What does “yastahdif” (يستهدف) mean in Arabic?

يستهدف means “targets” or “aims at,” and it’s the exact verb Arabic fitness content runs on: هل هذا التمرين يستهدف الجزء العلوي؟ — “does this exercise target the upper body?” It’s built from هدف (goal, target), the same word every football commentator shouts when a goal is scored. Learn the pair العلوي / السفلي (upper / lower) alongside it and you can follow almost any Arabic workout video.

The clip is a guessing game — friends fire off هل هذا التمرين يستهدف الجزء العلوي؟ السفلي؟ تمرين بطن؟ (“upper body? lower? an ab exercise?”) between reps. The same verb carries into news and marketing Arabic: a campaign تستهدف الشباب targets young people. And note the English gym loanwords sprinkled straight into the Arabic: اكستنشن (extension) and رفرف أمامي (front raise) — gym Arabic is comfortably bilingual.