Cross training terminology: How Do You Read a Workout?

What Does Cross-Training Mean?

Cross-training means combining different training modalities instead of practising only one physical quality or sport. A single week might include running, rowing, resistance training, jumping, loaded carries, mobility work, and bodyweight exercises.

The aim is not to collect as many exercises as possible. You use different modalities to train qualities such as strength, power, aerobic capacity, coordination, balance, and movement control while managing the stress placed on each joint and muscle group.

For an American football player, cross-training can support acceleration, repeated-effort conditioning, trunk strength, and robustness. It does not replace position practice, sprint technique, contact preparation, or the team’s tactical work.

Cross-Training vs. CrossFit

Cross-training is a broad method, while CrossFit is a branded training system with its own coaching structure, terminology, benchmark workouts, and affiliate network. You can cross-train in a football club, commercial gym, athletics track, or home gym without following CrossFit programming.

CrossFit’s official glossary defines a WOD as the Workout of the Day and uses terms such as AMRAP, EMOM, Rx’d, and scale. Those words are common in functional fitness, but their use does not make every mixed-modality session a CrossFit workout.

In practice, check the session’s actual demands rather than its label. A football conditioning circuit, a Hyrox-style session, and a CrossFit class may all use a rower and kettlebells, but they can have different goals, scoring systems, and coaching standards.

Why Does Cross-Training Use Different Training Modalities?

Different modalities create different demands. Running and rowing emphasise cyclical cardiovascular work, barbell lifts train force production, and gymnastics movements challenge relative strength, coordination, and control.

The Institut national du sport, de l’expertise et de la performance (INSEP) uses this type of training logic when discussing physical preparation: the exercise must match the quality you want to develop, the athlete’s level, and the sport’s demands. For an amateur, that usually means keeping technical lifts simple and prioritising repeatable execution over fatigue-driven complexity.

Cross-training also gives you a way to adjust impact and equipment. If repeated running aggravates a symptom, a coach may use cycling or rowing for conditioning, but pain that persists or worsens requires assessment by a doctor or qualified healthcare professional.

What Are the Essential Cross-Training Terms?

• WOD: Workout of the Day, the session or main workout prescribed for that day.
• Rep: one completed repetition of an exercise, such as one push-up or one deadlift.
• Round: one complete passage through all exercises in a circuit.
• Set: a defined group of repetitions performed together, such as 3 sets of 8 squats.
• Time cap: the maximum time allowed to finish the prescribed work.
• Score: the result recorded, such as total rounds, total repetitions, completion time, or load.
• Rx: the workout completed with the stated exercises, repetitions, loads, and standards.
• Scaled: a modified version that changes load, volume, range of motion, or movement difficulty.
• No rep: an invalid repetition because the movement did not meet the stated standard.

How Do Workout Structure and Intensity Terms Work?

AMRAP means “as many rounds or repetitions as possible” during a fixed period. In a 12-minute AMRAP of 10 kettlebell swings, 8 burpees, and 200 m of running, you repeat the sequence and record completed rounds plus extra repetitions.

EMOM means “every minute on the minute”. You start the assigned work at the beginning of each minute and rest for the remaining time. An EMOM of 5 push-ups for 10 minutes gives you 10 work intervals, not one continuous 10-minute effort.

For time means completing a fixed workload as quickly as possible, usually within a time cap. Chipper describes a workout where you complete the repetitions of one movement before moving to the next, while a couplet uses 2 movements and a triplet uses 3.

Tabata traditionally uses 8 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest, for a total of 4 minutes. The CrossFit official glossary uses that same 8-round structure, but a gym may apply the name more loosely, so read the written interval prescription.

What Do Training Goals and Adaptation Terms Mean?

Metcon is short for metabolic conditioning. It describes work designed to challenge energy production and fatigue management through combinations of movements, intervals, or sustained efforts.

Benchmark means a repeatable workout, test, or movement standard used to compare your own performances over time. A benchmark only has value when the exercise standards, load, repetitions, and conditions are recorded consistently.

Intensity can mean load, speed, effort, or density, depending on the session. A lighter circuit completed quickly may produce a high cardiovascular demand, while a heavy 3-repetition lift creates high mechanical demand without the same breathing response.

Which Common Cross-Training Acronyms and Abbreviations Should You Know?

• BW: bodyweight, meaning no external load is prescribed.
• DB: dumbbell.
• KB: kettlebell.
• BB: barbell.
• RM: repetition maximum, such as 5RM, the heaviest load you can lift for 5 technically valid repetitions.
• PR: personal record, your best recorded result under defined conditions.
• 1RM: one-repetition maximum, the heaviest load you can lift once with acceptable technique.
• RPE: rating of perceived exertion, commonly scored from 1 to 10 to describe how hard the effort feels.
• HR: heart rate.
• WU: warm-up.
• COOL-DOWN: low-intensity work after the main session, although it is usually written in full rather than abbreviated.
• FT: For Time.

Do not treat a number such as 80% as self-explanatory. It might refer to a percentage of your 1RM, maximum heart rate, or a coach’s intended effort level, so ask before loading the bar or starting the interval.

