How to read a CrossFit whiteboard as a beginner
AMRAP 12. 21-15-9. 95/65. T2B. The board is written in a shorthand regulars stopped noticing years ago. Here is how to read a workout top to bottom, what the letters mean, and which numbers on it are actually meant for you.
The board is a plan, not a test
Nothing on a CrossFit whiteboard is secret, and none of it is hard once someone shows you the pattern. Most boards run in the same order from top to bottom: a warm-up, often a strength or skill piece, then the conditioning workout, sometimes followed by a short finisher. Reading it before class tells you how long you will be working, what equipment to set up, and what to ask the coach during the briefing.
The workout formats
The first line of the conditioning workout usually tells you how it is structured and how it is scored.
- For time: the work is fixed and you finish it as fast as you can. Your score is the time on the clock.
- AMRAP: as many rounds, or reps, as possible. "AMRAP 12" means twelve minutes. The time is fixed and your score is the work, written as rounds plus extra reps, such as 5+8.
- EMOM: every minute on the minute. You start the listed work at the top of each minute and rest for whatever is left of it. If the work eats nearly the whole minute, ask the coach to trim it.
- Tabata: eight rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest, four minutes per movement. Gyms score it either by total reps or by your lowest round.
- Rounds and rep schemes: "3 RFT" means three rounds for time. "21-15-9" means 21 reps of each listed movement, then 15 of each, then 9 of each.
- Time cap: often written "TC" or "cap," it is the point where the workout stops for everyone, finished or not.
Reading the strength piece
- 5x5: five sets of five reps. A line like 5-5-5-3-3-3 lists the reps for each set separately.
- @70%: seventy percent of your one-rep max, written 1RM. Almost no beginner knows a 1RM yet, so treat a percentage as a question for the coach, not a number to calculate.
- Build to a heavy 3: work up across several sets to the heaviest set of three you can move well today.
The two numbers next to a weight
A load written as 95/65 lb, or a kettlebell written 53/35 lb, gives the prescription for men first and women second, the same convention CrossFit uses in its own published workouts. Some boards write kettlebells in pood, an old Russian unit of roughly 16 kilograms, so 1.5 pood is about 24 kilograms.
"Rx" means as prescribed: the exact load, reps and movement standard on the board. Everything else is scaled, and many boards list a scaled version or two underneath. Neither of the main numbers is your number on day one. They describe the workout as written for an experienced athlete, and the coach adjusts it to you in the briefing.
Shorthand you will see most
- WOD: workout of the day. Metcon: metabolic conditioning, the fast part of class.
- KB / DB: kettlebell and dumbbell.
- DU / SU: double-unders, where the rope passes twice per jump, and single-unders.
- T2B / C2B: toes to bar, and chest to bar pull-ups.
- HSPU: handstand push-up.
- OHS / DL / C&J: overhead squat, deadlift, clean and jerk.
- Cal: calories on a rower, bike or ski machine, so "15 cal row" means row until the monitor shows 15 calories.
- Buy-in / cash-out: a set piece of work done before or after the main workout.
- PR: personal record.
Three things to do with the board
Find the score line
Know whether you are chasing time or chasing reps before you start. That one fact changes how you approach the first minute more than anything else written up there.
Ask what your version is
Point at each movement you have not done before and ask what you will do instead. Then set up the equipment for that version, not for the Rx line.
Write your score honestly
Record what you actually did, with the load and scaling next to it. That log is how you and your coach will see progress months from now.
What the board does not tell you
The whiteboard shows the workout. It does not show why it was written that way, how the movements should look, or which part of it is meant to feel hard. That is what the coach's briefing is for, and it is the reason to arrive a few minutes early on your first days: read the board, then listen to how the coach explains it.
At O-SEA CrossFit, new members learn the movements behind most of this shorthand in the beginner on-ramp before joining regular classes, so the board stops looking like code fairly quickly. For what the rest of a first session looks like, read Your First Class and Beginner CrossFit. For the honest list of mistakes to avoid while you are new, see where a beginner start goes wrong.
Whiteboard questions beginners ask
What does Rx mean on a CrossFit whiteboard?
Rx means as prescribed: the workout done with the exact loads, reps and movement standards written on the board. Anything modified is scaled. Most beginners scale for weeks or months, and that is the normal way to start.
What is the difference between AMRAP and for time?
In a for time workout the work is fixed and the clock is your score, so faster is better. In an AMRAP the time is fixed and the work is your score, recorded as rounds plus extra reps, such as 5+8.
Is it okay not to finish a CrossFit workout before the time cap?
Yes. The time cap is the point where the workout stops for everyone. Beginners often reach it, and the usual way to score that is the total reps completed. A coach would rather see good movement at the cap than rushed reps to beat it.
Come read the board with a coach
Book a free consultation and ask about anything on the board that looks unfamiliar. That is what the conversation is for.