CrossFit Common Terminology Glossary
Once you’ve become acquainted with the gym, you’ll begin to notice that the members of our gym (and every CF gym) use funny sounding words and terminology with occasional funny facial, verbal, and physical reaction as a consequence of hearing said words. Here is a briefing on some of the more popular CrossFit vernacular:
The basics:
Box
Definition: A CrossFit Facility, aka, gym
Application: “I’m going out of town next week to Atlanta, know of any good boxes down there that I should go workout at?”
WOD
Pronounced “wad” as in wad of tissue
Definition: Workout of the Day
Application: “Dude, did you hear what the WOD is today?! No? Have a seat….Filthy Fifty!”
AMRAP
Pronounced: Am – Rap
Definition: an acronym for As Many Rounds/Repetitions As Possible.
Application: “The WOD today is a 15 minute AMRAP of 5 Pulls ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats.”
EMOM
Pronounced: E – Mom
Definition: an acronym for every minute on the minute
Application: We are going to do 5 burpees EMOM
Rx
Pronounced: Rx, or as prescribed
Definition: to do the WOD as written, without altering any of the movements or weights.
Application: “Holy crap! You did that WOD as Rx?!”
Scaled or Scaling
Definition: to modifying either the movement or the weight in a WOD.
Application: “I can’t do hand stand push ups so I’m going to be scaling this WOD”
Metcon
Pronounced: Met Con
Definition: Metabolic conditioning, or cardio, if you will. Something that trains cardio-respiratory endurance, stamina and conditioning.
Application: “After we establish our max overhead squat, we have a short metcon to do”
Buy-In and Cash-Out
Definition: A moment that only needs to be completed at the beginning or end of the WOD (or sometimes interval within the WOD).
Application: “Buy-in with a 400m run, then do 5 rounds of 10 pull-up and 10 burpees. Once that is complete, cash-out with a 400m run.”