Which Cross-Training Movement Vocabulary Should You Learn First?

Movement names describe the exercise, but they do not always define the required standard. The coach’s demonstration determines range of motion, tempo, equipment setup, and repetition validity.

What Are the Main Cardiovascular Exercises?

• Run: cover the stated distance outdoors or on a treadmill.
• Row: work on a rowing ergometer, with the monitor usually showing metres, calories, or time.
• Bike: cycle for a distance, duration, or calorie target.
• Assault bike: an air-resistance bike using both the pedals and moving handles.
• Jump rope: continuous rope jumps, sometimes prescribed as single-unders or double-unders.
• Double-under: the rope passes under your feet twice during one jump.
• Shuttle run: repeated runs between marked lines or points, often used for change-of-direction conditioning.

Distance and calories are not interchangeable. A 500 m row, 15 calories on an air bike, and a 400 m run create different pacing and technical demands, even when they occupy a similar amount of time.

What Are the Main Strength and Weightlifting Exercises?

• DL: deadlift, lifting the bar from the floor to a standing position.
• BS: back squat, squatting with the bar supported across the upper back.
• FS: front squat, squatting with the bar supported at the front of the shoulders.
• OHS: overhead squat, squatting while holding the bar overhead.
• CLN: clean, bringing a bar from the floor to the shoulders.
• C&J: clean and jerk, lifting the bar to the shoulders and then overhead.
• SN: snatch, moving the bar from the floor to overhead in one continuous lift.
• PC: power clean, receiving the bar above a full squat position.
• PP: push press, using leg drive to press a bar from the shoulders overhead.
• Strict press: pressing overhead without assistance from the legs.
• Farmer carry: walking while holding a load in each hand.

The Fédération Française de Football Américain (FFFA) places physical preparation within the wider demands of football, where strength, speed, repeated efforts, and technical execution interact. For amateur players, a qualified coach should adjust Olympic lifting loads and movement complexity rather than copying competition programming.

What Are the Main Gymnastics and Bodyweight Exercises?

• Air squat: a bodyweight squat without an external load.
• Push-up: lowering and pressing the body while maintaining control through the prescribed range.
• Burpee: moving from standing to the floor and back to standing, with the class standard defining the chest contact and jump.
• Pull-up: pulling until the required chin or chest position is reached.
• Chest-to-bar: a pull-up where the chest must contact the bar under the stated standard.
• Toes-to-bar: bringing both feet to contact the bar while hanging.
• Handstand push-up: pressing from an inverted position, with the wall, depth, and lockout standard specified by the coach.
• Pistol: a single-leg squat.
• Muscle-up: transitioning from a hang below rings or a bar to a supported position above it.
• Kipping: using controlled body momentum to assist a gymnastics movement.

What Do Cross-Training Equipment Terms Mean?

• Box: a raised platform used for step-ups, jumps, and other exercises. In CrossFit, “box” can also mean an affiliated gym.
• Rack: a metal frame used to support a barbell for squats, presses, and pulls.
• Rig: a larger structure with pull-up bars, squat stations, and attachment points.
• AbMat: a curved pad used to support the lower back during sit-ups.
• GHD: Glute-Ham Developer, a machine for hip-extension, hamstring, and trunk exercises.
• Med ball: medicine ball used for throws, squats, slams, and carries.
• Erg: an indoor conditioning machine, usually a rower, bike, or ski ergometer.
• Collars: clips that keep plates secured on a barbell.
• Plates: weight discs loaded onto a barbell.

Equipment notation can change the exercise substantially. “KB swing” identifies the tool and movement, but the coach still needs to state the kettlebell weight, swing height, repetition standard, and whether the movement is Russian or overhead.

How Do You Read a Cross-Training Workout?

1. Identify the format: decide whether the session is an AMRAP, EMOM, For Time, interval workout, or strength block.
2. List the movements: write down each exercise, distance, repetition target, and equipment requirement.
3. Check the standard: confirm range of motion, lockout, contact point, start position, and what counts as a no rep.
4. Choose the version: use Rx only when you can complete the stated work with safe, repeatable technique; otherwise select a scaled option with the coach.
5. Plan the pace: start below your maximum and protect the later rounds, especially in workouts longer than 10 minutes.
6. Record the score: note rounds, repetitions, time, load, scale, and any interruptions so you can compare like with like.

For example, “12-minute AMRAP: 10 wall balls, 8 DB snatches, 200 m run” means you repeat those 3 tasks for 12 minutes. Your score is completed rounds plus remaining repetitions, and the dumbbell weight, wall-ball target, and running distance must be recorded.

If a workout contains a new Olympic lift, inversion, or high-skill gymnastics movement, ask for a technique progression before adding intensity. Stop the session and seek medical advice for chest pain, fainting, severe shortness of breath, or acute injury symptoms.

Use this winter offseason workout plan for power and speed when you need a lower-equipment session, and review how to structure an annual sports training plan before placing demanding cross-training sessions around football practices and games.