The 7 Original CrossFit Women Workouts (Girl WODs)

If you’re familiar with CrossFit, you’ve probably heard of “The Girls” workouts. 

The CrossFit Girl WODs are a series of benchmark workouts designed to challenge your fitness in different ways, allowing you to test your progress over time. 

They were introduced in the early days of CrossFit and are still considered foundational to the CrossFit training methodology. 

They are some of the best CrossFit workouts you can do due to their simplicity and difficulty. 

But why are they named after women?

CrossFit founder Greg Glassman explained that these workouts are named after women’s names, similarly to how weather services name storms—they’re intense, demanding, and, like a storm, they leave you feeling challenged and spent when you’re done.

I still remember the day I did “Fran.” It was my first time trying CrossFit, and I was blown away by how challenging it was.

As well as shocked that there was a training method out there that was significantly more difficult than what I was currently doing.

Each workout tests a different aspect of your fitness, making them comprehensive and well-rounded challenges. 

By repeating “The CrossFit Girls” at different points in your training, you can gauge how much you’ve improved in various areas, including strength, endurance, and gymnastic skills. 

Whether you’re a seasoned CrossFit athlete preparing for the CrossFit Open or a CrossFit games athlete, these benchmarks are essential for measuring your performance and identifying areas for growth.

The 7 Original Benchmark CrossFit Women Workouts

1. Fran

Workout details:

For time:
21-15-9 reps
Thrusters (95/65 lb)
Pull-ups

Movement breakdown:

• Thrusters: This movement combines a front squat with a press, requiring both lower body strength and upper body endurance. 
  The thruster works your quads, glutes, shoulders, and core, making it an effective full-body exercise. 
  The key to success is generating power from your legs to drive the bar overhead efficiently, allowing you to sustain the movement across multiple reps.
• Pull-ups: The pull-up is a classic gymnastics movement that tests your upper body strength, particularly in the back, shoulders, and arms. 
  For many athletes, this part of Fran challenges your ability to maintain grip strength and upper body stamina after the taxing thrusters.

Key benefits: Fran is known for its intensity and for being a fast workout that tests your full-body strength and conditioning in a short time frame. 

The combination of thrusters and pull-ups forces you to maintain both strength and endurance under significant metabolic stress, making it an excellent workout for improving overall fitness. 

As a benchmark, Fran allows you to track improvements in your power output and upper body pulling strength, particularly in high-rep settings.

2. Annie

Workout details:

For time:
50-40-30-20-10
Double-unders
Sit-ups

Movement breakdown:

• Double-unders: This cardio movement, where the jump rope passes under your feet twice per jump, tests your cardiovascular conditioning, timing, and coordination. 
  Mastering double-unders requires agility and rhythm, and it’s a skill that can significantly improve over time. 
  If you’re still working on this movement, scaling to single-unders is common, but practicing the skill regularly will help develop both speed and coordination.
• Sit-ups: A basic, yet highly effective, movement to build core endurance and strength. Sit-ups in Annie test your midline stability and abdominal endurance, especially as you move through decreasing reps.

Key benefits: Annie is a cardio-intensive workout that also focuses heavily on core endurance and coordination. 

The descending rep scheme keeps the intensity high while offering a chance to develop mastery of double-unders, which can be challenging for many athletes.

Completing Annie regularly helps improve your cardio conditioning, core strength, and skill in handling high-volume work, making it a great test of progress in both aerobic fitness and midline stamina.

3. Grace

Workout details:

For time:
30 clean and jerks (135/95 lb)

Movement breakdown:

• Clean and Jerk: This Olympic lift is a compound movement that combines a clean (lifting the barbell from the floor to your shoulders) and a jerk (pressing the bar overhead). 
  The clean portion emphasizes total body strength, particularly your legs, back, and core, while the jerk demands upper body and shoulder strength along with explosive power from your hips and legs. 
  The movement requires technical precision and coordination to perform efficiently, especially in high-rep workouts like Grace.

Key benefits: Grace is a short, high-intensity workout that tests your ability to generate power and perform Olympic lifts under fatigue. 

The focus on clean and jerks builds explosive strength and power, as well as muscular endurance, especially in your legs, shoulders, and core. 

Grace also improves your proficiency in one of the foundational Olympic lifts, making it an ideal benchmark for tracking strength progress over time. 

Additionally, the workout encourages you to refine your technique to stay efficient when lifting under metabolic stress.

