Gym acronyms decoded: AMRAP, EMOM, RPE, RIR, 1RM and the rest

A workout written as “EMOM 12: 3 power cleans @ RPE 8, then AMRAP 8 back squats” is not complicated. It is just abbreviated, and the abbreviations are not standardised — which is why the same letters mean different things in a strength gym, a CrossFit box and a physiotherapy clinic.

The set-structure acronyms

AMRAP has two distinct meanings, and context decides. In circuit and conditioning work it means “as many rounds as possible” in a time window. In strength work it means “as many reps as possible” on a single set, usually stopping short of total failure. EMOM is every minute on the minute: start a prescribed task at the top of each minute, and whatever time is left is your rest. AFAP is as fast as possible. For time means complete the work as quickly as you can. Rounds and reps are what they sound like, and superset means two exercises performed back to back with no rest between.

The effort and load acronyms

RPE is rating of perceived exertion, on a ten-point lifting scale where ten is failure. RIR is reps in reserve, how many honest reps you had left — the same instrument as RPE with the numbers inverted, and both are covered properly in RPE and RIR explained. 1RM is your one-repetition maximum, the heaviest single you can lift; 5RM is the heaviest five, and so on. Percentages in a programme are usually percentages of a tested or estimated 1RM. TUT is time under tension, and ROM is range of motion.

The programming acronyms

PR and PB are personal record and personal best, and mean the same thing in different countries. GPP is general physical preparedness — the broad fitness base underneath sport-specific work — and SPP is specific physical preparedness. WOD is workout of the day, a class-format term. Deload is a planned lighter week, and volume in practice means total hard sets per week rather than anything to do with sound. Eccentric and concentric are the lowering and lifting phases of a rep, which is what tempo prescriptions control — see tempo training explained.

Which ones actually matter

Three carry real weight and the rest are vocabulary. Reps in reserve, because it determines whether you are training hard enough. Volume, as weekly hard sets per muscle group, because it is the main driver of adaptation and the main cause of overreaching. And range of motion, because a partial rep is a different exercise from a full one however it is written on the card. Everything else is shorthand for structure, and once you can read AMRAP and EMOM you can read almost any plan you will be handed.

The acronyms worth being suspicious of

Any abbreviation attached to a promise rather than a method. There is no acronym that changes what training does; there are only programmes with different structures and different recovery demands. If a plan's selling point is a proprietary initialism rather than a stated volume, intensity and progression, the initialism is the product.

Sources

• ACE — exercise and programming terminology
• ExRx — weight training glossary

Every link checked 2026-09-25; sources favour primary and public-health bodies.