What does PB mean in gym?

PB is a term commonly used by gym nerds and athletes to track and evaluate their training performance.

PB stands for Personal Best. And as its name only implies, it refers to the best performance of an individual on a certain exercise.

However, the way in which PB is calculated differs on the basis of different exercise styles.

In this post, we will give you a detailed overview of the term ‘PB’ and how it is used to track and evaluate one’s training performance for different exercising disciplines. Let’s get started.

What does PB mean in gym?

The majority of gym-goers primarily train for two purposes, namely, strength/muscle gain and fat loss. For the former, they rely on weight training whereas for the latter they perform numerous cardiovascular exercises.

The term PB aka ‘Personal Best’ is used for both weight lifting exercises as well as for cardiovascular exercises.

When it comes to weight training, PB refers to the maximum number of repetitions performed on a specific exercise. For instance, if you perform 20 parallel bar dips in 60 seconds, your PB for parallel bar dips in 60 seconds would be 20 reps.

Once you know your PB, you can work towards beating your PB from the next training session onwards. This will require you to put in more effort than the last time and will also help you in tracking your strength gains on your desired exercises.

When it comes to your cardiovascular workout sessions, your ‘personal best’ is considered to be the time for which your heart rate remains in the target zone.

Your PB in such a case will be dependent on the zone of your heart rate. If your heart rate is in a higher zone for a longer period, your PB will follow suit.

To up your levels of cardiovascular conditioning, your efforts must be focused on beating your previous PB in your next cardio session

Distance athletes such as runners also consider PB numbers to track their athletic performance. For them, PB refers to the time they took to complete a certain distance. 

For instance, if a runner covers 1 mile in 8 minutes, his PB for 1 mile would be 8 minutes.

What does personal best mean in weightlifting?

The term ‘personal best’ abbreviated as PB is not just confined to a person’s gym training sessions. It also has its presence in certain sporting disciplines with weightlifting being one of them.

The sport of weightlifting is primarily concerned with how much a person can lift with precision and control on certain movements like clean and jerk, and snatch. It also includes performing variations like hang cleans, hang snatch, and clean pulls.

PB in the sport of weightlifting refers to how heavy an athlete has lifted on a  certain lift. The training routine of professional weight lifters is focused on smashing their previous PB. They do so by getting stronger on certain compound lifts which also enables them to improve their overall lifting and athletic performance.

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Final Words

So that brings us to the end of this post. Irrespective of whether you are a professional athlete or not, you can find out your PB on certain exercises and work your way up to improve your overall performance on them.

As your PB numbers will start increasing, you will surely see drastic improvements in your lifting performance as well as athletic capabilities.