9 Korean phrases for the gym (헬스장)
Korean gyms are quiet places. People wear earphones, nobody chats between sets, and most of the talking you will do is a few short exchanges about equipment with strangers, plus whatever your trainer says. That makes the gym an easy place to start speaking: the situations repeat and the phrases are short.
Everything here is polite 요 speech, which is correct for strangers and for the trainer. The honorific 계세요 appears where you are asking a stranger a direct question.
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운동하러 가요.
undonghareo gayo.
I'm going to work out.
Literally: (I) go in order to exercise.
운동 covers any exercise, from a walk to a deadlift. -(으)러 가요 is 'go in order to', the pattern you will reuse for 밥 먹으러 가요 (going to eat) and 커피 마시러 가요 (going for coffee).
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헬스장 다녀요.
helseujang danyeoyo.
I go to the gym.
Literally: (I) attend the health place.
In Korean a gym is a 헬스장 and lifting weights is 헬스, borrowed from 'health'. 다니다 means to attend regularly, so this says you have a membership, not that you are going right now.
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PT 받고 있어요.
piti batgo isseoyo.
I'm doing personal training.
Literally: (I) am receiving PT.
Personal training is simply PT in Korean, pronounced 피티, and you 'receive' it. Trainers are addressed as 선생님 (teacher) or 쌤 for short, never by name.
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이거 쓰고 계세요?
igeo sseugo gyeseyo?
Are you using this?
Literally: This, are (you) using?
For a bench or machine with someone's towel on it. 계세요 is the honorific form of 있어요, the right level for a stranger at the gym. The usual answers are 네, 쓰고 있어요 or 아니요, 쓰세요 (no, go ahead).
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같이 써도 될까요?
gachi sseodo doelkkayo?
Could we share this?
Literally: Even if (we) use together, would it be okay?
The polite way to ask to work in on a rack during a busy evening. -아/어도 될까요? is 'would it be okay if', softer than -아/어도 돼요?
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몇 세트 남았어요?
myeot seteu namasseoyo?
How many sets do you have left?
Literally: How many sets remain?
Asked while you wait. 세트 is set, 개 is rep when counting (열 개 = ten reps), and 한 세트 더 is 'one more set'.
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오늘 하체 하는 날이에요.
oneul hache haneun narieyo.
Today is leg day.
Literally: Today is the day (I) do lower body.
하체 is lower body, 상체 upper body, 등 back, 가슴 chest, 어깨 shoulders. Koreans split their routine by body part too, so 오늘 등 하는 날 (today is back day) will be understood instantly.
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근육통이 심해요.
geunyuktongi simhaeyo.
I'm really sore.
Literally: Muscle pain is severe.
The textbook word. Among friends you will hear 알 배겼어 (casual), which is the slang for post-workout soreness and gets a sympathetic laugh.
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오늘 운동 끝.
oneul undong kkeut.
Workout done.
Literally: Today exercise end.
What you say to yourself or caption a mirror photo. Online it is shortened to 오운완 (오늘 운동 완료, today's workout complete), one of the most common hashtags on Korean fitness accounts.
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A lot of gym Korean is English in Korean clothing (헬스, PT, 세트, 스쿼트, 데드리프트), so once you know how the loanwords are pronounced you already have half the vocabulary. The genuinely Korean parts are the verbs around them: 받다 for training, 다니다 for membership, 하다 for the day's body part.