[118] Exercise and Fitness – English Vocabulary At The Gym

Learn New English Vocabulary – At The Gym

 

 

Hello guys and girls, it’s time for us to learn some new vocabulary. Today’s episode is about exercising at the gym, it’s about keeping fit and keeping in good shape. Enjoy :)

Episodes mentioned

Episode 028 – How to Give Advice in English (Should)
Episode 097 – To Go On A Diet (Plus Two Linking Words)

 

Transcript

Hey there guys and girl, you are listening to the English Made Simple show this is episode number #118, number one hundred and eighteen, numero ciento diez y ocho.

And welcome and bienvenidos a English Made Simple, I’m your podcast teacher and your English coach, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net. Welcome to my old and new listeners! Nice to have you tune in to today’s show.

And today amigos, I want to ask you one simple question, we are going to start off with a question:

Are you in good shape? Estas en forma?

Think about this for a second. Are you in good shape?

I used to be in good shape. But now I am out of shape.
When my sister asks me: Oh my, Milena you’ve gained a few kilos. You really need to start getting yourself in good shape. And to which I reply: Yes I am in shape, round is a shape.

*cue bad joke drum rolls – music*
What shape do you want me to get into? I am not a transformer.
*cue bad joke drum rolls – music*
Alright, alright!

So are you in good shape? How often do you exercise to keep in shape? Do you follow any special diet for keeping in good shape?

So today amigos, I think you can guess what today’s episode is going to be about – Today’s episode is about fitness and exercise. We are going to learn some new vocabulary – yeeey! Sounds like a good plan.

We’ve learnt some of the vocabulary related to diets, fitness and exercise in some previous episodes. I will put links in the transcription so that you can have a look at these episodes when you get a chance.

So the two episodes I want you to go back and check out are:

Episode 028 – How to Give Advice in English (Should)
Episode 097 – To Go On A Diet (Plus Two Linking Words)

So it would be good to check out those episodes as well!

So are we ready boys and girls, I hope you are walking or jogging – trotando in Spanish – while listening to this episode. I hope you are not doing something unhealthy like, indulging in chocolate cake or French fries (papa fritas). My favourite, French fries or chips…mmmm, delicious…. beer-battered chips yum. I could stuff my face with that, all day long.

Now I got you thinking about food. Today’s episode is not about food, we will cover that next time.

Today’s episode is about exercise, doing some physical activity for health benefits and for looks. So we look more attractive.

Ok so the first thing you will learn today is the expression – to be in good shape.
You can also be in great shape, in fantastic or amazing shape.

The expression here is to be in good shape. Estar en buena forma.

The opposite of being in good shape is to be out of shape, which means to be in bad shape.

What does to be in good shape mean? Well, glad you asked!

Well, according to weon inteligente or the online dictionary, to be in good shape means to be in good condition physically – it can be used for both people and things. You can also say to get in shape and to keep in shape. You can use those phrases as well.

But when I ask you – are you in good shape? I am actually asking you this question with the help of the auxiliary verb To Be.

To be in good shape. Are you in good shape? Means what’s your fitness level at the moment? Are you fit and healthy?

A-ha! New words coming your way now amigos y amigas. Listen carefully.

To be fit – a person who runs marathons is a very fit person. To be fit in Spanish is similar to estar en forma but when someone is fit, it means they can run marathons, hold a conversation at the same time and listen to the English Made Simple show. *cue bad joke drumroll music*

So the marathon runners, they can run long distances, I think the run is 42 kilometres. I, on the other hand, am very unfit. That’s the opposite of fit. Unfit. I can only run 10 meters and I start puffing immediately. To puff in Spanish is jadear. You know what I mean, I have to run and then stop…then crawl haha not no crawl. What I mean to say is…I run and then start walking. Because I am so unfit, I run out of breath very quickly, me ahogo, I run out of breath.

And this is exactly what happened to me this morning actually. I woke up at 7am, because that is the only time I have right now for exercise. And because it’s wintertime in Melbourne, I decided to warm up before going outside. I did some warm up exercises indoors – inside the house – I did some floor exercises, you know basic things like, squats, lunges, push ups just using my bodyweight, just to warm up before I go outside for a run, for a short run!

The funny thing is, when I say to my husband that I am doing floor exercises, he thinks I am vacuuming the house and cleaning, he thinks I am doing housework haha No way José. Actually, that’s a good idea, I can prepare an episode about that in the near future. Anyway, getting myself distracted.

So this morning my body was in shock, I went from sitting on my ass for 6 months – yup a long time – to running straight away, it’s a recipe for disaster.

When it comes to exercise you have to ease into it – you have to start slowly – and you have to develop a routine so that your body gets used to the movement.

Now, amigos, I am not a personal trainer so I can’t give you a professional advice when it comes to exercise. A personal trainer is someone who works at the gym, they might even work for themselves, be self-employed, have their own gym… a personal trainer develops an exercise plan for their clients. A personal trainer also spots clients, assists them when they are lifting heavy weights. Spotting is a term used by gym junkies.