4. Helen

Workout details:

3 rounds for time
400-meter run
21 kettlebell swings (53/35 lb)
12 pull-ups

Movement breakdown:

• 400-meter run: This portion tests your cardiovascular endurance and leg stamina. 
  It’s critical to maintain a fast yet sustainable pace across all three rounds to avoid gassing out before the kettlebell swings and pull-ups.
• Kettlebell swings: This movement demands powerful hip extension and engages your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. 
  A strong hip drive is essential for maintaining speed and efficiency in the swings while also preventing fatigue in your arms and shoulders.
• Pull-ups: As in Fran, pull-ups here test your upper-body strength, particularly in your back, shoulders, and arms. 
  The goal is to maintain unbroken sets or quick, efficient breaks to maximize your speed.

Key benefits: Helen is a well-rounded workout that combines cardio, strength, and gymnastics, making it an excellent benchmark for overall fitness. 

The 400-meter run increases aerobic capacity, while the kettlebell swings build lower-body power and posterior chain strength. 

The pull-ups develop upper-body strength and endurance. 

Together, these movements require a balance of efficiency, pacing, and stamina, allowing you to test multiple fitness domains in one concise workout.

5. Karen

Workout details:

For total time:
150 wall-ball shots (20/14 lb) to a 10/9′ target

Movement breakdown:

• Wall balls: This movement requires you to squat and then explosively throw a medicine ball at a target on the wall, typically set at 10 feet. 
  It combines lower-body strength from the squat (targeting your quads, glutes, and hamstrings) with upper-body coordination and endurance as you press the ball upwards using your shoulders and arms. 
  The constant repetition taxes both muscular endurance and cardiovascular capacity.

Key benefits: Karen is a mental and physical test of endurance. 

The sheer volume of reps forces you to pace yourself while managing muscle fatigue, especially in your legs and shoulders. It’s a great workout for building lower-body endurance and improving your cardiovascular conditioning. 

Karen also challenges your coordination and timing, as well as your ability to keep good form under fatigue, making it a true benchmark for stamina and conditioning.

6. Diane

Workout details:

21-15-9 reps
Deadlifts (225/155 lb)
Handstand push ups

Movement breakdown:

• Deadlifts: A hinge movement that targets the entire posterior chain, with an emphasis on your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. 
  Performing deadlifts at a heavy weight tests your strength and muscular endurance, especially in your lower body.
• Handstand push-ups: A gymnastics movement that tests your shoulder, triceps, and core strength. 
  Maintaining balance and proper positioning while inverted makes this movement skill-intensive, and completing reps under fatigue from the deadlifts adds another layer of difficulty.

Key benefits: Diane blends heavy strength work with a challenging gymnastics movement, making it a great benchmark for both upper and lower-body strength.

The deadlifts test your ability to maintain strong form under load, while the handstand push-ups test your body control and pressing power. 

Together, they offer a complete test of posterior chain strength, shoulder stability, and gymnastics skill.

7. Elizabeth

Workout details:

21-15-9 reps:
Squat cleans (135/95 lb)
Ring dips.

Movement breakdown:

• Squat cleans: This Olympic lift is a combination of power and technique, where you explosively pull the barbell from the ground, catch it in a front squat position, and then stand up. 
  Squat cleans target your entire body, especially your legs, hips, and shoulders, while also requiring core stability and coordination.
• Ring dips: A challenging gymnastic movement that requires significant upper-body strength and control, particularly in your shoulders, triceps, and chest. The instability of the rings increases the difficulty, making it a true test of gymnastic strength.

Key benefits: Elizabeth is a balanced workout that combines Olympic lifting proficiency with gymnastic strength. 

The squat cleans develop full-body power and coordination, while the ring dips build upper-body strength and stability. 

The mix of heavy barbell work with demanding gymnastics makes Elizabeth an excellent benchmark for testing your strength, endurance, and overall athleticism in CrossFit.

Why These 7 Workouts Are Considered Benchmarks

The original 7 “Girl” workouts—Fran, Annie, Grace, Helen, Karen, Diane, and Elizabeth—are considered benchmark CrossFit workouts because they provide a clear, repeatable test of your fitness. 

Each of these workouts focuses on a unique combination of movements, which means that you’re not only testing one part of your fitness, but multiple elements, such as strength, cardiovascular endurance, and gymnastic ability. 

The simplicity and intensity of these workouts make them ideal for tracking progress over time, regardless of whether you’re new to CrossFit or an experienced athlete.

For example, Fran (21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pull-ups) tests your power output, strength, and gymnastic capacity in a short time domain. 

