Question: How often should we retest workouts with our members?
Likely more than you think.
If you don’t test them often enough, you are missing one of the core tenets of our methodology: Improvements should not be based on opinion; they should be based on measurable means of evaluating if our fitness (workout capacity across broad time and modal domains) is improving. As a coach, it’s up to you to program effectively and encourage your athletes to track metrics like workout times, weights lifted, and repetitions to quantify improvements. This can be done in a dedicated app like SugarWOD or Beyond the Whiteboard, a spreadsheet, or a paper-and-pen notebook.
OK, so how often, specifically?
There is no correct answer. What matters most is ensuring you do it.
There are a couple of strategies that are helpful and can keep you on task if you lose the plot sometimes. The following are just two options many coaches and affiliates take.
Weekly (or Bi-Weekly) Repeats
You could program a repeat or benchmark workout every week. If a week seems too aggressive, hold yourself accountable for programming a repeat/benchmark workout every two weeks. If you want to enhance the value of this strategy and ensure a variety of repeats, rotate in a manner that ensures variance. A loose template similar to the following could be effective:
Week 1: Repeat = heavy lift (e.g., 5-rep-max back squat)
Week 2: Repeat = long-duration conditioning (e.g., 5K run)
Week 3: Repeat = gymnastics conditioning benchmark (e.g., max reps of a strict pull-up)
Week 4: Repeat = short to medium-duration workouts (e.g., Helen)
Repeat this template for as long as you see fit. If you want to ensure you repeat each test once a year, then take the second half of the year to repeat the first half of the year. Using the sample workouts above, the second half of the year would be:
Week 27: Repeat = Week 1 test (5-rep-max back squat)
Week 28: Repeat = Week 2 test (5K run)
Week 29: Repeat = Week 3 test (max reps of strict pull-ups)
Week 30: Repeat = Week 4 test (Helen)
How you hold yourself accountable to specific timeframes for repeating workouts can vary greatly, but the most important thing is setting the framework for ensuring your athletes are testing and repeating workouts regularly.
Testing Blocks
Utilizing a testing block is a strategy that has become more popular over the years, and not only do coaches like it, but athletes also love it.
Here’s how Nicole Christensen uses testing blocks at CrossFit Roots. This is not to say that athletes don’t test other workouts and skills throughout the year; this is just one of the ways Roots tests workouts and tracks results.
- Each year, they pick five benchmark workouts to repeat each quarter.
- During testing weeks, the workouts are programmed Monday-Friday. They recommend athletes hit four to five of the workouts each testing week.
- They are repeated on the same day every time. For example, if Glen was tested on Monday in January, it’s also tested on Monday in April. Many people have set schedules when they come to the gym, so if you keep them on the same day, people don’t have to juggle their regular schedule to ensure they are available for the retest.
- At the beginning of the year, they let their athletes know what the workouts will be and when the testing weeks will be, so they know what to expect and can plan ahead if they choose.
- At the end of the year, Christensen and her team have a great snapshot of their athletes individually and as a whole, which can inform personal training, the testing blocks for the following year, and any gaps they want to fill.
Here are two examples of testing blocks Roots has programmed for their athletes.
Monday
1-rep-max clean and jerk
Tuesday
Barraza
Complete as many rounds as possible in 18 minutes of:
Run 200 meters
9 deadlifts (185/275lb)
6 burpee bar muscle-ups
Wednesday
3-rep-max front squat
Thursday
Del
For time:
25 burpees
Run 400 meters with a medicine ball (14/20 lb)
25 weighted pull-ups with a dumbbell (15/20 lb)
Run 400 meters with a medicine ball
25 handstand push-ups
Run 400 meters with a medicine ball
25 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Run 400 meters with a medicine ball
25 burpees
Friday
Nancy
5 rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 overhead Squats (65/95 lb)
Monday
Glen
For time:
30 clean and jerks (95/135 lb)
Run 1 mile
10 rope climbs to 15 feet
Run 1 mile
100 burpees
Tuesday
Back squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Max reps of:
Muscle-ups, strict pull-ups, kipping pull-ups, or bent-arm hang (max time)
Wednesday
For time:
Row 1,000 meters
Skill:
Max L-sit hold
Thursday
Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes:
1 squat snatch
Score is total load lifted across 10 sets.
Friday
Angie
For time:
100 pull-ups
100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 squats
You can repeat any workout you want. Most importantly, your testing is varied, so you assess for improvement in a broad, general, and inclusive manner that demonstrates your athletes’ results across broad time and modal domains. If you aren’t tracking workouts and results, you aren’t coaching CrossFit.
Have a question for a coach? Please submit that here.
About the Author
Eric O’Connor is a Content Developer and Seminar Staff Flowmaster for CrossFit’s Education Department and the co-creator of the former CrossFit Competitor’s Course. He has led over 400 seminars and has more than a decade of experience coaching at a CrossFit affiliate. He is a Certified CrossFit Coach (CF-L4), a former Division 1 collegiate wrestler, and a former CrossFit Games athlete.
Ask a Coach: How Often Should We Retest Workouts With Our Members?