A friend is in your ear about how great CrossFit is, or you happened across the CrossFit Games on TV one day. Either way, you're inspired and intrigued and ready to start this new fitness journey.
The first thing to answer is, what is a WOD?
WOD stands for "workout of the day." It is the common term to describe the workout portion of a CrossFit class. CrossFit is unique because varied functional movements are core to the program and are typically completed at a high intensity.
Since variety is a key tenet of CrossFit, workouts often include bodyweight movements, gymnastics, and cardio in addition to Olympic-style weightlifting.
This guide covers what a WOD is, the formats coaches use to build them, a library of the named benchmark WODs—The Girls and the Hero WODs—with their exact rep schemes, and how to program your own.
What Is a WOD?
The workout of the day (WOD) is just a portion of a typical CrossFit class.
Most classes have a warm-up, strength or skill work, the WOD, and a cool-down.
Each WOD has a goal in mind—lift as heavy as possible, move as fast as possible, do as many reps as possible, or just complete the work.
CrossFit coaches aim to include different movements and workout formats with very little repetition. However, some workouts are repeated annually, like "Murph," so athletes can see how their fitness has improved over time.
Every CrossFit workout is written "as prescribed," or "Rx."
However, every single movement can be scaled down to accommodate any level of athlete. The best CrossFit coaches can easily adjust WODs to the fitness level of their students while working the same muscle groups at intensity.
CrossFit.com posts a WOD every single day for inspiration.
What Is a CrossFit Workout of the Day?
People use "WOD" and "workout of the day" interchangeably, but the phrase points at something specific: the single conditioning piece a box runs on a given day.
CrossFit.com has posted one workout of the day, every day, since 2001—and most affiliates publish their own daily WOD instead of, or alongside, it.
When a member checks the whiteboard or your app in the morning, the workout of the day is what they're looking for.
Good daily programming isn't random.
Over a week, a coach rotates formats and energy systems so members train strength, short high-intensity efforts, and longer aerobic work—without burning out the same movements two days running. Here's what a balanced sample week can look like:
A member following this week hits everything CrossFit is built to develop. That variety is also what keeps people coming back—the workout is never quite the same twice.
How to Create a WOD
The three main factors when creating a WOD are the format, the movements, and the time frame. Coaches—or whoever is doing the programming—can get creative with thousands of potential combinations.
WOD formats
When new athletes join a CrossFit box, understanding the workout formats can be confusing at first. There are several acronyms and formats that coaches can use for the workouts. Consider including a quick description of the types of workouts in your new member welcome packet.
AMRAP
This is an acronym you'll frequently see in a CrossFit gym.
AMRAP stands for "as many rounds as possible" and sometimes "as many reps as possible." This workout challenges how many times an athlete can finish a combination of movements in an allotted amount of time.
Chipper
Chippers are workouts that usually include high reps of multiple movements.
The goal is to complete all the movements, typically in order, as quickly as possible. The name "chipper" comes from the fact that athletes generally need to "chip away" at the reps in smaller sets.
EMOM
EMOM stands for "every minute on the minute."
For these workouts, the goal is to complete the prescribed reps within a minute. The same reps will be repeated every minute until the end of the allotted time frame.
Occasionally, an EMOM will include time periods longer than 1 minute. You may see these written as E2MOM (every 2 minutes), E3MOM (every 3 minutes), etc.
RFT
RFT workouts are commonly used in CrossFit competitions. It stands for "rounds for time." Athletes should complete the prescribed movements as fast as possible.
Ladder
A ladder workout features increasing or decreasing repetitions (sometimes both).
Athletes will need to keep track of which round they are on to know how many reps to complete for each movement.
Tabata
Tabata workouts are 4 minutes long. Athletes do a movement for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds, for 8 rounds.
These workouts are not typically used for the primary WOD, but they may be part of the warm-up or as a finisher.
CrossFit movements
One of the goals of the sport of CrossFit is to create well-rounded athletes who can take on any fitness challenge.
