What it means
کشش (keshesh) is a verbal noun derived from the pure Persian verb کشیدن (keshidan), meaning “to pull” or “to stretch.” In a fitness context it means “stretching” as in warm-up or cool-down exercises. Outside the gym, کشش carries the wider sense of “pull” or “attraction,” as in a magnetic pull or an emotional draw toward someone. This polysemy is worth knowing: کشش داشتن (keshesh dâshtan) in a relationship context means “to feel an attraction,” while in the gym it simply means “to do a stretch.”
How to use it
- قبل از ورزش کشش بدید. (qabl az varzesh keshesh bedin.) “Do some stretching before you exercise.”
- کشش عضلات خیلی مهمه. (keshesh-e azolât kheyli mohemme.) “Muscle stretching is very important.”
- بین این دو نفر یه کشش خاصی هست. (beyn-e in do nafar ye keshesh-e khâsi hast.) “There is a special attraction between those two.”
- بعد از دویدن کشش یادت نره. (ba’d az davidan keshesh yâdat nare.) “Don’t forget to stretch after running.”
Cultural note
Stretching as a deliberate part of exercise became widely discussed in Iran alongside the growth of gym culture in the 1990s and 2000s. Sports medicine vocabulary, including کشش, entered everyday speech as gyms and fitness studios spread in Tehran and other cities. The same word’s romantic sense, کشش (attraction), appears frequently in Persian pop songs and casual speech, making it a word with notably different emotional registers depending on context.