The other day I did a benchmark workout called Cindy.
The workout consists of:
5 Pull ups
10 Push ups
15 Squats
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.
This is what’s considered a benchmark workout. We use these kind of like midterm exams. We do it once and then several months later we will do it again to see if our performance increased.
Over the last 8 months I have done this workout 3 times. The first time I completed 17 rounds and 14 reps into the next round. The second time in October, I completed 18 rounds and 4 reps into the next round. The most recent time I did it, 5 months after the last time, I completed 19 rounds and 4 reps into the next round.
That’s exactly one round more than I completed 5 months ago. Now the question is what does that mean?
You can look at it two ways.
1) I trained for 5 months and all I got was one measly round more than the last time I did it.
2) I’ve been doing CrossFit since 2007, and I’m still getting better and hitting PR’s.
As you might of guessed the answer is #2. What you may not realize is the longer that you train, and the more adapted and more fit you become, the harder it is to progress.
You see in the beginning it’s easy to make huge leaps and bounds because you’ve never trained like this before, so personal records come easily. The longer you train, the less massive gains you make because you’ve used up all the easy gains, now you have to make great strides to improve your fitness.
For example, if you take a look at something like olympic level swimming, those guys are at the top of their game and they will train for a year to improve by .01 seconds on an event. Seriously, .01 seconds for an entire year of training!
I trained for 5 months and saw a 30 rep improvement in my score. To me that’s huge!! So the next time you go for a PR, be happy if you get one. 1lb or 1 rep is still a PR. Celebrate them, and know that the longer you train, the harder it is to come by them.
BUT a sign of a great program is that you’re still making gains after training for multiple years. You see any coach can get you from the couch to making some progress for the first year, but are you still making progress years, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc? That’s the key to knowing you’re doing something right.
I celebrated my 1 round, and one day, I’m going to hit that elusive 20!
March 25th, 2015 WOD
Gymnastics:
L- Sit/ HSHold
60s cum
10 x 6s
Then
Planche/ Lever progressions
60s cumulative hold 10 x 6s
then
60 second Hollow position hold
Met Con:
Tabata
20s of work 10s rest x 8 intervals of:
Thrusters
Push Ups
Sit ups
Squats
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