Using BeastScore

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BeastScore for Fitness Coaches

If you are a fitness coach and truly dedicated to improving fitness, then BeastScore is for you. This post explains everything you need to know about measuring, tracking, and improving fitness with BeastScore. We go over what BeastScore is, what it isn’t, the advantages it has over similar (but really totally different) services, and how it can take your coaching to the next level.

  • Attract more clients
  • Improve client retention
  • Increase revenue
  • Show the world how effective your training is

Contents

  1. What is a “BeastScore”?
  2. Overview of BeastScore.com
  3. Gym Accounts
  4. Coaches Tools

What is “BeastScore”?

BeastScore is a true, absolute measure of fitness. It is the world’s first measure of fitness and equal to an athlete’s total work capacity and has units of ft-lbs.

First, let’s take a closer look at the claim “world’s first measure of fitness.” It’s true- no one has measured fitness before. Some fitness professionals have looked at VO2max, resting heart rate, heart rate recovery, and other indicators to measure fitness level, but these aren’t actually measurements of fitness at all. VO2max is just a measure of how much oxygen a person is burning; it doesn’t tell you anything about how much work the person actually performed. And neither do any of these other so-called indicators of fitness.

BeastScore describes an athlete’s true and complete fitness. BeastScore is equal to a person’s work capacity and ability to do work, whether it be deadlift, squat, run, row, do pull-ups, or jump rope.

An athlete with a higher BeastScore has a higher overall fitness level and would therefore be expected to perform better at competitions. BeastScore is a measure of total general physical preparedness – the ability to perform well at any random task.

BeastScore is calculated using eight scientifically selected exercises and WODs: clean and jerk, back squat, 500 m row, 1 mi run, Fran, Grace, Annie, and Cindy. More details about what BeastScore measures and how it’s calculated can be found on the BeastScore 101 page (if you recall your CF-L1 training, you’ll already know what BeastScore measures…).

This chart shows an athlete’s average power during the eight BeastScore exercises clean and jerk, backsquat, 500 m row, 1 mi run, Fran, Grace, Annie, and Cindy. The area under the curve is total work capacity which we call BeastScore.

Absolute Versus Relative Measurements of Fitness

BeastScore is an absolute measure of fitness with units of ft-lbs, similar to using pounds/kilograms for a lift. An alternative way to describe fitness is with relative measures of performance. These relative measurement methods are typically scored on a scale of 1-99, and are akin to percentiles. An athlete with a fitness level of “99” would therefore be in the 99th percentile of all athletes. This type of relative scoring is not a direct measurement of fitness and has a number of drawbacks.

The main issue with relative measures of performance is that they don’t tell you what your fitness actually is. It’s like saying your back squat is “in the 99th percentile” rather than telling you it is “315 lbs.” Both are useful to know, but 315 lbs is much more important than knowing it’s in the 99th percentile. At BeastScore we tell you both, and we are the only service in the world that can tell you your fitness level / total work capacity is “165 ft-lbs.”

Relative measures of performance have a number of other issues as well:

  • What if everyone is getting fitter together? The fitness scores / percentiles won’t change and you won’t be able to see fitness improving.
  • A scale with just 100 demarcations leaves a lot of room within each percentile. The resolution isn’t fine enough to indicate improvement that is seen over weeks or a few months. For example, it takes several pounds to move up from the 66th to 67th percentile on the back squat. So even though your back squat is improving, you can’t see that on a scale of 1-99.
  • How do you compare athletes of one generation to another? What if we were recording deadlifts as percentiles instead of with pounds/kilograms 100 years ago? The athletes in the 99th percentile 100 years ago were no where near the athletes in the 99th percentile now. Or even more extreme, what if we recorded sprint times as percentiles instead of with minutes and seconds? Rich Froning is obviously in the 99th percentile of all athletes on the planet. The best athletes are always, by definition, in the “99th percentile.” We estimate Rich Froning to have a BeastScore of 245 ft-lbs and can’t wait for the day when we see an athlete with a BeastScore over 250! Or what if one day they approach 300?! Seeing this kind of advancement is not possible with relative scoring methods.

It’s useful to know how your fitness compares to the rest of the community, but it’s even more important to actually measure it directly with an absolute scale. Therefore, we provide both at BeastScore.

