{"id":4795,"date":"2016-12-28T17:48:50","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T17:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4795"},"modified":"2016-12-28T17:48:50","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T17:48:50","slug":"how-muscular-is-your-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/how-muscular-is-your-dutch\/","title":{"rendered":"How muscular is your Dutch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of us that are constant participants in exercise classes in the Netherlands and Belgium finish each class with not only a more fit body (or at least a lot of sweat), but also new Dutch words! Sometimes we understand what the instructor meant, but other times, we walk out hoping the word will stay in our minds long enough for us to google it.<\/p>\n

So what are the body parts the instructors are talking about? I know sometimes in yoga, I am supposed to tense or relax something that I don’t even know I have. If you are like me and need a little bit of help, here is a list of some\u00a0useful words in Dutch.<\/p>\n

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Photo taken by Thomas Fisher found on Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Spieren<\/em><\/p>\n

Spieren\u00a0<\/em>means muscles.\u00a0Within this group you have\u00a0buikspieren\u00a0<\/em>or abs, bilspieren or glutes,\u00a0rugspieren\u00a0<\/em>or back muscles and\u00a0beenspieren\u00a0<\/em>or leg muscles such as hamstrings and calves.. For specific muscles within these groups, the anatomical name is usually used (although sometimes the pronunciation varies).<\/p>\n

Bot en gewrichten<\/em><\/p>\n

When working out, it is important that you do not strain your muscles, but also that you don’t put too much pressure on your botten<\/em> (bones) and gewrichten<\/em>\u00a0(joints). Most types of exercise will help you build bone strength, you want to avoid\u00a0botbreuk<\/em> or bone fractures. Joint injuries are also not a good idea so make sure you watch out for pain in the\u00a0knie\u00ebn,<\/em>\u00a0polsen<\/em>, and enkels<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Spannen en ontspannen<\/em><\/p>\n

When you need to flex your muscle, your instructor will most likely say\u00a0span de bilspieren\u00a0<\/em>or something similar. In yoga, we do a lot of\u00a0ontspannen<\/em> which means to relax or to not flex the muscle.<\/p>\n

Kracht en gewicht<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of the body pump or body building classes focus on\u00a0kracht<\/em> or strength. This can be done with particular exercises such as squats and pull ups (Let op: the English word is used in Dutch) or by gewicht heffen<\/em>\u00a0or lifting weights.<\/p>\n

The following video talks about what muscles do and the speaker goes over not only the names but also the functions of these in Dutch!<\/p>\n