If you have ever overheard the conversation of a gaggle of CrossFitters, you almost certainly thought you were taking note of a weird new English dialect. No, "pood" doesn't ask what happens within the bathroom, and "AMRAP" is not the new menu item at your local sandwich shop. CrossFit does have a culture of its own, which includes its special language.

The good news is, most CrossFit lingo is pretty easy to know once you realize it's mostly crammed with acronyms and abbreviations, alongside a bunch of odd-sounding workout names. But if you would like to possess any clue what people are talking about the primary time you head to a box (that's a gym in CrossFit terms), you will need to review abreast of this CrossFit dictionary.

The Most Common CrossFit Terms and Abbreviations

Aside from exercise abbreviations and therefore the specifics of particular workouts (those are for various articles entirely), the phrases and terms you'll hear thrown around in most CrossFit boxes to explain workouts, programs, and overall culture include the subsequent 60-plus phrases listed in alphabetical order.


  • AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible): a kind of workout where you are trying to finish as many rounds of the designated exercises and reps as you'll before time runs out.
  • ATG or A2G (Ass to Grass): A squat exercise where you lower your glutes as far as you'll toward the bottom in an attempt to maximize range of motion.
  • Athlete: Any CrossFit participant, regardless of how new or inexperienced.
  • Bacon Sizzle: The uncomfortable full-body wiggle you perform to urge comfortable within the days following a troublesome workout. A nod to the inevitable delayed onset muscle soreness (see DOMS).
  • Beast: A Crossfitter with a robust work ethic.
  • Beast Mode: The mental and physical effect that takes place when a CrossFitter (athlete) digs deep and pushes hard through a troublesome workout.
  • Box: A CrossFit gym. These gyms tend to be rugged and "garage gym-like."
  • BTWD (Beyond the White Board): an internet site and app where you'll log your CrossFit workouts and results. It plays off the very fact that boxes use whiteboards to record results during workouts.
  • BW or BWT (Body Weight): An exercise that only uses your bodyweight for resistance.
  • C2: Refers to the C2 rowing machine popular in many CrossFit boxes.
  • Chipper: A routine featuring an outsized number of exercises and repetitions. The term happened because you've got to "chip away" at the workout.
  • Coach: The term wont to denote a licensed CrossFit trainer or instructor.
  • CrossFit Games or CF Games: The annual CrossFit competition culminating during a nationally-televised event where participants perform exercises from traditional CrossFit workouts in an attempt to be dubbed the fittest man or woman on earth. Any CrossFit athlete can participate in the early stages of competition. Only the simplest progress toward the Games.
  • CrossFit HQ or CFHQ: the first CrossFit box located in Santa Cruz, CA, and still operated by CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman. Daily workouts published on CrossFit.com originate from the CrossFit headquarter.
  • CrossFit Journal: The program's official, subscription-based online publication.
  • CrossFit Lung: The unbearable coughing and fire-like burning through the chest that takes place after a very tough workout. this is often nearly always worse during cold, dry weather.
  • CrossFit Open: the primary phase of the CrossFit Games where any CrossFit athlete can compete online or through their local box for an attempt to reach CrossFit Regionals.
  • CrossFit Regionals: The regional qualifying round of the CrossFit Games.
  • CTB or C2B (Chest to Bar): A pull-up where athletes are to tug their chest all the thanks to the bar.
  • DFL (Dead F'ing Last): A slang phrase and abbreviation used when an athlete's workout score places them last.
  • DNF (Did Not Finish): A score is given when an athlete fails to finish the prescribed work during a workout with a deadline.
  • DNS (Did Not Start): The score is given if an athlete can't start a workout for any reason.
  • DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness): While not associated only with CrossFit, DOMS refers to the soreness that always sets in one to 2 days after a troublesome workout.
  • EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute): A workout where an exercise is prescribed to be done at the beginning of each minute for a particular number of minutes. as an example, a workout might involve 10 kipping pull-ups EMOM for five minutes. At the beginning of each minute, athletes must perform 10 kipping pullups. By the top of the five minutes, the goal is to possess completed a complete of fifty kipping pullups.
  • Firebreather: The top-level CrossFit athletes who always seem to finish their workouts and still have energy to cheer on their fellow CrossFitters.
  • For Time: a method of workout that emphasizes speed. Essentially it pushes CrossFit athletes to perform the workout as fast as possible. Scores are supported time to completion.
  • GHD (Glute Hamstring Developer): A special piece of kit designed specifically to focus on the glutes and hamstrings.
  • Goat: An exercise you are not excellent at...yet.
  • Gorilla: just like the "beasts" and "fire breathers," this person has no problem pushing hard through even the toughest workouts.
  • GPP (General Physical Preparedness): The phrase utilized in CrossFit regarding overall fitness.
  • Greg Glassman: The founding father of CrossFit.
  • GTG (Grease the Groove): a sort of gross-sounding phrase referencing the performance of the many submaximal sets of an exercise spaced out throughout each day. as an example, you would possibly perform six sets of 25 air squats, for a complete of 150 air squats completed by the top of the day.
