A Beginners Guide to CrossFit terminology
Whether you are new to CrossFit and just learning what it’s all about or your partner/friend etc keeps banging on about it and you want to know what on earth they are talking about, this should hopefully help clear up some of the confusion and give you the basic meaning of some of the most common terminology in CrossFit.
WOD
Workout of the Day
Each day when you go in to the gym/box you will be presented with a workout to complete. This is known as the WOD.
Tekkers
This is your technique. If after a WOD your coach approaches you and says you had great tekkers then you know your technique during the movements was on point.
The Girls
These are benchmark workouts done by CrossFitters all over the world. They are named after women as Coach Greg Glassman, the founder and President of CrossFit explained it best. “I want to explain the workout once and then give it a name. I thought that anything that left you flat on your back, looking up at the sky asking ‘what just happened to me?’ deserved a female name. You may be asked questions like ‘what’s your Annie time?’
Fran
Fran is one of the most well-known ‘Girls’. It is basically the 100m sprint of CrossFit. It is designed to be short but testing. Put simply Fran is 21-15-9 (reps) of Thrusters (30kg/40kg) and pull ups. That is that you complete 21 thrusters, then 21 pull ups, and so on.
Not content with being a truly crushing workout Fran may also give you a little gift once you have finished….a cough known as ‘Fran Cough’.
Hero WOD
These are workouts done in honour of fallen soldiers. They are often much longer than traditional CrossFit style workouts meaning you must pace yourself through them. But don’t be fooled these WODS are designed to push you.
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RX
This is the term given to a workout when you complete it as prescribed. So for example if the WOD is ‘Fran’ as mentioned above and you complete the Thrusters at the prescribed weight and the pull ups without a band then you have RX’d the workout.
Scaled
This is where you alter or scale part of a workout to make it more suited to your capabilities. This is the beauty of CrossFit EVERYTHING is scalable. So you might have less weight on the bar, or use a band to assist you with pull ups. Regardless though you will get a good workout.
EMOM
Every Minute on the Minute
This is where you must complete a specific amount of reps of a movement within a minute and repeat for a set time period. E.g. a 10 min EMOM of 5 burpees and 5 air squats.
AMRAP
As Many Rounds as Possible
This is where you complete as many rounds as you can in allotted time. For example an 8 minute AMRAP of 5 T2B, 10 Box Jumps and 15 Thrusters.
Descending/Ascending Ladders
This is where your rep scheme in a WOD will either get higher of lower. For example you might have an descending WOD of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Kettle bell swings and double unders for time.
Time Cap
This is the amount of time you have to complete your WOD. When this time is hit you must stop working out and mark your score at that time.
PB/PR
If you are in the UK this will be a PB, in the U.S it is a PR.
- PB – Personal Best.
- PR – Personal Record.
Either way if you get one of these make sure you pat yourself on the back and take note. This is where you have hit a goal of something you have never before achieved. Whether that is a new time for your Fran workout or you hit a 60kg deadlift it is a PB.
Bumper Plates
These are the rubber weighted plates that you put on your bar. Unless you use the multi-coloured ones more often than not these will bounce when you let them drop to the floor.
The Rig
This is the series of metal pull up bars all connected together. Multiple gymnastic movements such as pull ups, muscle ups and toes to bar can be performed on the rig.
Rack
Rack has two meanings. This can be a piece of equipment that is either free standing or a part of the rig. Ultimately it is where you place the bar to rest, positioned at your shoulder height for any movement where you don’t want to pick the bar up from the ground.
However if a coach asks you to hold a bar in your front rack position they mean on the front resting one your shoulders, across your collar bones.
HSPU
Handstand press ups
For this movement you hold a handstand against a wall then lower yourself down in to a headstand. From here you bring your knees down towards your chest and then fire them back up the wall quickly (known as a kip or ‘kipping’ movement). As you do this you extend your arms so you are back in the handstand position. It is one of the more advanced gymnastic movements in CrossFit so don’t be too frustrated if you don’t get one on your first attempt. These can also be done without the kip movement. This is known as a strict HSPU.
Kipping / Kip (pull ups or HSPU)
This is a movement often used on a pull up or handstand press up that involved you firing your hips or knees to help generate momentum. With pull ups you generate a swing with your shoulders whilst you are hanging from the bar and then fire your hips up towards the bar, pulling your chin above the bar as you do. By using the ‘kipping’ movement you should then be able to link multiple pull ups meaning you can get through your workout quicker and not tire your arms out as much if you did the movement strict.
Butterfly Pull Ups
This is the fastest and most efficient way of doing a pull up used by competitive athletes, it requires assistance from your whole body to aid you in achieving the full range of a pull up however it is demanding on the shoulders and should only be performed by those who can comfortably perform both strict and kipping pull ups
Strict
This is where regardless of the exercise there is no jerk, dip or kipping movement to assist you in making the movement.
WB
- Wall Balls.
- For this movement you begin by extending your arms up and throwing a ball at a target on a wall. Each time you catch the ball you must then squat below parallel for the rep to count.
- The target heights can vary from usually 8ft to 20ft.
- Wall ball weights can be anything from 4kg to 10kg.
DU
Double Unders
This is a skipping movement that means for every one jump the rope must spin twice. These are quick and certainly sting when you miss them and the rope hits you but they are so satisfying to get right and can really make all the difference to the time you complete a WOD in.
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Thrusters
Hmmmmmmmm these are generally one of the most disliked movements in CrossFit. Put simply the thruster is a very similar movement to the wall ball. For this movement you hold a bar in the front rack position (across your collar bones and shoulders) then lower yourself in to a squat. As you come out of the squat you then push the bar over your head whilst you straighten your knees and hips in one swift movement.
Snatch
The snatch is one of the Olympic Weightlifting movements whereby the objective is to lift the barbell from the ground to overhead in one continuous motion.
Ground to over-head (GTOH)
This movement simply requires you to move an object from the ground to overhead safely. This is typically done as two movements, 1) the clean (taking the object from the floor to your shoulders) 2) Shoulder to overhead (STOH) (moving the object from your shoulders (or front rack position) to above your head, with arms, legs & hips finishing in a locked out position)
Rep / No Rep
When you do not perform the required standard of a movement. Don’t worry your coach will tell you how to perform all movements correctly before you work out
KB
Kettlebell, this piece of equipment comes in various different weights and can be used to perform a series of different exercises.
Front Squat
This involves performing a squat with a barbell in the ‘front rack’ position
Back Squat
This involves performing a squat with a barbell on your back
Strict Press
For this movement the barbell starts in your front rack position and finishes with the arms locked out and the barbell over the crown of the head. No assistance of the lower body is permitted for this movement.
Push Press
This movement is exactly the same as the strict press however this movement does allow the assistance of the lower body in the form of a dip of the knees before pressing the barbell overhead and finishing in a locked out position.
Jerk
This movement is a progression from the push press which typically allows you to lift more weight as and it allows a second dip of the knees before locking the barbell out overhead.
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Clean and Jerk
The second of the Olympic Weightlifts which involves moving the barbell from the ground to overhead in 2 separate movements. During the clean, the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a front racked position. During the jerk the barbell is lifted to locked out position above the head, finishing with straight arms and legs, and the feet in the same plane as the torso and barbell.
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