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Fran (CrossFit benchmark workout)
21-15-9 thrusters (95 lb, 65 lb for women) and pull-ups, for time.
The score members compare first, and for good reason: the light thruster and falling reps make it a pure test of how long you can keep cycling a barbell and a bar while your lungs and legs burn. Bigger athletes usually lose time on the pull-ups, smaller ones on the thrusters.
CrossFit's own guidance is that it should not run past 10 to 12 minutes, with under 5 the prescribed target. If that is out of reach, its intermediate version keeps 21-15-9 thrusters at 75 or 55 lb with 12-9-6 pull-ups, and the beginner version swaps pull-ups for ring rows.
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Grace (CrossFit benchmark workout)
30 clean and jerks (135 lb, 95 lb for women), for time.
One movement and nowhere to hide. Grace measures whether your clean and jerk holds together when you are breathing hard, so it rewards efficient singles, quick resets and a reliable jerk more than raw strength. CrossFit suggests treating it like a hard 400 or 800 m run.
The load should let you string at least the first five reps together; if it does not, go lighter. The official intermediate and beginner versions use 115 or 75 lb and 75 or 55 lb, and finishing in under seven minutes is the suggested goal at any level.
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Isabel (CrossFit benchmark workout)
30 snatches (135 lb, 95 lb for women), for time.
When CrossFit introduced Isabel in 2004 it called her Grace's best friend, and the two make a revealing pair. Where Grace asks how well you clean and jerk under fatigue, Isabel asks the same of the snatch, the more technical lift, so poor positions overhead or a slow turnover show up in the time far sooner.
Most athletes are better served by a load they can snatch smoothly in quick singles than by the prescribed barbell lifted with a power-snatch scramble. Comparing your Isabel and Grace times at the same relative load shows whether the snatch is lagging.
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Amanda (CrossFit benchmark workout)
9-7-5 ring muscle-ups and snatches (135 lb, 95 lb for women), for time.
Only 42 reps, but every one is a high-skill movement. Amanda opened the 2010 CrossFit Games in honor of Amanda Miller, a 2009 Games athlete who had died that April, and it remains a sharp check on whether muscle-ups and a moderately heavy snatch hold up when you are tired.
For anyone without muscle-ups, the workout changes character entirely. Substituting chest-to-bar pull-ups and ring dips, or banded transitions, with a snatch you can do in fast singles, keeps it short and technical, which is the point.
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Diane (CrossFit benchmark workout)
21-15-9 deadlifts (225 lb, 155 lb for women) and handstand push-ups, for time.
Diane pairs the heaviest hinge among the classic couplets with the hardest bodyweight press, so it splits athletes cleanly: strong lifters tend to stall upside down, while skilled gymnasts find 225 lb deadlifts in high reps a grind. Either way, the clock tells you which half needs work.
Pick a deadlift load you can do 12 to 15 reps of unbroken. CrossFit's intermediate version uses 185 or 125 lb with pike push-ups, feet on a box; the beginner version drops to 15-12-9 at 115 or 75 lb with pike push-ups from the floor. A good target for most is finishing inside 10 to 12 minutes.
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Elizabeth (CrossFit benchmark workout)
21-15-9 cleans (135 lb, 95 lb for women) and ring dips, for time.
The least celebrated of the original barbell couplets, and arguably the most humbling. Forty-five cleans tax the posterior chain and grip, then ring dips demand shoulder stability that many athletes discover they lack only once the rings start to shake. As CrossFit wrote of this trio in 2003, heavier athletes usually struggle with the gymnastics and lighter ones with the load.
Ring dips are the usual sticking point. Banded ring dips or bar dips keep the pressing in the workout without turning it into a 30-minute stall, and a lighter clean you can cycle in quick touch-and-go reps keeps the intended sprint.
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Helen (CrossFit benchmark workout)
3 rounds of a 400 m run, 21 kettlebell swings (53 lb, 35 lb for women) and 12 pull-ups, for time.
The first classic benchmark to include running, and the most balanced: a monostructural piece, a hip-driven swing and a pull, so no single strength carries you. It is a good read on general engine and grip, and on how quickly you recover between stations rather than how hard you can push one.
Average times sit around 10 to 12 minutes, and CrossFit advises that it should not pass 15. Its beginner version is 200 m runs, 15 swings at 26 or 18 lb and 9 jumping pull-ups, which keeps the same rhythm of running straight back into work.
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Cindy (CrossFit benchmark workout)
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats.
