This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1508, Band 9 Exercise Vocabulary for IELTS Speaking.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner -trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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What would you say if the examiner asked you what your favorite kind of exercise is?
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Aubrey, what's shaking?
I'm great. How are you, Lindsay?
Good. But Aubrey, I have a question for you today.
You ready? Yeah, let's hear it.
So what kind of exercise do you like to do?
What is your your favorite way to workout?
Ooh, I love sports, volleyball, pickleball.
I really hate running.
You know, a lot of things that most people do for exercise and are probably better for me.
I don't love it. Yeah, me too.
I love sports. I love it when I can take a whole day and everything can be built around that activity.
You know, it's the best outside.
We've been playing here in Idaho, a lot of board ball.
Have you heard of board ball?
Never heard of that.
Similar to of volleyball, but there's or spike ball, there's a little board on the ground that's maybe four by four.
And someone hits a volleyball toward it and you play it's like teams of two.
And then they sort of receive it set to the next person, they hit it down to the board. So it's fun because often for volleyball, if you don't have two full teams, you can't play.
Yeah, this is a fun game where you're playing volleyball, but just with four people more like a game.
I love it. It's so fun.
That's fun. I think I've seen that being played like on the beach or something before.
yeah yeah probably love it great topic today and I'm curious how it plays into IELTS but first guys go ahead and hit the follow button right here on IELTS Energy podcast because we publish twice a week and we do bonuses sometimes Aubrey but our listeners don't want to miss right exactly so be sure to hit follow right here on IELTS Energy and I'm curious to dive in here today we're talking about exercising because I don't know about you Lindsay but I don't think I've ever really talked in Spanish or French about the sports and exercises I do often.
It doesn't come up that often in conversations.
What about you? Have you talked about it in Spanish much?
Not really. Not really.
I feel like what I end up talking about in Spanish is traveling, more traveling, right?
Traveling, languages, maybe food and wine, but not so much daily life where I live, my family, that kind of thing.
Not so much sports.
I don't know why. Yeah.
So this very well could come up on IELTS and you might not have talked about it in English.
So it's vital that you have topic specific vocabulary and that you're ready to answer questions about sports, sports you like, sports you don't like, sports that are common in your country.
You might also be asked about society in general, if we're healthy enough, if, you know, if people in your country exercise enough, that type of thing.
Oh, you definitely need to practice us talking about this.
Exactly. And stay until the end of the episode.
We're going to do a sample speaking part two answer.
But the first tip is we want you all to integrate this question into your practice, your speaking practice.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly right.
Especially for part two, this could be difficult because if it's something you haven't talked about a lot in English, it's hard to fill two minutes.
So we are going to give you some great vocabulary today as well as help you sort of see when it comes to exercise, it's not just about running, jogging.
There are a lot of things that could count that you could talk about.
So this will be good.
I love it. I love it.
So let's go through some some vocabulary, you know, because, again, we're priming our ideas.
We're getting those words out to make sure we've got them.
So we're ready. We're opening our brain boxes when it comes to this this question.
Right. Exactly. What types if I'm asked, you know, what kinds of exercises I like doing?
What could I talk about?
Yeah. And the answer is anything.
thing. Any kind of physical activity, the examiner doesn't care.
They're not going to be there like, I don't know if I consider that.
No, absolutely. Any kind of physical activity you could talk about.
Love it. So, for example, right, kinds of cardio or aerobic exercises would be things that get our heart rate up, right?
We could feel our heart rate, our heart kind of going through our chest and we could feel it really beating, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, elliptical.
what else Aubrey exactly and the elliptical is a machine at the gym where you're almost like running um it's a strange machine but it's really good for you right but a lot of those machines at the gym are for cardio and it's just short for cardiovascular activity you don't have to say all of that on IELTS it's a bit of a tongue twister you can just say cardio and that also sounds very familiar and slangy if you just shorten it to cardio right but also sports right If you like to play basketball, volleyball, tennis, any sport you like to play, if you're asked about exercise on IELTS, that all counts.
Yeah. I mean, first of all, I think most people probably have a sport or an activity, physical activity they love.
So be honest. You don't have to come up with some fancy answer.
Work off of what's true and then maybe expand the truth in your answer.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly right.
And then beyond that, it's just giving details.
tells why you enjoy playing.
Who do you play with?
Where do you play? If you have to fill two minutes, you're going to want to give a lot of details because once you've answered the question about the sport you like, you can say anything, right?
Go off on a tangent.
Tell a story. Yes, 100%.
And then dance is another good one.
Zumba is kind of a workout dance, hip -hop dance, ballet.
I took tango lessons this year.
I mean, there's so many cool ballroom dances that we could learn, right?
Absolutely, right? Bar classes are really popular here in in the States, which is sort of all of the exercises that you do to prepare your body to do ballet.
So something like that.
If you love barre classes, be ready to talk about that.
Yeah, really interesting.
And then maybe you're more into kind of what we call them plyometrics.
Is that what the word is?
Sort of lunges, pushups, squats, burpees, planks, and then what else, Exactly.
