Every CrossFit Term, in Plain English

Ryder Williams • August 14, 2026

Every gym develops shorthand, and this one has more than most. None of it is complicated once somebody translates it. Here's the translation.


You do not need to memorize this. It's here so that when a word goes by on the whiteboard, you can look it up afterward instead of nodding and hoping.

Words for the workout itself

  • WOD — Workout of the Day. The main workout everyone in that class is doing. You'll also hear "the metcon" used the same way.
  • Metcon — Short for metabolic conditioning. Any workout meant to get you breathing hard, as opposed to a heavy, slow strength piece.
  • AMRAP — As Many Rounds (or Reps) As Possible. There's a set list of movements and a set clock. You cycle through the list as many times as you can before time runs out. Example: "12-minute AMRAP of 10 air squats, 8 push-ups, 6 sit-ups."
  • EMOM — Every Minute On the Minute. At the top of each minute you do an assigned amount of work, then rest for whatever's left of that minute. Finish fast, rest longer.
  • For Time — Do the prescribed work as fast as you safely can. Your score is the clock.
  • Time cap — The hard stop. If a workout is capped at 15 minutes, everyone stops at 15 whether they're done or not. It exists so class ends on schedule and so nobody grinds out a workout for forty minutes.
  • Rounds and reps — A rep is one repetition of a movement. A round is one full pass through the list of movements.
  • Chipper — A long workout with a lot of different movements that you "chip away" at, one at a time, no repeating.
  • Buy-in / cash-out — A bit of work tacked onto the start or end of the workout.
  • No-rep — When a rep doesn't count because the movement didn't reach full range. The coach will tell you and you'll do it again. It's a standards thing, not a punishment.


Words about how much you're doing

  • RX — Short for "as prescribed." Doing the workout at the exact weights and movements written on the board. It's a description of what you did, not a grade you're being marked against.
  • Scaled — Doing the workout at a weight or movement variation that fits you. Most of the room is scaling something on most days. See How Scaling Really Works.
  • PR — Personal Record. Your best-ever result on a lift or a workout. People will clap. Let them.
  • Load — How much weight you're using.
  • Volume — How much total work you're doing — sets, reps, distance.


Words for the room

  • Box — Old CrossFit slang for the gym. You'll hear it occasionally. We usually just say "the gym."
  • The whiteboard — Where the day's workout is written, and where results sometimes get posted.
  • Class — One coached hour. Everything at Iron Keep runs on the hour.
  • Coach — The person running the session. There is one in every class, start to finish, and they are watching you, not a clipboard.


Movements you'll hear named

  • Air squat — A squat with just your bodyweight.
  • Back squat / front squat — A squat with the barbell on your back, or racked on the front of your shoulders.
  • Deadlift — Lifting a loaded barbell from the floor to standing.
  • Press / push press / push jerk — Three ways of getting a barbell overhead, from strict and slow to using your legs to drive it up.
  • Clean — Lifting a barbell from the floor to your shoulders in one movement.
  • Snatch — Lifting a barbell from the floor to overhead in one movement. The hardest lift in the sport, and one you will spend years getting better at.
  • Thruster — A front squat straight into a press overhead. Universally disliked.
  • Burpee — Chest to the floor, stand up, jump. Also universally disliked.
  • Box jump — Jumping onto a raised platform. Step-ups are always an option.
  • Wall ball — Squatting with a weighted ball, then throwing it at a target on the wall.
  • Kettlebell swing — Swinging a bell from between your legs up to eye level or overhead, driven by your hips.
  • Double-under — A jump rope pass where the rope goes under your feet twice per jump. A single-under is the normal version.
  • Toes-to-bar — Hanging from a pull-up bar and bringing your feet up to touch it.
  • Kipping — Using a controlled swing to help you get through a pull-up or toes-to-bar. You learn the strict version first.
  • Ring row — A pull-up-style movement done at an angle with your feet on the floor. The most common way people build toward a pull-up.

Named workouts

  • The Girls — A set of benchmark workouts with women's names: Fran, Grace, Cindy, Diane. They repeat a few times a year so you can see whether you've gotten fitter.
  • Hero WODs — Longer, harder benchmark workouts named for fallen military and first responders. Murph, on Memorial Day, is the best known.


If we missed one, ask a coach. Nobody here thinks less of a question.


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