  • H2H or HTH (Hand to Hand): A combat technique (as in, hand handy combat) which will also ask a selected kettlebell juggling technique passing the kettlebell from hand handy.
  • KB (Kettlebell): A bell-shaped piece of strength training equipment commonly utilized in CrossFit workouts.
  • KTE (Knees to Elbows): a dangling ab exercise where athletes hang from a bar (as if close to perform a pullup), then draw their knees up as high as possible, getting to touch their knees to their elbows.
  • Met-con: An abbreviation for metabolic conditioning, a method of workout designed to reinforce cardiovascular endurance, often through the utilization of high-intensity interval training.
  • Pood (Pd): A measurement for the load of kettlebells. One pood is roughly 36-pounds.
  • PR (Personal Record): An athlete's best-ever performance of a given workout or exercise.
  • Pukie the Clown: a very terrible CrossFit "mascot" that highlights the negative outcomes which will occur when athletes overdo it during their workouts. In other words, you would possibly vomit.
  • Rack Position: the location of a weighted bar when it's supported by the hands just ahead of the chest, resting across the collar bone and anterior deltoids.
  • Rep: An abbreviation for "repetition," a word that signifies one full completion of a given exercise.
  • ROM (Range of Motion): A term that describes what proportion flexibility an athlete has at a given joint. Range of motion can vary from individual to individual and joint to joint. One goal of CrossFit is to take care of and increase ROM to reinforce overall fitness.
  • Rx'd as Rx'd: Rx is that the abbreviation for "prescribed," so when a workout uses the phrase "Rx'd as Rx'd," it's alleged to be performed exactly as written, with none adjustments or modifications.
  • RM (Repetition Maximum): The maximal amount of weight you'll lift for a given number of repetitions. as an example, your RM for one repetition is going to be greater than your RM for 10 repetitions.
  • Score: Every CrossFit workout maybe a competition, and athletes are scored supported their total number of reps performed during a workout. Athletes can track their scores and compare their results to the greater CrossFit community on CrossFit.com.
  • Set: A full series of repetitions. as an example, if a workout involves 10 air squats to be performed during a row, a full set is completed when all 10 air squats are done. Most workouts are phrased something like, "Perform three sets of 15 reps air squats."
  • SPP (Specific Physical Preparedness): How CrossFit refers to skill training, or how good an athlete is at a specific component of skill-based fitness. as an example, SPP might assess how briskly an athlete can complete an exercise as compared to other athletes.
  • Stabilize the Midline: differently of claiming, "tighten your core." it is a thanks to remind athletes to concentrate on the muscles that support and stabilize the spine to encourage propriety during challenging movements.
  • The Board: A whiteboard or chalkboard where daily workout scores are tracked at each CrossFit box.
  • Touch and Go (TnG): a method of coaching that daunts pausing or resting between repetitions during a group.
  • TTB or T2B (Toes to Bar): a very challenging core exercise where the athlete starts by hanging from a pullup bar, then uses his or her core and hips to draw their feet all the high to the touch the bar.
  • Tabata: Tabata training may be a specific sort of high-intensity interval training where athletes perform a series of eight rounds of 20 seconds work followed by 10 seconds rest. A full Tabata takes just four minutes to finish. Work periods are performed at the very best intensity possible.
  • Tabata This: a really specific Tabata workout protocol where five total Tabatas are performed - one each for squats, rowing, pullups, situps, and pushups. A one-minute running respite is allowed between each Tabata. the entire workout lasts just 24 minutes.
  • The Hero WODs: These tough workouts are named after fallen servicemen and ladies as a testament to their heroism and strength. Hero WODs are released periodically by CrossFit Headquarters, and as of October 2016, there have been quite 160 different Hero WODs. you'll study the servicemen and ladies they're named after on the CrossFit FAQ page.
  • The "Girls": These workouts are well-known, standardized workouts created by CrossFit Headquarters as how for athletes to track their progress over time. the first six "girls" released in 2003 included Angie, Barbara, Chelsea, Diane, Elizabeth, and Fran. The remaining nine—Cindy, Grace, Karen, Jackie, Nancy, Isabel, Mary, Helen, and Linda—were released over time. These sorts of benchmark workouts aren't performed fairly often.
  • The New Girls: Additional benchmark workouts released by CrossFit Headquarters, only differentiated from the first 15 by their later introduction. New Girl workout names include Annie Eva, Kelly, Lynne, Nicole, Amanda, Gwen, Marguerita, Candy, and Maggie.
  • The Total WOD: the entire is that the sum of three main lifts: the squat, the press and therefore the deadlift.
  • Unbroken (UB): a kind of workout where sets, reps, or exercises are intended to be performed beat a row with none rest. If you fail to continue "unbroken," you want to start over from the start.
  • Uncle Rhabdo: Another gross, unofficial "mascot," that depicts the horrible side effects that occur when an excessively-difficult workout goes wrong, leading to a very serious condition, rhabdomyolysis.
  • WO or W/O (workout): an easy abbreviation for the entire day's work.
  • WOD (workout of the day): The official workout performed at a CrossFit box on a given day.
  • YBF (You'll Be Fine): A supposedly encouraging turn of phrase that ought to make athletes just a touch bit worried. Will you be fine? the solution is perhaps, yes, but not without expending an entire lot of labor and energy.