With that in mind, almost any movement or modality could be used in CrossFit WODs. Many of the movements commonly used in CrossFit are functional fitness movements.
This means that they mimic things people do in their day-to-day lives. For example, an overhead press is equivalent to lifting a box to a high shelf, and a squat is equivalent to sitting down on a chair.
CrossFit movements tend to fall into one of four categories: bodyweight, cardio, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
Every single movement can be scaled down to match the fitness level of each athlete.
There are also progressions to help athletes achieve a certain skill. For example, building the strength and ability to do a handstand push-up may follow this progression: elevated push-ups, band-assisted push-ups, push-ups, push-ups with feet on a box, push-ups with feet on the wall, handstand push-ups.
Most workouts will include movements that challenge different skills or muscle groups.
While this isn't always the case, the variation is one of the tenets of CrossFit. Luckily, there are dozens of movements to choose from.
Some common CrossFit WOD movements include:
- Pull-ups
- Push-ups
- Squats
- Snatches
- Burpees
- Thrusters
- Cleans
- Overhead presses
- Rope climbs
- Double-unders
- Sit-ups
- Wall balls
- Running
- Rowing
- Biking
- Toes-to-bar
- Deadlifts
- Box jumps
Time frame
The time frame for the workout will depend on the format, the movements programmed, and the fitness level of your athletes.
CrossFit WODs can vary from under 10 minutes in length to over an hour. Usually, workouts last 10–30 minutes.
You'll want to consider the members at your gym when choosing the length of the workout. If you make it too short, most people may not finish the workout.
If you make it too long, everyone will finish early and there will be wasted time in the class. Since the WOD is just one portion of the class, you'll need to account for the time needed for the warm-up, strength or skill, and cool-down.
Benchmark WODs Every CrossFitter Should Know
Some workouts show up on whiteboards around the world with the same name and the same reps every time. These are the benchmark WODs—standardized workouts athletes return to so they can measure progress against a fixed yardstick. They fall into two families: "The Girls" and the Hero WODs.
The rep schemes below are the standard Rx (as-prescribed) versions. Every one can be scaled—see the scaling note underneath.
The Girls
"The Girls" are a set of benchmark workouts released by CrossFit, originally named for female pioneers in the sport. They're short, brutal, and endlessly repeatable, which is exactly why coaches use them to track fitness over months and years.
Hero WODs
CrossFit has always had an affinity for the military and first responders. Starting in 2005, CrossFit began naming Hero workouts after fallen soldiers and first responders to honor their sacrifice. They're typically longer and heavier than The Girls—a deliberate test of grit.
The most well-known Hero WOD is "Murph." Lt. Michael Murphy created the grueling workout and originally called it "Body Armor" because a weight vest is worn while running and doing pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats. CrossFit boxes, as well as many other gyms, complete Murph each Memorial Day.
Scaling: how any benchmark adapts to you
A benchmark only works as a yardstick if you can actually do it, so every WOD has a scaled version that keeps the stimulus while meeting the athlete where they are.
Take Fran. The Rx version is 21-15-9 thrusters at 95/65 lb plus pull-ups. A newer athlete might run it at 65/45 lb with ring rows or banded pull-ups—same fast, lungs-burning stimulus, appropriate load and skill.
The coach's job is to pick the scale that preserves the point of the workout: if a WOD is meant to be a five-minute sprint, the right scale keeps it a five-minute sprint.
WOD Your Heart Out
When a CrossFit enthusiast transitions from an athlete to a box owner, they realize that more goes into programming a workout than just choosing some movements.
The WOD is just a part of the 60-minute class. As you program your WODs, consider the format, the movements, and the time frame—and lean on the benchmark library above when you want a proven test instead of a fresh build.
With practice, creating CrossFit workouts will become second nature. And when you're ready to take the workout off the whiteboard, gyms like Warrior Axe CrossFit run their daily WODs, attendance, and billing on Gymdesk's CrossFit software so coaches can spend their energy on the floor instead of the admin.
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