CrossFit: The Glossary

Created in the 1970s by Greg Glassman, CrossFit® is an American training method with a very specific vocabulary. All CrossFit vocabulary is in English, with abbreviations and acronyms to know. If it is not easy to navigate for beginners, the following glossary will allow you to easily understand all the essential CrossFit terms.

CrossFit vocabulary:

AMRAP: Abbreviation for the phrase “As Many Round As Possible”. It means that you must perform as many sets of exercises as possible during the required time.

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Benchmarks: Types of training exercises to report progress made.

Box: Name given to a room dedicated to crossfit.

Box Jump: Alternating jumps high on an elevated plane and low on the ground.

Burpee: Basic exercise including bending the legs back, hands on the floor in a squat position, then returning with the body grouped in flexion followed by a jump.

Dip: Also called “back push-up”, an exercise consisting of lowering the body with the shoulders to the level of the elbows then pushing upwards to return to a straight-arm position.

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Double Under: Exercise consisting of doing two turns of the jump rope with each jump.

EMOM: Abbreviation of the phrase “Every Minute On the Minute”. It refers to the repetition of a given exercise every minute (when the exercise is finished, the rest of the minute is dedicated to recovery).

Girls: Refers to a group of WODs (see below) offered by CrossFit and all bearing female names (the first were “Angie,” “Barbara,” “Chelsea,” “Diane,” “Elizabeth,” and “Fran”) .

Hand Release Push Up: Exercise similar to classic push-ups with a lifting of the hands from the ground at the end of the flexion.

Kettlebell: Ball with a handle of varying weight (on average, 16 kilos for men, 12 kilos for women and 8 kilos for beginners) used in several CrossFit exercises.

MedBall: Weighted ball of variable weight (between 3 and 15 kilos) used for various exercises.

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PR: Personal best in an exercise.

Pull Up: Complete pull-up performed using a bar.

Push Up: Classic push-up exercise. It consists of placing the hands on the ground, arms outstretched and body braced, then lowering the body until the chest touches the ground. A push on the arms allows you to return to the initial position.

Rep: Abbreviation for the repetition of a movement.

Round: Series of a given exercise.

Scale: Change the loads, time or repetitions of a movement.

Set: Series of repetitions of an exercise.

Squat: Leg flexion that can be performed with or without weight.

Tabata: Intense training protocol, where 20 seconds of exercise and 10 seconds of rest follow one another for 4 minutes.

WOD: Abbreviation for the phrase “Workout of the Day”. It designates the exercises practiced during the day's training.

Crossfit is a training program that involves high intensity movements and exercises, so there will be a total use of the body and normally an improvement in overall physical condition. Crossfit aims to simultaneously improve an athlete's endurance, cardio, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination and precision. It is therefore extremely complete.

Crossfit training is generally carried out in a group, with a WOD (Workout Of the Day) defined in advance according to the objectives of the day and the degree of difficulty sought. It is a sport suitable for all levels since each exercise can be adapted to beginner or advanced practice. Each Crossfit workout is progressive and simply involves working at your own pace, setting goals. As we saw above, there can be a lot of accessories to practice with, but you can also use what you find outdoors to practice. WODs can thus mix bodyweight exercises (push-ups, burpees, air squats, etc.), cardio (rowing, skipping rope, running, swimming), bodybuilding (snatch, clean, front squat,…) jumps, climbing. A WOD rarely lasts more than 1 hour, because they are generally short, very high intensity sessions.

If bodybuilding is a fairly individual activity, Crossfit is a social sport because it is generally practiced in groups, with a lot of exchanges, dialogues and interactions. The advantage of this notion of group and interactivity is that the Group will push us not to give up, to continue training even if certain days, clearly, the motivation will not always be there (and this 'is normal !). This is also one of the reasons why people are so passionate about Crossfit.
To see even faster results, diet is very important in Crossfit. A diet rich in proteins, nutrients and antioxidants will obviously be very important. This is the moment where we intervene at Stimium, because in full transparency, it is very difficult to reconcile this type of diet, especially with a family life, or quite simply because it will be difficult to find all the ingredients at the right time to get the ideal diet.

When you start CrossFit training, you will use muscles that you didn't even know existed (for my part, I don't think we had that many muscles...in our buttocks!). It is therefore important to nourish your muscles by providing them with the necessary energy. In this context. Stimium Pre Work Out Max is the essential product to prepare for your sessions. At the end of your first sessions, you will be completely empty and it will be very important to take care of your recovery. We will then recommend RGN3 Reload or RGN3 Clean Up , but also MC3 Powder and Stick .
Subsequently, from 3/4 weeks of Crossfit training, it will be relevant to take a Whey, ideally Isolate ( Iso Hwy ) if you are already at your ideal weight but just need to sculpt your body, or possibly a concentrated Whey ( C Whey ) if you also need a mix with a few carbohydrates, or even Veg Pro , if you need an ultra concentrated Vegan protein isolate. To gain muscle mass even faster, we will recommend Stimium Pwr Creatine (powder or Tabs). In recovery, if you want to continue building your body, in addition to the RGN3 and MC3 products mentioned previously, the Mix Iso Carb used today by the greatest French professional athletes, will be the ideal solution, to recover thanks to fructose/glucose while retaining the muscle building part.

Trying Cross Fit generally means adopting it!