We see it all the time on the whiteboard – a WOD that includes a barbell movement with a specific weight prescribed like “3 power cleans (185/135).” But these weights would crush some athletes and bore others to death. Scaling is the answer, but how do we properly scale? Couldn’t we just define the weight as % of 1RM instead? Wouldn’t this be a better way for the coach to convey the intensity they are looking for, thus improving the effectiveness of the workout while also lowering the risk of injury?

At my box, most members can clean that weight, but many would certainly risk injury using it for medium to high rep counts. At the other end of the spectrum are folks like Dmitry Klokov, who would be bored out of his mind using 185 lbs. for anything other than a toothbrush.

So we scale. Everything in CrossFit is scaled so no one gets hurt. The typical way to scale is to pick a weight you find challenging but won’t kill you. The problem with this is that ‘challenging but not deadly’ is rarely how the WOD was actually designed.

Each WOD is designed with a specific level of intensity in mind. Are those cleans supposed to be done slowly and methodically with maybe some rest between reps, or are they supposed to be fast and speedy? When prescribing “185/135,” what ‘model’ man and woman did the WOD designer have in mind? You have to know one of these two things in order to understand what “185/135” really means.

The best way to prescribe a weight to ensure all athletes give the effort a coach is looking for is to prescribe it as a % of 1RM. If you want those power cleans quick and speedy, maybe it’s 50%. Or if you want them heavy and gut-wrenching, 90%. Now you have all athletes giving the exact amount of effort you were looking for when designing the WOD. And the athletes no longer have to fumble around trying to guess what the coach wants or who the ‘model’ athlete is that the coach had in mind when designing the WOD.

When writing “185 lbs” on the whiteboard, invariably coaches are asked by the class “is it supposed to be really heavy, moderate, or kind of light?” So why not just state exactly how you want it done by specifying the weight as % of 1RM instead. By using % of 1 RM, coaches can get the athletes to use the exact amount of intensity they were looking for.

Of course we can still score athletes based on the actual weight used. And if an athlete chooses to go heavy or light on their own, more power to them. But at least we’ll have an accurate starting point by using % of 1RM.

This isn’t to say we should change the way we define our benchmark WODs like Fran and Grace – having a specific weight defined is useful in this case for comparing and benchmarking athletes and performance. Nothing wrong with that.

But for regular training sessions, writing “185/135” on the whiteboard is meaningless. There is always a level of intensity in mind with the weight. The only way to convey that intention is by using % of 1RM. We don’t tell all athletes to squat precisely 315 lbs in the strength portion of class, so why do we do it during the metcon/WOD? There’s no advantage to doing it this way and every advantage to switch to using % of 1RM.