benefit Ratio: simply put, the ratio of risk involved in an action to its potential benefit. Everything involved in exercising (and life) has some level of inherent risk associated to it (like injuries), but with those risks come potential benefits from engaging in the action if the activity is undertaken or successfully performed. However, some benefits are not worth the risks, therefore when engaging in an activity it is advisable to know what the end-goal of that action is so as to judge whether or not it’s worth risking something (health, dignity, livelihood, etc.) for that goal.
S
Sarcopenia: the loss of muscle mass due to aging (or immobility). As you get older, you naturally begin to lose muscle mass and strength; this natural process begins in your 30s and the rate of muscle mass lost varies from person to person. Although this process is inevitable, exercising can help reduce the speed and rate at which an individual loses muscle.
It should be noted though, that someone who is well past their 30s and has not been exercising can still benefit from exercising at any age. It’s not game over if you haven’t been exercising as you can reverse some muscle loss at any point.
Set: a group of repetitions performed in one go.
Somatotypes (ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph): the underlying body type, or physique, a person has that will not drastically change without overeating, undereating, or rigorous training.
Ectomorphs are thin with little body fat and muscle; they have a hard time gaining and retaining weight and building muscle. Endomorphs are on the opposite end of spectrum where they are large and gain fat and muscle very easily but struggle to lose it. And mesomorphs are the best of both worlds where they’re a balance of the other types.
Strength & Conditioning: the application of exercises and sport science to build strength, endurance, performance, and/or muscle in an athlete.
Strength Training: performing physical exercises to improve strength, muscle mass, and/or endurance.
Stretches (ballistic/dynamic/static): stretching keeps muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, but depending on the type of stretch being done it should come either before or after a workout. Ballistic and dynamic stretches are warm-up/pre-workout stretches while static stretches are cool down/post-workout stretches.
Ballistic stretches involves fast, bouncy movement meant to stretch muscle groups beyond their typical range of motion to increase flexibility and are not recommended for inexperienced athletes because the risk of injury is high, whereas dynamic stretches are active stretching and short movements where the stretches/movements are held/performed for short lengths (less than 5 seconds) in order to activate and prepare muscle groups for the upcoming activity. Static stretches are slow, passive movement that elongate muscles along a 30-60 second hold; they help with easing and relaxing muscles, and because of this doing static stretches before a workout can increase likelihood of injuries.
Steady State Cardio: any cardio session that is continuous and kept at a steady rhythm for the entire workout session compared to something like HIIT that involves different intensities.
Superset: two exercises combined one as one big set. When you finish the reps for one exercise, instead of having a rest, you quickly change to a new, different exercise. When you finish both exercises, that is one set. You have a rest at the end of the two back-to-back exercises and then repeat for however many sets you’ve designated for the combined exercises.
Superfoods: foods that are nutritionally dense and, effectively, very good for your health.
Supplement (supps): a dietary product that comes in various forms meant to support a person’s nutritional goals by: providing additional nutrients, encouraging bodily reactions, and/or inhibiting bodily functions. Supplements are not meant to act as meal replacements but used on top of one’s typical dietary habits.
T
Tabata: a type of high intensity interval training named after Professor Izumi Tabata. It incorporates doing eight rounds of 20 second workouts followed by a 10 second rest per exercise. Each exercise should last for four minutes before moving to the next one.
Tempo: the speed at which repetitions are performed.
Time Under Tension (TUT): like the name implies, this is the amount of time a muscle is kept under tension/strain during an exercise. A simple way of employing TUT is by slowing down your reps to encourage proper form and control through motions, instead of using momentum or cheat reps to get through an exercise. Another method of employing TUT is being explosive during the lift/concentric portion of an exercise and then being slow and mindful during the eccentric/negative/lowering portion.
U
V
VO2 (max): the amount of oxygen one consumes during exercises (V= volume, 02= oxygen), whereas the max is the maximum amount of oxygen one can consume while exercising. Testing and knowing your VO2 max allows you to measure how strong your cardiovascular fitness is.
Volume: the culmination of sets, reps, and weights used per exercise (sets x reps x weights = volume). Depending on your exercising goals (size, strength, endurance, etc.), you adjust this to maximize potential results.
W
Whey Protein (concentrate/hydrolysate/isolate): protein found from dairy products. For this type of protein powder, it’s typically acquired as a by-product from cheese-making. It should be noted that protein powder can be sourced through other methods than dairy, like plant-based protein powders or lactose-free powders.
In among whey protein there are four forms that the powder usually comes in; either as concentrate, hydrolysate, isolate, or a fusion. Concentrate is the cheapest on the market as it is the least processed of the three, and by being less processed it contains other macros with it (and is arguably more nutritional). Isolate is further processed and so pricier, but it contains less supplementary macros than concentrate. Lastly, hydrolysate digests the quickest of the three types, is the most expensive version, and is typically the preferred type among athletes.
Whole30: a 30-day diet plan that emphasizes the consumption of whole foods and the elimination of dairy, soy, processed and artificial foods, alcohol, legumes, and grains from your diet. The point of the diet is to give your digestive system a hard reset (and cleanse) and then at the end of the 30 days, gradually re-introduce food groups so that you can easily identify which food groups give you negative reactions when consuming.
Whole Foods: this simply refers to consumable foods that are not processed, manmade, or heavily tampered with but naturally grown or found in nature.
X
Y
Yoga: there are different types of yoga practices depending on what you want to achieve, and depending on who you ask, there are anywhere between four to fourteen different types of yoga. Other than researching what you’re looking for, it’s best to ask a yogi and get a bit of insight from them to kickstart your understanding of the different types, and what is best for you (if you want to take up the practice).
Yogi: a dedicated practitioner of yoga.