DT and why Benchmarks are important

So today I tried out DT (5 rounds of 12 Deadlifts, 9 Hang Power Cleans and 6 Push Jerks at 50kg) again – 🏋🏼‍♀️ this workout is my biggest love in CrossFit. I first tried it out in the late summer of 2015 and at the time I could most definitely not Rx it (do it as prescribed)… So I chose to try a “heavier” weight for me at the time which was 32.5kg and boy oh boy did I struggle it must have taken me the best part of half an hour to complete and from that day forward this became my benchmark workout….

What do I mean by ‘my benchmark workout’? Those of you who do CrossFit have surely heard the term Benchmark workouts – this includes all the Girls workouts and the Hero workouts… in fact DT is a hero workout – but I call it ‘my’ benchmark as it is the workout I use the most to track my progress as it is a weight that is challenging for me (it took me a year and a bit to work up to being able to Rx and the first time I did I was back up to that 30 minute mark) and a workout that I enjoy doing…

I finally made it below ten minutes and shaved off 3 minutes of my previous time and the sense of happiness, pride and motivation this gives me is fantastic… and that is what inspired me to write this post… I wouldn’t be able to really enjoy this achievement if I didn’t have this benchmark workout that I test myself with approximately every three months, and if I didn’t track my times every time I did it….

So my advice is, apart from always tracking what you have done, to choose 1 or 2 benchmark WODs which include a variety of movements but that you enjoy and aren’t super super long workouts (or at least shouldn’t be super long ones 😂😂😂) and plan a quarterly appointment with them and then you can really see your achievements as you go along – this year since January 2017 when my time for DT was 26:54 I have improved to 7:14 today and the exhilaration and motivation this gives me is really worth all the time I put in to tracking my workouts so if you haven’t started yet – DO IT! 🙂😘

Amy