Gym Rat
Tell a trainer your goals, name the exercises, count your sets — out loud, in Spanish.
Start with the words that change by country: push-ups are las flexiones in Argentina but las lagartijas — literally 'little lizards' — across Mexico. Squats are las sentadillas, pull-ups las dominadas. When a trainer asks about goals, the two answers that matter are bajar de peso (lose weight) and ganar músculo (gain muscle), and workouts are counted in series and repeticiones — always with numbers attached, like 3 series de 12 repeticiones. Nobody says el gimnasio mid-sentence anyway: it's el gym.
Below: the exercise, equipment and muscle-group words a workout actually uses, the slang locals throw around between sets — and a way to practice saying it all to a trainer out loud, not off a flashcard.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no matching pairs — in the Gym Rat lessons you learn the words the way you'll use them: mid-conversation, slightly out of breath. Olivia sets up your first session with a personal trainer, and you describe your goals, your current routine and that old injury before the plan gets written. Then you're at the gym asking another member how a weight machine works, and planning the week with a friend — which muscle groups on which day, día de pecho, día de pierna. Every set, rep and body part said out loud until it's automatic.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 5 lessons and Gym Rat is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Las flexiones is the standard word — Argentines say flexiones de brazos or just flexiones — but in Mexico everyone says las lagartijas. In the Caribbean the anglicism wins for pull-ups: people say hacer pull-ups more than las dominadas.
State the goal first, then ask for the plan: bajar de peso (lose weight) or ganar músculo (gain muscle) — in Argentina, ganar masa or meter músculo. Note that in Argentina your trainer is often just el profe.
Sets are las series, reps are las repeticiones — gym-goers clip it to las reps. Always attach the numbers: 3 series de 12 repeticiones, 30 minutos de cardio. Vague volume is the mistake that gets you a shrug instead of a spot.
Weights are las pesas (levantar pesas = to lift). The treadmill is la cinta de correr — Argentines just say la cinta — the stationary bike is la bicicleta estática, colloquially la bici fija, and a dumbbell is la mancuerna.
It's el gym, not el gimnasio, and going is voy a darle al gym or me voy a entrenar. Routines get named by body part — día de pecho, día de pierna — and Mexican gym slang for jacked is estoy mamado. Use with care.