Or yoga, Pilates, right?
All of these kinds of activities.
And you also wouldn't be limited to one.
This is interesting to think about too.
If you're asked to describe an exercise you like, if you describe one, then you could share about five or six other activities you also enjoy doing.
So it's not enough to know how to say one of these things, right?
You want lots of good vocabulary to fill that two minutes.
Yeah. And I guess we could also think about as we answer that, It's the why do we like that?
It's the who do we do it with, right?
It's the where, the when, and we expand out our ideas to fill, excuse me, to fill the two minutes.
Yeah. Absolutely. Right.
And as always, we always recommend for part two to tell a story, right?
Once you describe the exercise, share details about it.
If you have any kind of a story you can tell about a time you did it or something that happened, that two minutes is going to fly by.
Yes. I love it. And then the last category is weightlifting.
As we say, say pumping iron.
Sorry, my voice is off today.
Yes. That's the 80s way to say it.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly.
And there's all kinds of specific exercises you could describe.
So overhead press, where you're pushing weightlifting over your head.
Dumbbell rows. So that's when you have free weights, like the smaller weights that you might be doing different.
Or deadlifts, right?
That's where you're standing and you lift and then you'll hear that loud clank when someone when drops the weights.
Yeah. This one, I do this frequently many times a week, but I, for me personally, I wouldn't say I love it.
I just do it because I have to.
I know that I need, you know, my muscles need that muscle mass, especially in our forties or thirties as women, you know, we need that, right?
Right. It's a, it's a necessary evil.
It's a great expression.
Use that on your answers.
If you don't love to exercise, but you're sharing what you do, say this is not not my favorite, but it's a necessary evil.
I know my body needs it.
My muscles and bones need to be stronger.
So yeah, I do free weights.
And it would be good to talk about whether you prefer going to a gym or working outside.
Do you prefer those free weights, those individual weights, or using the machines, all of the different machines you find in a gym?
I love it. So good.
So we've got a lot of really good vocabulary.
So for our listeners, guys, sit down and write out your vocabulary on what words you might use if you were to answer this is kind of a question.
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All right, Aubrey, we are back from the break.
Are we going to get into a sample answer?
Yes, let's do it. I'm going to ask you a part two question.
Okay. And then I will take some notes of the interesting vocabulary you use, give you feedback afterwards.
So Lindsay. Okay. Let me get my timer ready.
All right, I'm ready for the full two minutes This is really important you guys when you are doing this practice for part two that you time yourselves Because you need to really get a feel for how long two minutes feels and even though the instructions say You have one to two minutes for this.
You have to speak for that full two minutes or your fluency score goes down Yeah, so be sure to speak until the examiner stops you for all right.
Here we go. I'm ready.
I'm ready Lindsay, describe a type of exercise that you like to do.
Oh my gosh, this one for me is a no brainer.
The exercise that means a lot to me in so many ways and always has is skiing, downhill skiing.
So I started skiing when I was three years old.
I grew up in New England, a cold place.
And so my parents put me on skis at age three just because they wanted me in lessons because they wanted to ski, right?
That was kind of daycare was put the kid in ski lessons and then we would meet up in the afternoon as a family.
So what skiing meant to me as a kid is it meant family time, right?
It meant we're not in front of the TV at home.
We're out in the mountain together, the four of us skiing.
And so I got quite good at skiing.
And this really helped me as I became an adult and I met my partner.
And especially when I met my father -in -law, because my father -in -law is a huge skier.
He goes heli skiing all over the world, Japan, Japan, Iceland, all kinds of places.
And he, he's an athlete.
And so he, I think I gained massive credibility with him when he realized I was a good skier.
I could ski the bumps with him alongside him.
And what skiing means for me now is it's an escape.
It's a way to spend time with my family, with my partner.
We get to get out of the house.
We get away from phones because frankly, you can't take the phone out when your fingers are freezing on the chairlift. We get, we get get out into nature.
We spend a full day.
We go for a beer after.
The whole ritual of the coffee in the morning, getting ready for skiing, maybe staying up in the mountains, then getting out in the mountain, ending early, going to a brewery, driving back to Denver.
It's the ritual. So for me, that is, yes, indeed, it's a type of exercise.
And especially when I do this exercise in Colorado, my heart is pounding out of my chest as opposed to when I do it in New England because I'm skiing at altitudes of 11 ,000 plus feet, right?
So it's an incredible workout.
It torches calories in a way I've never seen in New England, but it also gives me a reason Thank you.
Did that feel so long, Lindsay?
It did feel a little long.
I could have kept going, but it was like, okay.
You could have spoken forever, but it is fascinating.
If you don't time yourself, it's really on test day, it will feel long.