The friendliest way into the benchmarks, because the clock is fixed and nobody gets left behind: everyone stops at 20 minutes and the score is rounds. That makes it a clean measure of bodyweight muscular endurance and pacing, and it shows plainly whether the push-ups or the pull-ups fade first.
Twenty or more rounds is CrossFit's prescribed-level mark and 25 is elite. Newer athletes can follow its beginner version, 12 minutes of 3 ring rows, 6 assisted push-ups and 9 squats, and should cut reps rather than shorten range of motion once rest breaks grow long.
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Karen (CrossFit benchmark workout)
150 wall-ball shots for time: 20 lb ball to a 10 ft target, or 14 lb to 9 ft for women.
On paper it is the simplest workout here; in practice it is a test of how well you manage high-volume squatting when your legs and lungs both want to stop. The score depends far more on a sensible set-and-rest plan, and on not missing the target, than on fitness alone.
CrossFit puts Rx times at six to seven minutes, with averages nearer 10 to 12. Its intermediate version keeps all 150 shots with a 14 or 10 lb ball, and the beginner version is 75 shots with 10 or 6 lb, which is the better starting point for anyone whose squat depth slips under fatigue.
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Annie (CrossFit benchmark workout)
50-40-30-20-10 double-unders and sit-ups, for time.
Named after CrossFit pioneer Annie Sakamoto, this is a coordination test dressed up as a sprint. If your double-unders are reliable the sit-ups become the limiting factor; if they are not, tripping on the rope decides everything. That makes Annie a useful skill check as much as a conditioning one.
CrossFit puts Rx finishes at seven to eight minutes and advises keeping it under 12. Athletes still learning the double-under can do the intermediate 30-25-20-15-10 scheme or the beginner version with single-unders, rather than spending the workout restarting the rope.
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Jackie (CrossFit benchmark workout)
For time: 1,000 m row, 50 thrusters (45 lb, 35 lb for women), 30 pull-ups.
A chipper that reads like a gentler Fran and rarely feels like one. The row sets your heart rate before you touch the bar, so the real test is how much you can push a light thruster and the pull-ups while already breathing hard. Starting the row too fast is the classic way to lose time on the 50.
Rx finishes under nine minutes are strong, and around 10 is average. The intermediate version keeps the same work with a 35 or 25 lb bar; the beginner version is an 800 m row, 30 thrusters and 20 ring rows. An empty training bar is often the right load for newer athletes here.
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Nancy (CrossFit benchmark workout)
5 rounds of a 400 m run and 15 overhead squats (95 lb, 65 lb for women), for time.
Nancy is about control with a racing heart. The runs push your breathing up, then the overhead squat asks for shoulder mobility, a stable midline and patience, all at once. Anyone with tight shoulders or a shaky bottom position will find the barbell, not the running, sets their time.
Most athletes do well to finish under 17 to 20 minutes. CrossFit's intermediate load is 65 or 45 lb, and its beginner version is 200 m runs with 10 squats at 45 or 35 lb. If the overhead position is not yet solid, a PVC pipe or empty bar teaches far more than a heavy bar you keep dropping.
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Mary (CrossFit benchmark workout)
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 handstand push-ups, 10 alternating pistol squats and 15 pull-ups.
Cindy's demanding older sister. The structure is the same, but every movement is a harder gymnastics skill, so Mary rewards inverted pressing strength, single-leg balance and pulling endurance together. When CrossFit introduced it in 2004 it held Mary up as proof of how tough a pure bodyweight workout can be.
There is no official scaled version, so most athletes should build their own: pike or box handstand push-ups, pistols to a box, and banded or jumping pull-ups. Keep the reps the same and judge the scaling by whether each round stays under about two minutes.
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Angie (CrossFit benchmark workout)
For time: 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 air squats.
Angie is the pull-up audit. With all 100 to finish before anything else, your pulling volume decides the score, and the push-ups that follow catch out anyone whose pressing endurance lags behind. CrossFit's original 2003 write-up described it as about 20 minutes of steady work with an aerobic flavor that grows as the workout goes on.
Needing only a bar and a patch of floor, it suits a hotel room or garage. For newer athletes, halving every movement to 50, or using banded or ring-row pull-ups, keeps the steady-state character instead of an hour-long struggle on the bar.
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Barbara (CrossFit benchmark workout)
5 rounds of 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups and 50 air squats, with 3 minutes' rest between rounds, for time.
The same four movements as Angie, but built as intervals. CrossFit's 2003 analysis put each round at roughly three minutes of all-out work against three of rest, which makes Barbara a test of repeatability: can you hold the first round's pace into the fifth? Watching round times drift is more informative than the total.
