The benchmark workout Helen was first programmed to CrossFit.com in 2003, and it has been programmed nearly 50 times more since then (in addition to the variations Double Helen and Pyramid Double Helen, a 2010 CrossFit Games individual test).
It’s a simple workout: three rounds, three movements.
What it isn’t is easy.
“It was a bit challenging, but it was so fun,” says a CrossFit Fortius athlete after tackling the workout.
With such basic movements and loading, It’s easy to underestimate this workout. But Helen is meant to be an all-out sprint — and if you’re doing it right, you should be on the floor afterward.
As with any CrossFit workout, there are endless ways to scale Helen to meet — and challenge — your current fitness level. With guidance from CrossFit Level 2 Trainer Silas Wolz, CrossFit Fortius athletes make their plans of attack: one swaps the run for a bike. Another opts for banded pull-ups and a lighter kettlebell.
But when the clock starts counting, it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing unbroken chin-over-bar pull-ups or ring rows in sets; when you’re done, you’ll be a little fitter — and have another metric to measure against the next time Helen comes to call.
“We do benchmarks and they’re super important to do because we want to test where we’re at,” Wolz says. “We want to revisit them later on, making sure that we … have gotten faster; have gotten fitter; we’ve gotten stronger.”
All individual, age-group, and adaptive athletes will do a version of Helen this week at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games. Join in on the fun with the Fittest on Earth — download the CrossFit Games app, do Helen, then log your score in the “progress” tab!
CrossFit Benchmark Workout Helen at CrossFit Fortius