“Amanda”
Three rounds, 9-7- and 5 reps, for time of:
Muscle-up
135 pound Squat snatch
then
Handstand push-up Yearly Benchmark
Max handstand push-ups in 2:00 minutes
The Last Benchmark of the Series!
One year ago we embarked into uncharted territory with the kick-off of the Benchmark Series.
CrossFit, by definition, is constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity. The belief in and goal of that training methodology is that it will increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains. The workouts are the expression of this goal – they are designed to increase our fitness level.
But without a systematic approach to testing our fitness, we are left with a black box of workouts that may give us some data points (we’re leaner, fitter, happier) but don’t highlight in a measurable, observable, and repeatable way – if we’re fitter, or not. To truly know if we’ve increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains we must retest a variety of workouts that hit on all ten general skills – and retest them frequently. CrossFit’s benchmark workouts are one way we can test our fitness and are an integral part of CrossFit programming.
And so the Benchmark Series was born.
Over the next week we will discuss some of the overall gym results and data from the Benchmark Series. But first, we want to hear from you.
What did you think of the Benchmark Series? Was it fun? Did you like this as a shop project? Did it structure your thought process about your weaknesses and how to address them? Did you PR throughout the series? What were some of your most impressive results?
Please post to comments.
I LOVED the benchmark workouts. Please keep them coming. It was a tangible way for me to track my progress and set goals for workouts ahead of time. Thanks for the programming!
To me, the benchmark series is one of the better examples of why Roots is one of the best CF gyms in the country. But enough about the Roots coaches & programming, let’s talk about ME… =)
The benchmark series was great, but in attempting to cover all the general skills, we ended up with a LOT of benchmarks to try and hit. Even coming to the gym fairly regularly I still missed a couple of these completely, and others I only hit once or twice, and sometimes on “one of those days” we all have from time to time. My progress bar in SugarWOD is all over the place on some of these, as a result. On the flip side, I did manage to hit a few of these consistently, and I was pretty methodical on the scaling if I changed it from quarter to quarter (and always with excellent help from the coaches), and in these I saw very clear improvements. Helen and Holleyman come to mind, and they have since become favorites of mine — at opposite ends of the time domain, to boot.
So: yeah, it was fun; yeah, I liked (loved) getting to be part of a shop project; I started oly during this project and saw benefits immediately; and in the last year I’ve shaved 90 seconds off my Helen time, and 5 minutes off Holleyman, while scaling that one up a LOT.
Good stuff, keep it coming, Roots.
I’ve just started hitting the benchmarks for the second time, so it’s fun to see the progress since my first weeks at Roots. I do wish I had taken more specific notes in sugarwod for my early workouts, instead of just “ugh” or “ouch!”
I felt like they were too close together. I nearly killed myself a few times trying to beat a time from a few months prior.
I think retesting benchmarks twice a year would be great, but four times a year seemed like a lot.
Love the benchmark series — keep them coming! Having a good number of them throughout the year is great, that way if I do end up missing one I know I’m not SOL for 1/2 a year.