Our guide to the key movements and training terms you’ll hear at joy.
We believe knowledge builds confidence. This glossary breaks down the key movements and terminology we use at Joy, helping you better understand your training and feel empowered every time you step into the studio.
Resistance training (also called strength or weight training) is any form of exercise where your muscles work against an external force — such as free weights, resistance bands, or even your own bodyweight. Over time, this type of training helps build strength, improve muscle tone, support bone health, boost metabolism, and enhance overall performance in daily life and sport.
Hypertrophy is an increase in the physical size of muscle fibres, often seen as greater muscle mass and volume. The goal of a hypertrophy training phase is to increase the overall bulk of the muscles by using moderate weight loads with moderate to high repetitions per set.
Strength is the maximum force a muscle or group of muscles can generate in one effort. The goal of a strength training phase is to enhance the functional ability of muscles to move heavy external loads. This involves lifting heavy weights for a low number of repetitions.
Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on your muscles and body during training. This can be done by increasing weight, reps, sets, intensity, or changing tempo. By consistently challenging your body beyond its current capacity, you stimulate strength gains, muscle growth and improved performance over time.
Power is the ability to produce force quickly. Power combines strength and speed and is essential for movements that require quick reactions, balance and coordination. Power training typically uses lighter to moderate loads moved with intent and control.
Plyometrics are explosive movements that use a rapid stretch and contraction of muscles to produce force. Plyometric training improves power, coordination and reactive strength.
A compound movement is an exercise that works multiple muscle groups and joints at the same time. Examples include squats, deadlifts, push-ups and pull-ups. Because they recruit more muscles in one movement, compound exercises are highly effective for building strength, improving coordination and training the body in a functional way that carries over to everyday life.
Accessory exercises are movements that support your main lifts and overall training. They usually target smaller muscle groups, strengthen weak points, or improve technique. These exercises don’t replace your big compound lifts — they enhance them, helping you progress faster, stay injury-free and build a more well-rounded body.
Rather than focusing only on individual muscles, we train the body through fundamental movement patterns — the natural ways we move in daily life. By mastering these patterns, you build strength that’s functional, balanced and transferable beyond the gym. This approach helps improve posture, prevent injury and create a solid foundation for long-term progress. The 4 key movement patterns are:
Squat: A lower-body exercise where you bend at the hips, knees and ankles to lower your body before standing back up. Squats strengthen your legs, glutes and core while improving mobility for everyday movements like sitting and standing.
Hinge: A powerful hip-driven movement where you push your hips back while keeping your spine neutral, then drive them forward to return to standing. Hinges build strength in the glutes, hamstrings and lower back — key for posture and injury prevention.
Push: Any movement where you press weight away from your body — either horizontally (like a push-up) or vertically (like an overhead press). Pushes build strong shoulders, chest and arms, supporting both athletic performance and daily tasks.
Pull: The opposite of push — pulling weight toward your body, whether with your arms (like a row) or vertically (like a pull-up). Pulls strengthen your back, biceps and grip, balancing out push movements for total-body strength.
The human body moves in three planes of motion and training across all of them supports joint health, coordination and resilience:
Sagittal plane: forward and backward movements
Frontal plane: side-to-side movements
Transverse plane: rotational movements
Bilateral exercises are where both sides of the body work together (e.g. squats, deadlifts). These allow for heavier loading and overall strength development.
Unilateral exercises are where one side works at a time (e.g. lunges, single-arm presses). Unilateral work improves balance, coordination and addresses strength asymmetries.
Reps (Repetitions) are the number of times you perform an exercise in one set.
A group of repetitions performed together before resting is called a set.
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