One of the hardest and most confusing things about crossfit is, shockingly, the vocabulary. Part of the “cultish” judgment that crossfit has received is because participants speak a foreign language that many regular gym goers do not understand. For example, a crossfit workout on any given day could look like this:
WOD:
5 minute AMRAP
10 DL
10 PU
10 BJ
25 DU
Confusing, right? I know. Written out in long form the workout would actually be
Workout Of the Day
5 minutes of As Many Rounds As Possible of
10 Dead lefts
10 Push ups
10 Box jumps
25 Double Unders
Some people might not understand the skills that crossfit involves (i.e. Double unders or dead lifts) but understand the vocabulary is the first step to understanding the sport. For your benefit, I have included a list of commonly used crossfit abbreviations and their meanings.
AMRAP: As many rounds as possible of a given workout in a given amount of time (aka…DEATH)
BS: Back squat
Box: Crossfit gyms are referred to as boxes because they are literally ALWAYS in the form of…a box.
CLN: Clean
DL: Deadlift
EMOM: Doing a specific workout for a specific number of reps every minute on the minute (aka…another form of death)
FS: Front squat
KB: Kettlebell
Kipping: a Swinging motion that is used to help propel the body with momentum during pull ups and hand stand push ups
REP: repetition.
PC: Power clean
RM: I rep max of a given exercise
SN: Snatch
WOD: Workout of the day
(AND MOST IMPORTANTLY)
YBF: You’ll Be Fine
There you have it. Your very first crossfit intro. Of course all the skills require intros of their own before people understand the correct form etc. that is necessary to perform said skills.
One other somewhat confusing aspect of crossfit are the names given to some of the workouts. In crossfit, benchmark workouts are WODs that are meant to test an athlete’s improvement over a certain amount of time. These WODs are named after women in the crossfit community who have mastered crossfit. For example “Annie” consists of a decent of Double Unders (jump roping) and sit ups. “Cindy” is a fun one that consists of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats for 5+ rounds. Crossfit also has “hero WODs.” To honor American heroes. These WODs are extremely difficult. For example, there is a WOD to honor lives lost in 9/11 and also a WOD to honor Penn State graduate and diseased Seal Murphy.
All I had known before reading this was that Crossfit gyms were referred to as a “box.” This was a really interesting post, I didn’t know that there was so much vocab in Crossfit that I would never understand if I didn’t just read this. Sounds like it would be difficult to memorize and remember it all when referring to it.
Your passion blog post was really interesting, I had not idea that Crossfit used all of those acronyms and specific vocabulary in their work outs. I wasn’t really sure how Crossfit worked before or what it even was, but I think I understand it better now. It sounds really intense and I might actually look into it to get in better shape. Keep up the good work!
I found this really amusing and a little funny, actually! I didn’t know that crossfit had it’s own language of sorts and the thought of imagining you guys speaking in those terms was comical. Crossfit is so interesting! I had no idea how little I knew about it. I think it’s great that you guys have your own culture because I could imagine how much more interesting it makes things!
This was super informative and super interesting! I know a few of my friends have started Crossfit recently, and they talk about it all the time. I think this post gives me a clearer and better understanding of how Crossfit works. I also loved the acronyms! It gives the post a little humorous side while staying informative at the same time. Nice job!