So often students will stop at about a minute 20 a minute 30 and they're sure they've hit two minutes because it feels long when you're speaking about one thing and we're used to back and forth conversations we're not used to just speaking for two minutes like that it is it's foreign you have to practice it for sure yeah and it's important to know that you don't need to i mean how could examiners expect you to cleanly wrap it up and know exactly when you're at one minute you know 57 seconds it's impossible so in fact it's a huge mistake in part two to start wrapping it up and summarizing when you're
not sure if you're at two minutes yet yeah so it's better to just keep talking add more detail you used a really good strategy lindsey when you had kind of said most of the things you could say about it just to then compare skiing in colorado to new england and then you had a ton more you could say right yeah talking about like the higher elevations and how that would be different and And then, yeah, go off on tangents.
Then you could tell a story about skiing in New England and how the ritual was different.
Yep. So I want to share some amazing vocabulary Lindsay used that you guys should definitely be using on your speaking answers.
And the first one right at the beginning, she said, no brainer.
What a great way to start your answer to say, for me, a no brainer is, and you're just saying this is the obvious answer for me.
Like this was easy, but that's idiomatic language, which is necessary for IELTS.
Yes. Yeah. And it also allows me to start my answer with confidence.
Like I'm fully owning my answer.
My answer is obvious to me.
So I'm going to plow through.
It's going to be an easy answer that shifts my mentality and makes me feel confident.
Yes. And you don't want to start your answer with the thing.
The exercise I am going to describe today is because that's very band six, right?
We don't speak like that really.
You're repeating vocabulary from the topic and And you're not using interesting intonation.
So instead, start it like Lindsay did, right?
Start it in an interesting way, right?
This is a no -brainer for me.
I've loved skiing my entire life.
And you're using interesting vocabulary and pronunciation from the get -go.
And I think also just one other piece, choosing a topic that you feel excited to talk about, right?
Don't choose one that you think for some reason the examiner wants you to say.
Like, if I had chosen weightlifting, my answer would have been much less interesting because I find it awful.
I just do it because I have to.
Right? And I wouldn't have anything to say.
And you could say that but then you'd need to pivot to talk about something else, you know, people you know who are interested in what you really do like, right?
Because you couldn't talk about that for two minutes.
Right, so being strategic about what we decide to talk about is helpful.
Yes. Yeah, and then a couple other things.
The way you started your answer giving background, giving information, you know, saying I started when I was three and how that's interesting, I grew up skiing.
It was family time.
All of this background before she's really even talking about what skiing is like for her now and why she enjoys it.
It gives you so much interesting detail and vocabulary.
And then a great intonation when she said, I'm a huge skier or my father -in -law is a huge skier, that emphasizing adjectives, adverbs to vary your intonation.
And then I want to ask you, Lindsay, because I've never heard of heli -skiing.
No? And I have a feeling Lynn's listeners out there too are like, what's heli -skiing?
What's that mean? You've never heard of it?
Oh, it means you drop, you drop out of a helicopter.
You go to places that you, there are no lifts that serve those mountains.
Cause they're, God knows how high they're not like Everest high, but they're higher than your average 11 ,000, 12 ,000 feet.
Right. And then they drop you and you ski on, you know, uncharted terrain.
Just have you ever done that?
I have never done that.
I don't think maybe one day.
I don't know. I'm afraid of avalanche, right?
Avalanches. as I would be.
So they have to do avalanche training and they have to wear the vests and carry the shovels and everything.
Yeah, it's full on.
Very dangerous. Interesting.
Okay. So yeah, I had a feeling I wasn't the only one.
I guessed with the heli context clues.
I'm like, maybe something to do with a helicopter, but I've never heard of that.
I know. Okay. And then I also want to share a great phrase when you say, well, you said I gained massive credibility with my father in law.
This chunk is very, it's band nine.
I don't think I've ever heard a student say it.
and it's so flexible.
So many speaking answers.
You can say, if you were able to do something that impressed someone else, or even when you graduate from school or you get some experience under your belt, this is a great phrase to say, I gained massive credibility.
It made you more credible in some way.
Love it. Such a good one.
Yeah, that could apply to a lot of different answers.
You're right. Life experiences, accomplishments we achieve, right?
right? Yes. And that's, that's what you want to be looking for when you are adding vocabulary to your list. You especially want to listen for phrases that are really flexible, that you could use them in so many different speaking answers, right?
So practice your own sample answers using some of these great phrases.
Love it. Love it. So good.
Aubrey, what else do we need to know here?
Is there another episode that our listeners could check out right now?
Yes. If you missed this recent episode, three tips to learn vocabulary for IELTS, That was episode 1505.
And we shared the best way to add vocabulary to your notebook and then use it so that it's part of your active vocabulary.
So definitely scroll up if you missed that episode.
Yes. And I think the takeaway for today, guys, is practice answering this kind of type to part two question, expect to possibly get it.
But I love the tip that we came out with at the end, get vocabulary and phrases that expand across many topics.
That is such a pro tip.
it. Absolutely. Right.
So that you can definitely use it on test day.
There'll be some kind of answer where you'll be able to pull that out of your pocket and boost your scores.
Oh, such a great episode.
Thanks for giving a critique of my answer today, Aubrey, and I'll see you back here very soon.
Awesome. See you next time.
All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your your estimated band score at allearsenglish .com slash my score.
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