Learning to score a WOD is a rite of passage. At the end of a WOD, as the coach writes down scores on the white board, you might hear someone rattle off a number like “19,” which is pretty straight forward, right? They got 19 of … something.
But what if you hear someone say something like “11+200”? What in the 5 am calculus hell does that mean…?
Below are three examples of WOD scoring decoded.
For time
This is the simplest scoring method. When you read “for time,” your score is however long it took you to complete the work. This might be per round or overall time to complete all rounds.
Note that I said “for time” workouts are simple – not easy. “For time” scoring will look something like this:
- 29:36 (This is an overall time for the entire WOD)
- Round 1 = 2:15; Round 2 = 1:44; Round 3 = 2:30; Round 4 = 1:30 (This is a “for time” score for each round)
Capturing your time for multiple rounds can be a challenge, especially if you’re working for your rest (read: gasping for breath between rounds and holy shitballs now you have to remember and write numbers??).
If you have a really nice coach they might help you and capture some of those numbers for you, but if the class is full, you better have a pen ready.
Chipper with a time cap
If you’re doing a Chipper workout, you’re probably looking at an incredible amount of work written on the whiteboard. It might look something like this:
For Time
- 50 Air Squats
- 10 Burpees
- 40 Sit-ups
- 10 Burpees
- 30 Walking Lunges
- 10 Burpees
- 20 Push-Ups
- 10 Burpees
- 10 Pull-Ups
- 10 Burpees
- 20 Push-Ups
- 10 Burpees
- 30 Walking Lunges
- 10 Burpees
- 40 Sit-Ups
- 10 Burpees
- 50 Air Squats
A WOD like this might have a time cap of, say, 25:00. If you get all of this done in under 25:00, your score is the total time it took you to complete the work. If you only make through five of the first set of “30 Walking Lunges” then your score will be 25:00, and the total number of reps you completed (50 air squats + 10 burpees + 40 sit ups + 10 burpees + 5 walking lunges = 115 reps).
Your final score would be: 25:00, 115 reps.
AMRAP
An AMRAP is a WOD that provides a time cap. Within that time, you do As Many Rounds As Possible before the clock runs out. Your scoring for an AMRAP is total rounds + any reps in the round you started but didn’t get to finish before the clock ran out.
Take, for example, the CrossFit classic benchmark “Cindy.” Cindy has a time cap of 20 minutes, in which time you will do:
- 5 pull ups
- 10 pushups
- 15 air squats (ie. Body weight squats)
We recently did this WOD at Eximo, and I got a score of: 12 + 10.
What that means is I finished 12 full rounds of all of those movements, and was working on the 13th round when the clock ran out. In the 13th round, I completed 5 pull ups (or, for me, ring rows) and 5 pushups. In an AMRAP every rep counts, so I got a score of:
12 full rounds + (5 pull ups + 5 pushups) = 12 + 10
Still confused? Don’t sweat it (ha! See what I did there? Don’t sweat it…? Get it?? *ahem* anyway… moving on… )
CrossFit scoring is just a fun way to gamify working out with your gym buddies. It’s healthy competition as long as you don’t get too wrapped up in it. There’s guaranteed to be trash talking, but every single person at Eximo cheers on every other person.
In the end, you can compete against others if you want to but, really, we’re all running our own race.
Happy sweating!
Meghan
