5. Keep a Record
You hear it every day from every angle: keep a journal, track your progress, write it down. The common consensus is that if you want to improve your fitness, you’ve got to record your workouts. But what do you record? Your WOD score? Sure, that’s handy. I refer to old WODs when I’m traveling and can’t get into a box. Pull out a WOD from a couple of years ago, adapt it to my available equipment and voilà. But I don’t want to program a WOD if I don’t have to. And with stuff like this, I may not ever need to. So does it matter that I got 15 + 8 on that AMRAP? Not really.
How about PRs? Now we’re getting somewhere. If your box is like mine, considerable time is devoted to developing strength pre-WOD. It’s usually a task like, “do X sets of 5 back squats at 75% of your one-rep max (1RM).” So if you know your 1RM—same as your PR—you’re all set. Some boxes don’t even work with prescribed weights in their WODs. They just say, do this at X% of your 1RM.
This is where BeastScore comes in handy. BeastScore has all the lifts (and the benchmark WODs) in its database. Input your PRs and you’ll always know just how much to lift, wherever you are.
4. Find Your Weaknesses
One of the coolest things about BeastScore is that there is no guessing. Just hard data. We ran the numbers so that you don’t have to. The BeastScore algorithm started out with about 20 components testing a range of different movements. Along the way, we figured out that some of these movements were related. For example, if your deadlift goes up, your power clean is going to go up, too. We put a team of statisticians on this and narrowed it down to just 7 components that can tell you how fit you are. Want to get stronger? Look at the BeastScore of that guy/girl who goes to your box—you know the one—can snatch a house, run a marathon, and squat a mountain. What’s his/her BeastScore look like? Compare your 7 components and then set about improving your scores.
3. Challenge Your Peers
Remember during the CrossFit Open when you and your buddies created that custom leaderboard ? Every week you’d post your scores, then check in to see how you fared against your friends. And every week Steve was still kicking your ass… Steve.
Look, you know who your peers at the box are. It’s those five people who you see almost every time you work out. You push each other; you encourage each other; and you get stronger together. With BeastScore you can see exactly how you rank. Sure, Steve kicked your ass in the Open this year, but it’s almost May and you’ve made some strides.
2. Monitor Your Progress
It’s the most frustrating thing. You work out for a few months, hit your rhythm, then start wondering, “am I actually getting stronger?” You’ve got no way to tell. Sure, you shaved 5 seconds off of your Fran, but maybe you ate your Wheaties that morning (ugh, gross, stick with Paleo, bro) and had some extra energy.
BeastScore doesn’t just look at one workout on one given day. It aggregates your PRs from the 7 key components and gives you a simple, clear score for your fitness level. Want to know if your fitness is improving? If your BeastScore is improving, then your fitness is improving. It’s that simple.
1. Get Fitter
Seems like a cop-out, doesn’t it? But it has to be said: BeastScore will help you improve your fitness. If you keep a record, monitor your progress, compete with your friends and improve your weaknesses, you will get fitter. That’s the whole philosophy of CrossFit in a nutshell, really. BeastScore just makes it easier to do these things.
