THU: 06 FEB 14

If you read the post from this past weekend, I provided an article on "How Fit Are You" by the founder of CrossFit. Greg Glassman's goal was to design a test to produce "elite fitness" and the result was five tests with meeting the requirements: quantifiable results; consistency with the CrossFit fitness concept; raising our commitment to improving absolute strength, relative strength, and gymnastic foundations; balancing intrinsic abilities of smaller and larger athletes; emphasizing exercises critical to and foundational to advanced training; mixing training demands within each test and, of course, over the total competition; a design that would identify an athlete’s weaknesses and possibly stand as a workout plan for improving overall fitness; and, finally, he wanted to design a competition that would be "hard as hell."

It's always good to go back to the foundations of where CrossFit all began so for the month of February, every Thursday will be one of the tests. Today starts Test 1.
 

Test 1: Bench Press 1 rep followed by max set of Pull-ups:

Performance: Ramp up to a one-rep max and within 30 seconds of racking the lift begin the pull-ups. Any grip is allowed on the pull-ups as long as the range of motion is complete - all the way up and down.

Scoring: Multiply the bench press load in pounds by the number of pull-ups completed.

Modifications: Where needed use an assisted pull-up device such as a "Gravitron."

Character: This tests the upper body for both absolute and relative strength and stamina.

Workout: This test can be practiced as a workout of three to five repetitions of the test, resting between efforts as needed.