Personal best
A personal best (PB) is the best result an individual has ever recorded in a given event or exercise.
PB stands for personal best.
Definition
A personal best, often shortened to PB (or PR, personal record), is your own top result in a specific event — such as your fastest time over a distance, your longest throw, or the heaviest weight you have lifted for a movement. It is measured only against your own past performances, not against other people.
Because it is personal, a PB is a popular way to track progress in sports like running, swimming, cycling and weightlifting, where results can be measured and compared over time. Chasing a new personal best gives many people a clear, motivating goal that stays meaningful whatever their level.
Where you’ll hear “personal best”
Sports that use this term:
Running
The most accessible endurance sport — no venue, just shoes and the open road or trail.
Swimming
A full-body, low-impact endurance sport suitable for almost every age and ability.
Weightlifting
A technical strength sport built around lifting a loaded barbell overhead with speed and control.
Cycling
A low-impact endurance sport that doubles as transport, exercise and adventure.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect Personal best to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Beginner guides
- Beginner Sports Terminology: Making Sense of the WordsEvery sport comes with its own vocabulary, and this guide shows you how to stay relaxed about the words you don't know yet, lean on the glossary, and pick up the language naturally as you go.
- What to Bring to Your First SessionMost first sessions need far less than people expect — water, clothes you can move in, footwear that suits the surface and a few personal bits usually cover it, with any sport-specific kit noted on each sport's first-session page.
Equipment
- Running shoesCushioned footwear designed for the repetitive forward motion of running.
- Yoga matA thin, cushioned non-slip mat used for floor-based exercise and stretching.
- Padel racketA solid, stringless perforated racket used to play padel.
- BasketballA large, inflated ball with a dimpled surface used to play basketball.
- Badminton racketA lightweight strung racket used to hit the shuttlecock in badminton.
Scoring systems
- How running races are timed and placedRunning races are decided by finishing order and by elapsed time, measured precisely and settled by the moment a runner's torso crosses the line.
- How swimming races are timed and placedSwimming races are decided by elapsed time and finishing order, with electronic touchpads recording when each swimmer completes the distance.
- How cycling races are timed and placedCycling races are decided either by who crosses the line first or by fastest time, and stage races add up cumulative times to rank riders overall.
- How fitness progress is trackedGeneral fitness has no formal scoring, so progress is tracked through measurable markers such as repetitions, load, time, distance and personal bests.
- Tennis scoringTennis is scored in points, games and sets, using the distinctive 15–30–40 point sequence and a win-by-two margin at every level.
Skills
Tactics
- DraftingRiding, running or swimming close behind another competitor to save energy in their slipstream.
- Pacing strategyPlanning how to distribute effort across a race so energy lasts the full distance without fading.
- Negative splitA pacing tactic where an athlete covers the second half of a race faster than the first.
- Breakaway and pelotonThe cycling tension between the main pack riding together and small groups that break clear to gain time.
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- Tier A — evergreen educational
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- Content updated
- 2026-08-04
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