The fixed rest is part of the design, so keep it. If 20 pull-ups a round would mean long stalls on the bar, cut the reps or use bands so each round stays close to three minutes of genuine effort.
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Chelsea (CrossFit benchmark workout)
Every minute on the minute for 30 minutes: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats.
Cindy's round, put on a strict clock. Early on the round takes perhaps 40 seconds and you rest the remainder; as fatigue builds the work stretches and the rest disappears, which is exactly what Chelsea measures. It tells you how long you can keep a sub-minute pace before the clock wins.
CrossFit's rule is to keep going for the full 30 minutes once you fall behind and count the rounds you complete. A sensible first attempt sets a round you can finish in about 40 seconds, say 3 pull-ups, 6 push-ups and 9 squats, and records how many minutes it holds before scaling up.
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Linda (CrossFit benchmark workout)
10 down to 1 reps, for time, of deadlifts at 1.5 times bodyweight, bench presses at bodyweight and cleans at three quarters of bodyweight.
Known as "Three Bars of Death", Linda is the strength test among the classic Girls. Because loads are set by bodyweight it compares athletes of different sizes fairly, and it exposes strength endurance under moderately heavy loads rather than sprint fitness. It also takes real organization: three bars, a bench and, ideally, a spotter.
CrossFit's intermediate version uses 1.25 times bodyweight, three quarters and a half; the beginner version runs 8 down to 1 at three quarters, a half and a third. Few athletes should go straight to the full loads.
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Kelly (CrossFit benchmark workout)
5 rounds of a 400 m run, 30 box jumps (24 in, 20 in for women) and 30 wall-ball shots (20 lb, 14 lb for women), for time.
Kelly is the long engine test among the Girls: no barbell, no hard gymnastics, just 2,000 m of running and 300 reps of jumping and squatting. It shows whether your legs and pacing hold up over a sustained effort, and it is unforgiving of anyone who sprints the first round.
There is no official scaled version. Three rounds, a lower box or step-ups, and a lighter ball give newer athletes the same mix without a session that drags on, and step-ups keep the work steady once fatigue makes rebounding box jumps sloppy.
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Eva (CrossFit benchmark workout)
5 rounds of an 800 m run, 30 kettlebell swings (72 lb, 54 lb for women) and 30 pull-ups, for time.
Think of Eva as Helen stretched to breaking point: double the running per round, a heavier bell and far more pulling across five rounds. It tests aerobic capacity, grip and posterior-chain endurance together, so it says more about your conditioning base than any short sprint does.
With no official scaled version and a long time domain, most athletes are better off starting with three rounds, a 53 or 35 lb bell and fewer or banded pull-ups. Grip is usually what fails first, so planned short sets on the pull-ups beat going to failure early.
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Murph (CrossFit Hero workout)
For time: 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, 1-mile run, with a 20 lb vest (14 lb for women) if you have one.
The best-known Hero workout honors Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy, killed in Afghanistan in 2005. It is a test of durability and pacing more than intensity: the middle section can be split however you like, for example as 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats.
Prescribed finishes run about 36 to 46 minutes. CrossFit's intermediate version halves the middle to 50, 100 and 150, with the second run starting by 25 minutes; the beginner version is 800 m runs around 10 rounds of ring rows, push-ups and squats. Wear the vest only once the unweighted version is comfortable.
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DT (CrossFit Hero workout)
5 rounds for time of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power cleans and 6 push jerks (155 lb, 105 lb for women).
A barbell complex that honors Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Davis, killed in 2009. Because the same bar moves through three lifts every round, DT is really a grip and back-endurance test: the deadlifts feel easy, the cleans start to pull your back out of position, and the jerks reveal whose legs still have drive.
There is no official scaled version. A load you could handle for a full round unbroken while fresh is a sensible start, often around 95 or 65 lb for newer athletes, and setting the bar down between movements is better than letting a rounded back finish the reps.
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JT (CrossFit Hero workout)
21-15-9 handstand push-ups, ring dips and push-ups, for time.
Honoring Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor, killed in Afghanistan on the same day as Lt. Michael Murphy in 2005, JT is a pure pressing test with no pulling or legs to give the triceps a rest. It finds out quickly whose shoulders and triceps endure and whose fail, and it is the workout here least suited to attempting unscaled before your pressing volume is ready.
With no official scaled version, a sensible first go uses pike or box handstand push-ups, banded or bar dips and push-ups from the knees if needed, keeping the total under about 15 minutes so it stays a test of pressing stamina rather than a session of grinding failure.
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