Doing Basic Exercises This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 813.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful and I do mean beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Jane and Arnold about doing physical exercises for your body.
Let's get started.
I just had the best workout at the gym Oh, yeah?
What can you do in this small space?
Nearly everything I need to do.
Before I do my calisthenics, I stretch, and every morning I do sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups.
That's not enough to keep you in shape.
I'm not finished.
Every other day I do lunges and squats, and I lift free weights.
But what about a cardio workout?
I do jumping jacks, run in place, and jump rope on the balcony.
I guess you've got it all figured out.
I think so.
Have you seen the light?
Are you going to stop going to the gym?
No way.
Exercise isn't the only reason I go to the gym, you know.
I go for the view.
You've got that right.
Jane no relation to Jane Fonda, who was a famous actress and activist, political activist in the United States.
She's still alive.
She became famous also for doing these tapes, these videotapes of how to exercise.
But this is a different Jane.
Jane says I've just had the best workout at the gym.
A workout.
One word is a period of exercise, a period of time that you use your body in such a way as to physically challenge it, so you can improve your strength, your health and so forth.
The gym, G-Y-M, is a place where you go to do exercises.
Gym is short for the longer word gymnasium.
Don't confuse the spelling of gym G-Y-M with the name gym, which comes from James, that's spelled J-I-M.
And both of them are different from gin G-I-N, which is an alcoholic drink that I'll be having when I finish this episode.
Arnold says and this is not Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California completely different Arnold.
Arnold says, you don't need to go to a gym to exercise.
To exercise is the verb we use for using your body in a way that will help it physically.
So when you do a workout or go and work out as a verb, you are going to exercise.
Arnold says, I exercise right here in my apartment.
Jane says, oh yeah?
What can you do in this small space?
Jane doesn't quite believe that Arnold can exercise in his apartment.
Arnold says, nearly everything I need to do.
I can do everything I need to do, he says.
He says before I do my calisthenics C-A-L-I-S-T-H-E-N-I-C-S is like gymnasium, originally from a Greek word.
Calisthenics are exercises that improve your strength and your flexibility, but they don't require any typically special equipment.
They're basically just moving your body and doing things with your body that could be done anywhere.
To stretch S-T-R-E-T-C-H means to move your body in ways that push or pull parts of it so that it helps you with, they say, your flexibility.
You're able to move your muscles more easily if you stretch.
That's what I'm told.
Arnold says, and every morning I do sit ups, push ups and pull ups.
A sit-up is an exercise where you lie down on the ground with your back against the ground.
You put your head on the ground.
You put your hands either behind your head or on the side of your head.
And then you sit up from that position, either with your knees up, your legs up, or your body flat.
A push-up P-U-S-H hyphen U-P is an exercise where you're lying on the ground, but you're lying on your stomach this time, with your face forward.
Then you put your two hands flat on the floor and you push up with your arms and you raise your body up.
Pull-ups P-U-L-L hyphen U-P-S are exercises that involve having a bar usually a metal bar could be a thick wooden one and you grab onto it with your hands.
So you're below the bar typically and And you grab onto it with your hands and you pull your whole body up using your arms to do so.
So we have sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups.
Jane says that's not enough to keep you in shape.
To be in shape means to be physically in good condition.
We might say physically fit, F-I-T.
Arnold then says, I'm not finished.
Every other day, I do lunges and squats, and I lift free weights.
A lunge L-U-N-G-E is an exercise that is done by standing with your two legs apart, one in front of the other, and then you bend one knee, or you walk forward, bending your knees as you go far down.
A squat is an exercise where you're two feet.
You're on your feet, but your two feet are parallel.
Your legs are parallel, you don't have one in front of the other.
You then bend your knees so that your butt, your bottom is almost touching your feet, and then you stand up again.
Often people put weight on their shoulders to make the squat more difficult.
It's very good for your leg muscles.
Arnold says he also lifts free weights.
To lift something is to take it in your hand and lift it up in the air.
Lifting weights means going and taking very heavy objects and moving them up and down with your arms or legs.
Free weights are weights that are not attached to any machine.
It used to be that all weight lifting was free weight lifting.
Now they have different machines that you can lift weights with.
Jane says, but what about a cardio workout?
Cardio, C-A-R-D-I-O, comes from cardiovascular.
It refers to your heart.
A cardio workout is one such as riding a bike running jogging, walking quickly, where you get your heart rate up.
Your heart starts to beat much faster.
That's a cardio workout.
Arnold says for his cardio, he does jumping jacks.
Jumping jacks, which used to be very popular during the middle of the 20th century, in the 50s and 60s and 70s.
I don't know how popular they are now in schools.
But a jumping jack is where you stand with your feet together and then you jump up and you put your two feet together at a distance from each other.
You separate them.
You take your two arms and you raise them above your head, often clapping your hands above your head.
And you do all this quickly.
And that's a jumping jack.
It's kind of funny.
You can see kids do this.
It's an exercise that used to be very popular in grade schools for young children.
Well, Arnold is no child, but he does jumping jacks.
He also runs in place and jumps rope on his balcony.
To run in place means not to move.
You go through the motion of running, but you're not going anywhere.
You're standing in one place.
To jump rope is to take a long piece of rope and hold each end in each hand.
You then swing it or move it in a circle so that it goes under your feet and then over your head.
And you continue to do that.
And of course, in order for it to go under your feet, you have to jump up.
And that's why we call it jumping rope.
Jane says, I guess you've got it all figured out.
I guess you understand it all.
Arnold says, I think so.
Then he asks Jane, have you seen the light?
Are you going to stop going to the gym?
The expression to see the light means to understand something.
Usually, you come to this understanding quickly or suddenly.
It's often about something very important in your life.
Sometimes people use this expression for people who have religious conversions.
So it's a serious deep change in your thoughts and your beliefs.
But Arnold isn't really talking about anything that serious.
He's saying to Jane that maybe now she will see that it's not necessary to go to the gym to do exercises.
But Jane says, no way.
No, she doesn't agree.
Exercise isn't the only reason I go to the gym, you know.
She says, I go for the view, what she can see there.
And of course, she can see other people, perhaps other attractive people.
She won't see me there because I don't go to the gym and I'm not very attractive.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Arnold says, I have a feeling you're not talking about the view outside.
That is he's saying.
I'm guessing you're not talking about things you can see outside of the gym or from inside of the gym to the outside.
You're talking about the people in the gym.
Arnold is no fool.
Jane says, you've got that right.
That expression, you've got that right, means simply yes, you are absolutely correct.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I've just had the best workout of the gym.
You don't need to go to a gym to exercise.
I exercise right here in my apartment.
Oh yeah?
What can you do in this small space?
Nearly everything I need to do.
Before I do my calisthenics, I stretch.
And every morning I do sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups.
That's not enough to keep you in shape.
I'm not finished.
Every other day I do lunges and squats, and I lift free weights.
But what about a cardio workout?
I do jumping jacks, run in place, and jump rope on the balcony.
I guess you've got it all figured out.
I think so Have you seen the light?
Are you going to stop going to the gym?
No way, Exercise isn't the only reason I go to the gym.
You know I go for the view.
I have a feeling you're not talking about the view outside.
You've got that right.
You can exercise your English by listening to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
We hope that you'll come back next time here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
