Benchmark
Girls.
The universal yardstick. From the sub-three-minute fury of Fran to the 45-minute grind of Eva, the 15 Girl WODs are how CrossFit measures itself. Train them once, retest them forever. Track every attempt on Fiz.
Three benchmarks every athlete tracks.
Fran, Grace, and Cindy — the three most-cited times in functional fitness conversation. A sub-3 Fran, a sub-2 Grace, and 20+ rounds of Cindy describe a fitness level in a single number.
The universal yardstick.
What is a Benchmark WOD (Girl WOD)?
The CrossFit Benchmark WODs, commonly called the "Girl WODs," are a collection of 15 standardized workouts originally designed by CrossFit founder Greg Glassman in the early 2000s. They were created as a way to measure an athlete's progress over time – repeat the same workout months apart and the change in your score tells you exactly how much fitter you have become. Each Girl WOD is named after a woman, following the naming convention used for hurricanes. As Glassman famously put it, "anything that leaves you flat on your back and looking up at the sky wondering what just happened deserves a female name."
Together, the 15 Benchmark WODs cover the full spectrum of functional fitness. Fran tests barbell-and-gymnastics intensity over a short time domain. Grace tests pure barbell cycling at moderate load. Diane tests heavy pulling against inverted pressing. Helen tests mixed-modal endurance with running, kettlebells, and pull-ups. Cindy tests bodyweight stamina over 20 minutes. Karen tests one movement, repeated 150 times, in the most psychologically punishing way possible. The Girls are the canonical yardstick: when an athlete says they have a "sub-3 Fran" or a "20+ round Cindy," every other athlete instantly understands what level of fitness they are describing.
The history of the Girl WODs
The Benchmark WODs predate the modern CrossFit Games. They were first published on CrossFit.com between 2003 and 2005, and rapidly became the standard test of fitness for affiliate gyms around the world. Their genius lies in their constraints: each workout uses common equipment, has a clear scoring metric (time or rounds), is repeatable across decades, and is short enough that an athlete can perform it multiple times a year without absorbing the recovery cost of a Hero WOD.
Because the Girls remain unchanged since their introduction, you can directly compare an athlete's Fran time today against an athlete's Fran time from 2008 – a kind of longitudinal benchmark that exists in almost no other sport. The first sub-3 Fran was a sensation. The first sub-2 Fran is now competition-floor territory. The 15 Girls are how CrossFit tracks the evolution of the sport.
Time targets for every Girl WOD
If you are new to Benchmark WODs, here are realistic time targets for an intermediate athlete who can move Rx weights. Elite athletes will be 30-50% faster on most workouts.
- Fran – Beginner: 8-12 min · Intermediate: 4-6 min · Elite: sub-3 min
- Grace – Beginner: 5-7 min · Intermediate: 3-4 min · Elite: sub-2 min
- Diane – Beginner: 12-18 min · Intermediate: 5-8 min · Elite: sub-4 min
- Helen – Beginner: 14-18 min · Intermediate: 9-12 min · Elite: sub-8 min
- Elizabeth – Beginner: 12-16 min · Intermediate: 6-9 min · Elite: sub-5 min
- Isabel – Beginner: 6-10 min · Intermediate: 3-5 min · Elite: sub-2 min
- Jackie – Beginner: 10-14 min · Intermediate: 7-9 min · Elite: sub-6 min
- Karen – Beginner: 12-18 min · Intermediate: 7-10 min · Elite: sub-5 min
- Annie – Beginner: 10-14 min · Intermediate: 6-8 min · Elite: sub-5 min
- Nancy – Beginner: 18-25 min · Intermediate: 13-17 min · Elite: sub-12 min
- Cindy – Beginner: 12-16 rounds · Intermediate: 17-22 rounds · Elite: 25+ rounds
- Mary – Beginner: 8-12 rounds · Intermediate: 13-18 rounds · Elite: 20+ rounds
- Kelly – Beginner: 32-40 min · Intermediate: 24-28 min · Elite: sub-22 min
- Eva – Beginner: 45-55 min · Intermediate: 35-42 min · Elite: sub-32 min
- Amanda – Beginner: 14-20 min · Intermediate: 7-10 min · Elite: sub-5 min
How to use the Girls in your training
Most athletes retest the Benchmark WODs every 3 to 6 months. This cadence gives your training enough time to produce measurable adaptations without overexposing you to the same stimulus. The practical approach:
- Pick 3-4 benchmarks that test different capacities. A common selection: Fran (short intense), Cindy (bodyweight endurance), Grace (barbell power), Nancy (running and mobility).
