Today, we bring back CrossFit’s first fitness competition. This was before the CrossFit Games or the Open. Originally delivered through the CrossFit Journal, this competition consists of five tests, one per day for five days in the order listed:
- 1-rep-max bench press, followed immediately by a max set of pull-ups
- Max load for 15 reps of touch-and-go clean and jerks
- Tabata squat, followed by max muscle-ups in 4 minutes
- 1-rep-max deadlift, followed immediately by a max set of handstand push-ups
- Run 800 meters, 21 thrusters at 75 lb, 21 L pull-ups
At their inception, these timeless tests primarily focused on motivating and rewarding improvements in absolute strength, relative strength, and gymnastics foundations. Absolute strength is the maximum amount of weight an athlete can lift, regardless of size. A 300-pound athlete who can back squat 500 lb has greater absolute strength than a 185-pound athlete who back squats 400 lb.
Relative strength, however, measures how much an athlete can lift compared to their body weight. The 300-pound athlete from our previous example can back squat 1.67 times their bodyweight while the 185-pound athlete back squats 2.16 times their bodyweight. In this case, the 185-pound athlete has greater relative strength than their larger counterpart.
As for the gymnastics aspect of the competition, Coach Greg Glassman made the decision to incorporate more complex gymnastics movements, even if this meant a test wasn’t universally inclusive, because advanced calisthenics have a tremendous ability to develop critical neurological skills like agility, accuracy, coordination, and balance. Fear not, however, for those of us who have not yet mastered muscle-ups, handstand pushups, or L pull-ups, scaling options are provided as needed.
Key Takeaway
At the bottom of the article is a scoring table that helps you gauge where you stand, from reasonably good athlete to among the Fittest on Earth. Many of us will not even rank on the table. That’s fine. As the article says, the numbers are just that: numbers. It would be a mistake to discard any one of these tests because it is “too hard.” The key reason for completing the tests is to identify weaknesses in our fitness. We need to work on these areas because there is more opportunity to drastically improve our fitness by addressing our weaknesses than anything else.
You’ll get an excellent baseline measure the first time you attempt these tests. From there, analyze how you did across the five workouts. Are there movements you struggle with or can’t do like the muscle-up, handstand push-up, or clean and jerk? This data will give you an idea of where to spend extra time and effort. Over the next three to six months, attempt to master a movement you don’t have in your arsenal. Even if you never get to the full expression of the movement, the work you do on every step in a progression will greatly increase your capacity and skills.
The same applies if your deadlift or bench press strength is lower than you’d like. Over the next three to six months, work on improving your strength in one of these lifts within the structure of your CrossFit programming.
Additionally, you may have pull-ups, muscle-ups, and handstand push-ups but your reps for the max sets were low. Set aside 10 minutes daily for three to six months to practice one of these movements. You’ll be startled by the progress you make. As Glassman wrote, there is a great benefit to practicing and working toward completing each test. To that end, the article lists within each test description a possible workout that can help improve performance on that particular test. This gives you a training program for the competition and a blueprint to increase your fitness dramatically.
It’s been said there’s a 10-year window of adaptation to CrossFit. If you carve that 10 years into three-to-six-month sections, you get 20 to 40 opportunities to work on a deficiency you want to bring up to par. Such an approach would result in a tremendous improvement in one’s fitness. If you don’t know where to start, try these five tests. They hit so many fitness qualities that when Glassman designed these tests back in 2003, he asked what kind of fitness might develop by repeating these tests to the exclusion of other work and to improve the tests. The answer that came back was “elite fitness.” Sold.
About the Author
Stephane Rochet is a Senior Content Writer for CrossFit. He has worked as a Flowmaster on the CrossFit Seminar Staff and has over 15 years of experience as a collegiate/tactical strength and conditioning coach. He is a Certified CrossFit Trainer (CF-L3) and enjoys training athletes in his garage gym.
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