It’s a great way to see how well your body performs under intense pressure. 

Grace (30 clean and jerks for time) is a pure strength-and-speed test that challenges your ability to handle heavy loads quickly. 

Meanwhile, Helen (three rounds of 400-meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pull-ups) is a great measure of your cardiovascular endurance and functional strength.

These workouts push you in different ways, which is why they are excellent benchmarks for a variety of fitness elements. By doing them periodically, you’re able to track improvements in your fitness journey.

Benefits of the Benchmark Workouts

The seven original CrossFit “Girl” workouts are highly effective because they challenge a wide range of energy systems and fitness elements. 

This makes them perfect for tracking your progress in multiple domains of fitness, ensuring you’re developing a well-rounded skill set.

Targeting Different Energy Systems

Each of the benchmark WODs engages different energy systems in your body, helping you improve endurance, power, and strength simultaneously:

Anaerobic System

Many of these workouts, like Fran and Grace, are short and intense, pushing your anaerobic system. 

This energy system provides fuel for quick bursts of activity lasting up to about 90 seconds, improving your power and ability to work at maximum intensity. (1)

Aerobic System

Workouts such as Helen and Karen have longer durations, requiring sustained effort and relying heavily on your aerobic energy system. (2)

By tapping into this system, you improve your cardiovascular endurance and ability to maintain a steady pace during long-duration efforts.

Strength-Endurance

WODs like Diane and Elizabeth test your strength endurance by combining heavy lifts with high-rep gymnastics movements. 

The repeated stress on muscles over multiple rounds challenges you to maintain form and power even under fatigue, improving your ability to handle high loads over time. (3)

Tracking Your Progress

One of the primary benefits of these benchmark WODs is that they allow you to gauge improvements in several fitness domains simultaneously:

Consistency in Programming

These workouts don’t change, so by repeating them at regular intervals, you can clearly see how your strength, endurance, and skill levels have progressed. 

For example, shaving time off Fran (21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups) shows improvement in both strength and gymnastics efficiency.

Progress Across Multiple Domains

Each WOD targets a different combination of skills, making them ideal for assessing broad fitness improvements. 

Whether it’s improving your Olympic lifting in Grace or increasing your gymnastic strength in Diane, these WODs provide insights into your overall development as a CrossFit athlete.

Skill Development

Benchmark workouts aren’t just about conditioning or strength. 

They require technical proficiency, such as mastering double-unders in Annie or ring dips in Elizabeth. 

Repeating these workouts will not only measure your fitness but also your progress in skill-based movements.

By regularly incorporating these benchmark WODs into your training, you can effectively track improvements in strength, endurance, and skill, ensuring balanced development across all areas of fitness.

How to Approach and Scale These Workouts

CrossFit benchmark workouts, especially “The Girls,” are designed to push you to your limits, but it’s essential to approach them at your current fitness level to maintain the intended stimulus.

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced athlete, scaling appropriately ensures that you’ll get the maximum benefit while minimizing the risk of injury.

For Beginners

For newer athletes, scaling these benchmark workouts is crucial. 

The intensity and complexity of some movements can be overwhelming, but these modification options allows you to focus on building proper form and conditioning.

Scaling Movements

Start by substituting advanced gymnastic moves like pull-ups or handstand push-ups with banded pull-ups or box push-ups. 

As well as thrusters with front squats or air squats.

This allows you to perform similar movement patterns but with reduced difficulty.

Reducing Weight

For weightlifting movements, such as the clean and jerk in Grace or thrusters in Fran, consider reducing the prescribed weight (Rx). 

Lighter weights help you complete the workout without compromising your form or risking injury.

Modifying Exercises

If movements like double-unders in Annie are too challenging, perform single-unders instead. 

This will allow you to maintain the flow of the workout while building the skill needed for the advanced version.

You also may opt to reduce the number of reps or place a time cap on the workout to ensure they are not taking longer than they are designed for.

For Intermediate and Advanced Athletes

If you’re an experienced CrossFit athlete, “The Girls” are a powerful tool for testing your progress. 

For advanced athletes, it’s about pushing yourself to improve your time, increase weight, or master movement efficiency.

Benchmark for Progress

Intermediate and advanced athletes should attempt these workouts as prescribed (Rx) to track their progress over time. 

The goal is to continuously improve performance by refining technique, speeding up transitions, and pushing harder.

Pacing Strategy

While these workouts are short, pacing is key. 

For example, breaking up reps in Fran strategically can help prevent burnout in the early rounds, and maintaining a steady pace in longer workouts like Helen ensures you don’t gas out.