- Record your scores on Fiz with notes on scaling, conditions, and how you felt. The score history and leaderboard make tracking effortless, and your Fran lineage on Fiz will show every attempt from your first to your PR.
- Train the weaknesses they expose. If Karen destroys your legs but your time is slow, drill wall ball efficiency and quad endurance. If Diane stalls at HSPU, prioritize pressing volume and shoulder stability.
- Retest fresh. Don't test a benchmark at the end of a hard training week. Schedule the retest as its own session with a proper warm-up.
- Compare on the leaderboard. Fiz keeps a global leaderboard for every named Girl WOD. Filter by gender, weight class, age, or scaling category to find your tier.
The pacing trap on every Girl WOD
The most common mistake on Benchmark WODs is misjudging the opening. Fran in particular punishes athletes who sprint the first 21 thrusters – by rep 10 of the 21 pull-ups, they are forced to break into singles and their finish time inflates. The general rule: your round 1 pace should feel sustainable, not maximum. The PR is built in the second and third rounds when the athlete who paced correctly is still moving and the athlete who sprinted is gasping.
Cindy is the inverse problem. Athletes go too easy on the first 5 rounds because 20 minutes feels like a long time. By minute 12 they are stuck at 1 round per 90 seconds and their score tanks. The Cindy PR is built on the first 5 rounds: get to 7-8 rounds in the first 10 minutes, then hold on.
Scaling the Girls intelligently
Every Benchmark WOD scales cleanly. The principle is always the same: preserve the time domain and the stimulus. If Fran is supposed to be a 3-7 minute lung-burner, your scaled Fran should also take 3-7 minutes – that probably means a 65/45lb thruster and jumping pull-ups or ring rows. Diane scales by dropping the deadlift load to bodyweight or below and substituting pike push-ups for handstand push-ups. Amanda scales by trading muscle-ups for chest-to-bar pull-ups and reducing the snatch weight.
On Fiz, every workout can be remixed into your own scaled version. The remix preserves the lineage, links back to the canonical Girl, and your scores still appear on the leaderboard filtered by scaling tier.
Where the Girls fit in the broader canon
The Benchmark Girls are the foundation. After hitting Fran, try a Hero WOD like DT or Murph for higher-volume tests of grit. The competition library – Filthy Fifty, Fight Gone Bad, Kalsu, King Kong – pushes intensity and complexity beyond the Girls. For racers, the Hyrox training plan applies functional fitness to endurance racing, and the triathlon library covers the multi-discipline endurance side. For everyday programming, the functional fitness collection covers complementary work: row tests, barbell complexes, gymnastics EMOMs, and aerobic base building.
All the Girls.
Tap any benchmark to view the full structure in Fiz, score your attempt, and see where you sit on the global leaderboard.
Fran
21-15-9 reps for time of thrusters at 95/65lb and pull-ups. The single most-cited benchmark in CrossFit. Elite athletes finish under 3 minutes; a sub-5 Fran is strong fitness; sub-7 is solid intermediate. Punishes anyone who sprints the first round of thrusters.
Grace
30 clean and jerks for time at 135/95lb. Pure barbell cycling under fatigue. The classic "sub-2 Grace" is a competition-floor benchmark. Most athletes settle into singles every 4-6 seconds. Hook-grip required to preserve grip endurance.
Diane
21-15-9: deadlifts at 225/155lb and handstand push-ups. A test of raw pulling strength combined with inverted pressing endurance. The 225lb deadlift load is enough to break most athletes into singles by round 2, and the HSPU volume punishes anyone without dedicated pressing work in their program.
Helen
3 rounds for time: 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings at 53/35lb, 12 pull-ups. The classic mixed-modal triplet. Three disciplines, three rounds, three transitions to manage. A sub-8 Helen marks competitive fitness. The pull-ups are the limiter for most athletes – pacing the swings is what saves the bar.
