I Don't Even Know What That Means

(Crossfit: It Gets The People Going)

I was having a beer with my buddy Rich tonight and he told me he was reading my blog.  I'm consistently flabbergasted when people tell me they are reading this blog.  I enjoy writing and there probably is something very therapeutic about being able to share my triumphs and my failures in the gym.  It's a nice outlet for me.  

I thought a few people might read it.  And I definitely tried to make it entertaining so that those few people would continue reading it.  But the blogging site gives you statistics on how many people are viewing your blog and it really has been mind-blowing how many views my blog has gotten.  So if you've been reading and enjoying the blog, a very sincere thank you.

There was more to my conversation with Rich.  Specifically this:

Me: Wow, I didn't know you were reading it.  That's cool.

Rich: There's one problem.  I don't know what the hell most of those things are that you talk about in the blog.

Me: Oh...

Since I've made this blog purely about my gym experiences, I got the impression that the few people I was referencing earlier would be people from my gym.  I hadn't really considered that anyone else would be interested.  So this blog post goes out to all the folks who have been reading the last 2 months despite the fact that I've been speaking in Crossfit code the whole time.

WOD - "Workout Of The Day" (the T must be silent)

AMRAP - As Many Reps As Possible - this is a workout with a time limit and your score is however many reps you can do before the clock runs out

Shoulder-to-Overhead movements: Shoulder Press, Push Press, Push Jerk, Split Jerk

Shoulder Press: barbell at your shoulders, push to above your head without any knee bend

Push Press: same initial set up, but now you can bend your knees to generate some momentum in pushing the barbell over your head

Push Jerk: same set up as push press, but now after bending your knees to gain momentum, you re-bend the knees to get under the bar, then stand straight up to complete the movement

Split Jerk: same as a push jerk, but now you split your legs (one leg forward, one leg backward) when getting under the bar to give yourself a larger base for supporting the weight

Olympic lifts: Clean and Jerk, Snatch

Clean and Jerk: a two-part movement to get the barbell from the ground to over your head.  The clean is the movement that gets the bar from the ground to your shoulders.  The jerk was covered in the last section.

Snatch: moving the barbell from the ground to over your head in one fluid movement.  The snatch is done with a wider grip than the clean and jerk.

PR - Personal Record - "Before today, I could only bench press 90 pounds, but today I set a new PR when I benched 100!"

Double Unders - jumping rope, but the rope must pass under your feet twice each time you jump

Squats: Back, Front, Overhead, Pistols

Back Squat - squatting to below your hip crease and returning upright with weight on your back

Front Squat - same movement but the weight is now held on your shoulders/collarbone area

Overhead Squat - same movement but the weight is now held over your head

Pistols - one-legged squats, just have to control your body weight and keep your balance

Deadlift - taking a barbell from the ground and standing up with it.  The barbell will be at waist-level when you complete the lift.  This is the lift that you can use the heaviest weight on.

Wall Balls - a movement in which you squat with a medicine ball, then when returning upright, you throw the ball to a certain height.  Generally men use 20lb balls thrown to 10 feet, while women use 14lb balls thrown to 9 feet.

Muscle Up - considered the hardest movement in the gym.  Can be performed either on rings or on a pull-up bar.  The athlete pulls themselves up to the height of the rings (bar) and then presses out of a dip to complete the movement.

KB Swings - kettlebell swings come in two varieties: American and Russian.  An American swing goes from in between the athlete's legs to over their head.  A Russian swing goes from in between the athlete's legs to eye level.

RX - doing a workout "as prescribed".  Each day the WOD is written up with specifications (time, rounds, weight, etc.)  If you do the workout as it is written, you have RX'd the workout as you did it as prescribed.

Scaling - if the workout as prescribed is simply too much, you should scale the workout down to an appropriate weight or number of reps/rounds.

(Higher weight/lower weight) - this signifies what the RX men's weight is and then what the RX women's weight is

There are probably a bunch of things I have forgotten to include, but these were the main ones off the top of my head.  If I remember more, I'll include them in future posts.