Advanced Modifications

Some athletes may choose to scale up, adding extra weight or completing more challenging versions of movements (e.g., chest-to-bar pull-ups or strict handstand push-ups) to push their limits further.

Measuring Your Performance: Times and Targets

Tracking your performance in the benchmark “Girl” workouts is one of the best ways to see where you stand in terms of fitness and where you can improve.

Recording your times allows you to look back and measure tangible progress, offering both motivation and insight into how far you’ve come.

Benchmark Times for Elite and Beginners

Each of these workouts has a general range for what constitutes a good time. However, these can vary greatly based on experience level and individual fitness.

Fran:

• Elite: Under 3 minutes
• Intermediate: 5-7 minutes
• Beginner: 10+ minutes

Grace:

• ​Elite: 1:30-2 minutes
• Intermediate: 4-6 minutes
• Beginner: 7+ minutes

Helen:

• ​Elite: Under 8 minutes
• Intermediate: 11-14 minutes
• Beginner: 15-17 minutes

Annie:

• ​Elite: Under 6 minutes
• Intermediate: 8-10 minutes
• Beginner: 10-12 minutes

Diane:

• ​Elite: Under 4 minutes
• Intermediate: 6-9 minutes
• Beginner: 10+ minutes

Elizabeth:

• ​Elite: Under 4 minutes
• Intermediate: 7-10 minutes
• Beginner: 11+ minutes

Karen:

• ​Elite: Under 5 minutes
• Intermediate: 7-9 minutes
• Beginner: 10+ minutes

Logging and Re-testing

Keeping a log of your scores in CrossFit is critical to measuring success. Write down every score or time after you complete a benchmark workout. 

By tracking this data, you can observe how your times change over months or years and gain insight into areas that need improvement. 

Regularly retesting these WODs, perhaps every 6 months or so, gives you a clear metric of your fitness evolution.

The Evolution of “The Girls” in CrossFit

Since their inception, “The Girls” have become a staple in the CrossFit community, serving as foundational tests of fitness for athletes at all levels. 

They’ve stood the test of time because they are simple yet effective measures of performance across multiple fitness domains.

Timeless Workouts

The original seven “Girl” workouts continue to be regularly programmed in CrossFit gyms worldwide. 

Their popularity endures because they challenge athletes in ways that are consistent, measurable, and comprehensive. 

Whether you’re doing Fran for the first time or the tenth, each iteration reveals something new about your fitness, progress, and potential areas for improvement.

New Benchmark Workouts

While the original seven remain iconic, CrossFit has expanded the idea of benchmark WODs, creating new girls like Amanda and Isabel, along with CrossFit Hero WODs like Murph.

These newer benchmarks continue the tradition of providing a standardized test of fitness that can be repeated and measured. 

Just like “The Girls,” these WODs push athletes to improve across a broad spectrum of physical challenges, and they’ll likely remain central to the CrossFit culture for years to come.

Whether you’re just starting with “The Girls” or you’ve been doing them for years, these workouts remain a powerful tool for tracking your fitness journey. 

The beauty of these benchmarks is in their simplicity, yet their ability to push you to your limits—helping you measure progress and stay motivated on your fitness path.

Wrapping Up on The 7 CrossFit Women Workouts

The original benchmark workouts known as “The Girls” hold a special place in the CrossFit community. 

These workouts are more than just a series of tough workouts they get your heart rate up; they represent a standard against which athletes can measure their progress and performance. 

Each workout, from Fran to Elizabeth, is meticulously designed to challenge your strength, endurance, and skill, making them essential components of any CrossFit training regimen.

Revisiting these workouts regularly offers a fantastic opportunity to gauge your fitness level. 

They serve as a fitness measuring stick that not only tracks your progress and skill level but also highlights areas for improvement. 

Whether you’re striving to beat your previous times or working on mastering challenging movements, these benchmark workouts push you to reach new heights.

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References: 

1. Gastin P. B. (2001). Energy system interaction and relative contribution during maximal exercise. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 31(10), 725–741. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200131100-00003 

2. Morrison, S., Ward, P., & duManoir, G. R. (2017). ENERGY SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND LOAD MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE REHABILITATION AND RETURN TO PLAY PROCESS. International journal of sports physical therapy, 12(4), 697–710.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28900575/ 

3. Hughes, D. C., Ellefsen, S., & Baar, K. (2018). Adaptations to Endurance and Strength Training. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine, 8(6), a029769. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a029769