Decoding CrossFit #3 — Because apparently complete words take too much energy!
At this point, I think we're making progress!
We already know:
WOD = Workout Of the Day.
We've survived AMRAP, E3MOM and AFAP.
Surely CrossFit should start making sense now, right?
...No.
Because apparently writing Dumbbell takes far too much time when you can write DB And Barbell? BB. Double Unders? DU. Calories? Cal.
At some point I started wondering whether all these abbreviations exist because CrossFitters are too tired to finish their words...Which is understandable lol
So today we're going to tackle some of the letters that keep appearing on my actual WODs.
And this board is a pretty good place to start:
Look at that beauty!
WOD / AMRAP / DB / D.U. / Cal
Perfectly normal sentence in CrossFitland...Absolute nonsense anywhere else!
So...
Let's translate.
DB
Probably one of the easiest ones. On this particular WOD I had:
10 DB Snatch alt.
Which means:
10 Alternating Dumbbell Snatches.
The alternating part simply means changing arms between repetitions.
And look at that...We translated one line! We're basically fluent now!
...Don't get too excited.
BB
We've already seen this one in another one of my WODs:
There it is:
5 BB Snatch
BB = Barbell.
So:
5 Barbell Snatches.
Simple.
And I actually like this abbreviation because once you know DB and BB, quite a few things suddenly become easier to read.
DB Snatch → Dumbbell Snatch
BB Snatch → Barbell Snatch
Same family of movement, different equipment.
And considerably different conversations with yourself depending on how much weight is on that bar...phew!
DU
Ah...These little devils...
DU — sometimes written D.U. — means - Double Unders
Instead of the skipping rope passing underneath your feet once during a jump, it passes underneath twice.
Sounds simple when you write it down...My coordination may disagree lol
And if you're learning them, there is another very effective way to identify a Double Under:
** The rope whips your legs.**
Repeatedly lolol
Those little red marks? Apparently complimentary CrossFit tattoos.
Thankfully, the coach who wrote this particular board even gave us a translation:
D.U. = Double Unders
See? Sometimes they do speak English!
Cal
This one confused me a little differently because we're used to thinking about calories as something we eat or burn. In a CrossFit WOD, however, you might see something like:
15 Cal Row or 10 Cal Bike
Here, the calories shown by the machine are being used as the measurement for the work you need to complete.
So if the board says:
15 Cal Row
You keep rowing until the machine reaches the required calorie number. And somehow...the last few calories always seem considerably longer than the first ones! I have no scientific evidence for this...I just know it's true lol
WB
Another one that appears regularly:
WB = Wall Ball
Usually this means holding a medicine ball, squatting and then throwing the ball towards a target on the wall as you stand.
Catch it - Squat - Throw - Repeat.
The abbreviation is tiny...The suffering is not...
Moving on...lol
And then it gets worse...
Because these are the friendly ones! Eventually the board starts throwing things at you like:
T2B — Toes to Bar
C2B — Chest to Bar
HSPU — Handstand Push-Ups
C&J — Clean and Jerk
OHS — Overhead Squat
And suddenly DB doesn't seem so bad anymore.
But I'm deliberately not going to explain every CrossFit abbreviation that exists. Firstly, because we'd be here until Christmas. Secondly...
I'm still learning them too!
And that's kind of the point of this series.
CrossFit → Human Translation
So today's mini dictionary is:
| CrossFit | Human |
|---|---|
| DB | Dumbbell |
| BB | Barbell |
| DU | Double Unders |
| Cal | Calories |
| WB | Wall Ball |
Achievement unlocked: Beginner CrossFit Translator
We're getting dangerously good at this!
Next time on Decoding CrossFit...
There's one little word I deliberately haven't touched yet, and I think it deserves its own post:
RX
Because eventually you start looking at the board and wondering:
Should I be able to do that weight?
Should I be doing that movement?
Why is she doing pull-ups while I have a resistance band?
And that's when you meet another very important CrossFit word:
Scaled
And, at least for me, learning what scaled really means was considerably more important than learning another acronym.
But that's one for next time :)
