Few people do CrossFit for the sole purpose of getting better at CrossFit. At Old City we use CrossFit to be better Prepared for Life. Maybe for you that means you do CrossFit to be healthier. Maybe it’s to be happier, or to look and feel better about yourself. Maybe you’re training for that kickball season on Mall. Your specific application of CrossFit may vary, but the actions required to make that change stay the same: show up and work hard.
At Old City we believe that getting better at CrossFit will make you better Prepared for Life. A higher score in Cindy means that you have more endurance for when you go hiking in the Shenandoahs. Getting your very first pull up might be the bump your self-confidence needs to perform better at work. Getting a 10 lb increase in your squat might make it that much easier to hold your kid on your shoulders during the fireworks display on the 4th.
Performance inside the gym is directly related to the opportunities we have at getting everything out of life outside the gym. This is exactly why we encourage everyone at Old City to track their performance in the gym.
While you can certainly track every workout you do, for most people that becomes a tedious task producing very little meaningful data. At Old City, we highly encourage everyone to track (at a minimum) their strength maxes and their performance on the ‘Girl WODs.’
Our strength program runs on a 16 week cycle. Within this 16 week period, we cycle through 3RM, 2RM, and 1RM of various upper and lower body lifts. While it’s unlikely you’re going to make it to every single class with one of these max lifts, you’re going to make a lot of them. Over time, you’ll start to fill out exactly what all of your maxes are. Once you have your baseline, each time one of these lifts shows up, you take a look in your log book and you know exactly how much you have to lift to set a new PR!
We also run through 10 benchmark workouts, called ‘Girl WODs’. These workouts are standard CrossFit workouts which test all sorts of movements and time domains. From workouts that should take around 3-5 minutes, all the way up to workouts that take most people 30-40 minutes to complete. Tracking your results on the Girl WODs will give you a good idea of how your fitness is developing from month to month.
Luckily for everyone, we’ve made a handy-dandy easy to follow PR Log Sheet just for each and every one of you. Simply click the link, print the sheet, and get to tracking! You don’t even need to print it, this PR Log Sheet it totally editable from your computer! (Thanks Jay.)
If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below!
