Gabrielle Kassel, womenshealthmag.com
July 1, 2019
Trust, you don’t want to confuse Linda and Diane.
CrossFit rivals Games of Thrones or The Bachelorette in terms of the sheer number of stans obsessed with the workout. But if you’re new to the “sport of fitness,” the first thing you should know is that there are a few CrossFit workouts that, no matter the box, will at some point wind up being workouts of the day (WODs). Did I lose you yet?
So, what’s it mean? In CrossFit training, the goal is always keep you body guessing, explains Courtney Roselle, Strength and Conditioning Coach, CF-L1 Trainer, and Founder of Iron Grace, a fitness program dedicated to empowering women to embrace their bodies. Beyond a select few workouts here, CrossFitters rarely do the same WOD twice.
Oh, and don’t worry if at first-glance it seems lightyears away from what you’re currently capable of crushing. The pros below share tips for finding the movement scales and weights that’ll work for your body.
WOD 1: Murph
Equipment: Pull-up bar, weight vest (optional)
Time: For time
Arguable the most famous CrossFit workout, (yep you guessed it), Murph is Roselle’s, favorite WOD. “No matter how many times you do it, no matter how much faster your time is from the year before, no matter how many times you workout a day, the workout will always test your physical and mental capacity,” she says. “And it’s truly a full body workout taxing your arms, back, shoulders, legs, core and cardiovascular capacity.” Get those gains.
How to do it: Named after Navy Seal officer and Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy who died during combat in Afghanistan in 2005, this Hero workout (as WODs named after fallen soldiers are called) entails bookending 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 air squats with one mile runs. While the prescribed version of the workout recommends athletes doing the workout in a weight vest and competing all the pull-ups before moving on to the push-ups, and all the push-ups before moving onto the air squats, a common scaled version of this WOD is 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 pushups, and 15 air squats. And, if you need to sub the pushups for box or knee pushups and/or the pull-ups for TRX or ring rows, you do you, boo.
WOD 2: DT
Equipment: 1 barbell
Time: For time
This WOD is named for US Air Force Staff Seargent Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on February 20, 2009 serving in Afghanistand during Operation Enduring Freedom. DT is a punishing Hero workout that tests your proficiency with moving the barbell. “This workout is all about whether or not you have the guts to hold onto the bar, it’s a heavy enough barbell that holding on is hard, but also light enough that it’s completely doable if you have the grit,” says CrossFit Games competitor Brooke EnceCF-L2 and founder of Naked Training.
The prescribed weight for this workout is 105 pounds for women, but when thinking about what weight to use, Ence says you want to pick a weight you can easily do 12 push jerks with when fresh. If that weight seems light for a deadlift, go with it—this WOD is spicier than getting Icy-Hot on your netherbits.
How to do it: This WOD requires loading one barbell and using that same barbell in the following circuit performed for five total rounds for time.
- 12 Deadlifts
- 9 Hang power cleans
- 6 Push jerks
Ence says, “When you choose the right weight for this WOD and limit rest, you’re testing your strength, cardiovascular capacity, and mental grit.” Brain gains or bust, Fam.
WOD 3: DEATH BY DUMBBELL THRUSTERS
Equipment: 2 dumbbells of the same weight
Time: Until you can’t complete the number of reps required per minute
The prescribed weight is two 35-pound dumbbells for women. She WHO? suggests picking a set of dumbbells that you know you’ll be able to get through at least 9 rounds using. Damn.
Death by WODs are EMOM (every minute on the minute) style workouts that have you start with one rep and add an additional rep at the start of each new minute until you cannot complete the amount of reps needed before time runs out. So, for example, if you got to the tenth minute and couldn’t do 10 dumbbell thrusters, the workout would be over.
“I like to remind people that they can probably do dumbbell thrusters faster than they realize by pulling the weight back down after the push-press, and get further into the workout than they might guess,” says Ence. “You end up getting way more rounds than you think.” Hurts. So. Good.
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