The whiteboard, translated

The board is written in shorthand because it is faster to write and everybody in the room already reads it. For a first session it is one more thing to decode while you are already nervous, so here it is in plain English.

The words you will see

• WOD: workout of the day. The session everybody is doing.
• AMRAP: as many rounds as possible. A time limit, and you get through what you get through.
• EMOM: every minute on the minute. A set amount of work at the top of each minute, and the rest of that minute is your rest.
• For time: finish the listed work as fast as you can, safely.
• RX: the workout exactly as written, with the prescribed weights. Most people are not doing this.
• Rounds and reps: how many times through, and how many of each movement inside it.

The movements, shortened

• Metcon: metabolic conditioning. The breathing-hard part.
• Box: a wooden platform you step or jump onto. Also, confusingly, the word for the gym itself.
• Kettlebell swing: hips drive the bell, arms mostly hold on.
• Wall ball: squat, then throw a soft weighted ball at a target on the wall.
• Toes to bar: hanging from the bar, bring your feet up to touch it. Almost nobody starts here.

The numbers next to the weights

Two figures separated by a slash are the prescribed loads. They are a reference point, not an entry requirement, and the version you do is decided in the warm-up.

What you do not need to know

Any of it, on day one. Somebody will read the board out and explain it. The reason to have read this is so the explanation is a reminder rather than the first time you have heard the words.

Where this does not help

Vocabulary is not technique. Knowing what a kettlebell swing is called does not tell you how to do one safely, and the internet is a poor place to learn a movement pattern with a weight in your hands. That part is coaching, in person, with somebody watching.

How to read a whole board in ten seconds

Top line is usually the strength or skill piece: one movement, a few sets, done at a controlled pace with rest between. Below it is the conditioning piece with a time frame attached. If you read nothing else, read the time frame, because it tells you how the hour is shaped and how hard the middle will be.

A twenty-minute AMRAP is a pace you can hold and a conversation you cannot. A five-minute one is closer to a sprint. Knowing which is which before it starts is most of the difference between finishing well and blowing up in round two.

The one convention that confuses everybody

Numbers listed as 21-15-9 mean three rounds with descending reps: twenty-one of each movement, then fifteen, then nine. It looks like a countdown and it is, but the weight does not change, so the last round is rarely the easiest.