To spot someone in the gym is to help them lift heavy weights. Usually guys spot each other in the gym because they are known to lift extremely heavy weights, especially when they are on the bench press machine – building their pecs you know what I mean.

Gym junkies – is a term for people who love going to the gym, who spend a long time at the gym, gym addicts basically. They are gym addicts.

I used to be a gym junkie myself, in my 20’s. If you’ve read my bio on the English Made Simple website, you would’ve learnt that I used to be a bodybuilder. I only competed once when I was 23 years old. I think I was too young to have any muscle on me then. I competed in a category called Body Shape, and this was back in New Zealand, many, many years ago. I used to be very fit then.

I also participated in fun runs organised by charity groups. When I turned 30 – when I was 30 years old – I joined 10-k runs. I ran for 10 kilometres. I didn’t want to run longer than that. It would require a lot of sacrifice, discipline and training if you wanted to run longer.

And you know me, I love food. I love it! I can’t sacrifice that.

By the way, any advice I share today about exercise is coming from my own personal experience when I trained for a bodybuilding competition back in 2003. Things have changed since then. And if you have a goal and you are interested in training for a specific event, I would definitely recommend you hire a personal trainer. Hiring a personal trainer will help you reach your goal faster.

When I was training for the competition, I hired a personal trainer and a nutritionist. I started training 3 months out from the competition date, so 3 months before the competition day.

The nutritionist planned my meals –comidas – told me what to eat and what not to eat, I would be eating same food every day – meat and veggies, meat and vegetables. Basically she designed my diet plan, meal plan for the competition.

By the way, if you want to lose weight – bajar de peso – then you really have to watch what you eat. This is really important. And if you have a specific goal to achieve, for example like losing weight or just building muscle tone, I would definitely recommend hiring a nutritionist to help you plan your meals.

80% of my training was the diet and the rest was exercise. Eating the right type of food is the most important thing when training for any sport, really.

My personal trainer really pushed me hard in the gym. She pushed me so hard that I would be sore the next day. Sore is another word for painful, to be in pain. I was in pain.

After a really hard workout you get sore muscles, you know what I am talking about! And the word Sore is an adjective, sore muscles mean, painful muscles. Muscles – músculos. When you see a guy (or a girl) with lots of muscles you can say they are muscly (muscley) o musculosos in Spanish.

So I mentioned the word workout – which is written as one word, it’s also a noun. It means an exercise session, physical training or in Spanish this is sesión o rutina de entrenamiento.

Also, after a hard and strenuous workout, it’s usually a good idea to stretch. Stretch your muscles. Elongar. And if you are good at Yoga, then lucky you.

If you do a lot of cardio exercise, such as running or cycling you are bound to sweat. To sweat in Spanish means – Sudár o transpirar.

So my training for the competition lasted 3 months – yup, only 3 months! And in 3 months I lost 10 kilos of fat and gained 4 kilos of muscle. I know what you are thinking, you are thnking bodybuilding – eeew – I don’t want to have big muscles. Well, thanks to biology, for women it’s actually really hard to gain muscle, you would have to train hard for 20 years to end up with big muscles. Whereas for guys, it’s easier to build muscles, but it also requires effort, it’s not that easy but much easier than girls.

Anyway, my training involved a combination of cardio and weights at the gym, cardio y pesas. Cardio was the first thing in the morning before breakfast, it went for about half an hour and then I would go back later in the afternoon for another session at the gym but this time lifting weights.

Yup, that was me basically, every day for 3 months!

You have to sacrifice a lot during the 3 months of training, no drinking alcohol, no sweets, so no wine and no Nutella. Just drinking plenty of water, close to 2 liters a day.

That was then, now I drink 2 litres of wine a day! Haha No, that’s not true. *bad joke drumroll music*

That was the best experience I had in my life. It taught me a lot about myself and taught me about discipline.

But now I am at a different stage in my life, it’s called life of leisure.

The second thing I would like to explain is what it means when we say: to be healthy.

To be healthy – doesn’t only apply to exercise but it also applies to the food. Are you eating healthy?
Do you follow a healthy diet?

Healthy is an adjective, For example: I want to feel fit and healthy. I am fit and healthy.

Is nutella healthy? Are chips healthy? I don’t think so. But if you eat anything in moderation you should be fine. ok?

I think we covered a lot in today’s episode. I don’t want to overwhelm you in today’s episode. Remember guys and girls, you don’t have to go to the gym to keep fit, there are other activities you could be doing to keep fit and to keep in good shape.

So having said, we will continue next week. We will learn more vocabulary related to exercising, going to the gym and eating healthy.

And before we finish, I’d like to send a special greeting to Jesús Matheus from Venezuela, thanks for your nice comments and I am glad you are enjoying the EMS show. Keep listening!

And another hello to David from Spain who suggested the topic about fitness and exercise. Thanks for that David, it was a great idea.

Cool, and we shall continue next week. You’ve been an amazing audience as always, keep fit, and stay healthy. You’ve been jamming with Milena your English coach, see you next time – hasta la proxima!