Elizabeth
21-15-9 reps for time of squat cleans at 135/95lb and ring dips. Olympic lifting meets gymnastics pressing. The squat clean weight forces moderate-pace singles or doubles for most athletes, and the ring dips test pressing endurance under instability. A grinding 21-15-9 that exposes weak shoulders.
Isabel
30 snatches for time at 135/95lb. Pure barbell cycling speed on the most technically demanding lift in functional fitness. Most athletes use power snatches and singles. Sub-2 Isabel is competition-grade speed; sub-3 is a strong benchmark for any athlete.
Jackie
For time: 1000m row, 50 thrusters at 45/35lb, 30 pull-ups. The lightest thruster Benchmark, with row volume that opens the workout aerobically. Pacing the row is the most common mistake – go too hard and the thrusters fall apart. Sub-6 Jackie is solid intermediate fitness.
Karen
150 wall ball shots for time at 20/14lb to a 10/9ft target. Simple, brutal, and almost entirely mental. The quads quit at rep 60. The shoulders quit at rep 100. The mind quits whenever it wants. Sub-5 Karen requires going unbroken or near-unbroken; most athletes finish 8-12 minutes.
Annie
50-40-30-20-10 reps of double-unders and sit-ups for time. The coordination benchmark. Athletes with smooth, fast double-unders finish in 4-6 minutes; athletes still developing rope skills can be stuck for 15+ minutes. The sit-ups are deceptively taxing on the hip flexors when paired with rebound jumping.
Nancy
5 rounds for time: 400m run, 15 overhead squats at 95/65lb. The most mobility-demanding Benchmark. The OHS requires shoulder, thoracic, and ankle mobility under load – anyone with restricted overhead position will be exposed. Pacing the run is everything: too fast in round 1 and you cannot complete the OHS unbroken in round 5.
Cindy
20-minute AMRAP: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats. The bodyweight benchmark. Cindy needs only a pull-up bar and a few square meters of floor – making it the most accessible Girl WOD and one of the most retested. A 20+ round Cindy represents strong general bodyweight conditioning; 25+ is elite.
Mary
20-minute AMRAP: 5 HSPU, 10 pistol squats (alternating), 15 pull-ups. Cindy's advanced sister, swapping bodyweight basics for high-skill gymnastics. Demands strict pressing, single-leg strength, and pulling endurance – Mary exposes any imbalance in your gymnastics base. 15+ rounds is competition-grade.
Kelly
5 rounds for time: 400m run, 30 box jumps to 24/20in, 30 wall balls at 20/14lb. A long mixed-modal grind that taxes the quads more than any other Girl. By round 3, the box jumps slow to a survival pace and the wall balls require constant breaks. A sub-22 Kelly marks competitive fitness.
Eva
5 rounds for time: 800m run, 30 kettlebell swings at 70/53lb, 30 pull-ups. The longest and most grueling Girl WOD. 2.5 miles of running, 150 heavy KB swings, and 150 pull-ups in a single session. A 35-minute Eva is strong; sub-32 is elite. The bell weight is what makes Eva different from Helen – heavy two-handed swings under fatigue.
Amanda
9-7-5 reps for time of muscle-ups and squat snatches at 135/95lb. The most skill-demanding Girl WOD. Requires both ring muscle-ups and full squat snatches – two of the highest-skill movements in the sport – under fatigue. Famous as a Games-level test. Sub-5 Amanda is elite; most athletes train it as a benchmark of overall competitive readiness.
After the Girls, the canon.
The Heroes
After hitting Fran, try Murph — 20 memorial workouts honoring fallen military heroes.
Competition Chippers
Filthy Fifty, Fight Gone Bad, Kalsu — the next tier of difficulty beyond the Girls.
Hyrox Training
The race format that takes Helen's run-station rhythm and turns it into a global event.
Triathlon & Ironman
15 brick sessions, swim prep, bike intervals — multi-discipline endurance training.
Functional Fitness
2K row tests, barbell complexes, gymnastics EMOMs — the work that builds Girl WOD PRs.
AI Workout Creator
Build your own 21-15-9 with the AI engine that structured the curated library.
Test the benchmarks.
Fran, Grace, Cindy — or any of the 15 Girls. Open them on Fiz, score your attempt, climb the leaderboard.