Frans, Nancys and Murphs oh my

Butterflies. Sweaty palms and “why does this bar feel so much heavier than normal?” These are the extra things that can happen on benchmark workouts. But why? Why do benchmarks do this to us in particular? Every workout we do at a CrossFit gym is a test right? So why does this feel different? And why do we do benchmark workouts in the first place?

If you haven’t noticed we are on this kick of doing named workouts. The named workouts are something special. But why are they special?

There is a bit of legacy involved in named workouts. They are the workouts that we as CrossFit athletes are often familiar with. In a 24 hour fitness / In-Shape style gym, henceforth known as a “big box gym”, people ask “what’s your bench?” or “how much do you squat?” These are normal indicators or measuring sticks in the big box gym. But in a CrossFit gym oftentimes our benchmarks are “what’s your Fran time?” The answer to this question actually gives us quite a lot of information. 

There is something special about a workout that has been done millions of times and that has data recorded over a couple decades. It makes it both mathematically cool and experientially cool. We get to share this thing with one another all over the world. It is a unifier.

CrossFit is measurable and repeatable. By writing down what we did in this workout, Fran for example, we can have a better understanding of where we are in terms of our fitness. The cool thing is, as our gym's fitness levels rise our desire to do better rises. 

“But you still haven't answered why benchmarks James.” Right back to it then. “The Girls”, as they are fondly referred to, are a bunch of simply destructive workouts. Each with a different intended stimulus but similar purpose. We want to test our skills, strength, cardio vascular capacity across “broad time and modal domains.” And The Girls accomplish this task very well.

We will continue attempting a benchmark or one of The Girls at least once a month for the next year. I want us to all be familiar with these workouts so that when we enter the wild we can be excited to see something familiar when it pops up. Or to be in the know. It is always fun to understand a bit more what people around us are saying. I hope you enjoyed this week of training and I hope you look forward to the week ahead. Also I hope Fran was kind to you.

Keep building,

James and Bre Cooper