Overview of BeastScore.com

Competition Division Levels

Because BeastScore is a real, absolute measure of fitness, it provides a great foundation upon which to base competition division levels. This was the original motivation for creating BeastScore. This works by having athletes register at BeastScore.com, enter their scores for the eight required exercises, and receive their BeastScore. Then their BeastScore dictates what division level of the competition they fall into. This system puts an end to sandbagging.

Today, BeastScore can still be used for competition division levels, but the focus has shifted to supporting athletes – and ultimately fitness coaches.

BeastScore and 6 Other Fitness Scores

BeastScore.com supports 100+ lifts, WODs and other movements, not just the eight required for a BeastScore. We use these scores to calculate 6 other fitness scores in addition to BeastScore: Olympic Total, Powerlift Total, Endurance, Strength, Metcon, and Bodyweight. BeastScore describes an athlete’s total work capacity, whereas the other 6 scores are more focused and useful for finding strengths and weaknesses, and also identifying specialists for a team event.

Percentiles and Leaderboards

As we discussed above, it’s not enough to just report raw numbers for fitness; athletes want to know how their 165.5 BeastScore or 315 lb. back squat compares to the rest of the community. So, for each of the 100+ fitness scores, movements and WODs we have on the site, we report the percentile and rank for each score that is logged.

We also report community averages by gender and as a whole. The following screenshot shows one athlete’s deadlift log (3 PRs recorded) along with the community data on the right. This athlete’s deadlift has improved from 275 lbs to 315 lbs, which corresponds to moving up from the 7th percentile to the 16th. Leaderboards are also available to show exactly where the athlete ranks for deadlift at his gym or around the world. All of this can be seen for all 7 fitness scores and 100+ movements and WODs.

Weakness Bias Training

Because BeastScore.com reports percentiles in addition to raw values, identifying strengths and weaknesses is quite easy. To do this, we simply provide a list of all 100+ movements and WODs sort by the athlete’s percentiles. The following two screenshots show one athlete’s greatest strengths (first screenshot) and clearest weaknesses (second screenshot).

Gym Accounts

Although BeastScore does a lot to serve competitions and athletes, it’s gym owners that BeastScore is really focused on. Our mission is to make it as easy as possible for gym owners to measure and track their member fitness. In fact, since we are the only service to provide an absolute measure of fitness, we are the only way to truly measure and track fitness.

To accomplish this, we offer Gym Accounts for coaches and gym owners. These plans include:

  1. Separate Premium Accounts for each individual member and coach at the gym
  2. Access to the Coaches Tools for measuring and tracking member/client fitness (restricted to coaches only)
  3. Ability to log and track custom workouts/movements in addition to the 100+ built-in movements/WODs

We provide coaches and gym owners all the tools they need to measure and track every aspect of their members’ fitness over any time period they choose. Plus, the data entry is automated since all gym members get individual BeastScore.com accounts, allowing them to log their own scores.

Coaches Tools

The Coaches Tools page (shown below) is what coaches use to measure and track member fitness. Coaches simply select a movement, WOD, or fitness score along with the time period of interest and their member data is shown. Within a few seconds, coaches can see precisely the impact of their training blocks: did back squats go up? Did endurance improve? Did overall fitness / BeastScores improve? By how much? Who showed improvement and who didn’t? This data is available for all 7 fitness scores and 100+ movements and WODs.

The World’s Best Way to Measure and Track Fitness

Not only is BeastScore the world’s first and only real measure of fitness, it’s also the best and easiest way for gym owners to see the impact of their training methods. For coaches truly dedicated to improving fitness, it’s an indispensable tool.

Open Ranking Dropping Every Year Despite Getting Fitter? BeastScore Can Help

As CrossFit’s membership continues to grow each year, Open rankings become less meaningful for many athletes as their ranking drops year after year, even though their fitness isn’t getting worse. This is a result of more people joining the leaderboards – being top 10% one year might mean a ranking of 20,000, and the next year top 10% is 30,000. So even though you’re staying in the top 10%, your ranking plummeted 10,000 spots. If you find that frustrating, you may want to consider using BeastScore to track your fitness instead.

BeastScore is an absolute measurement system – just like pounds for back squat or seconds for a sprint. It has no dependence on the performance of other athletes like a ranking does. So if your fitness improves, then so does your BeastScore. It takes the guesswork out of trying to understand how your fitness is changing over time or with respect to confusing leaderboard rankings. (More on how BeastScore is calculated.)

BeastScore is also not biased towards gender, weight, height, age, or anything else. A higher BeastScore means more capacity to do work. It’s a direct measure of one’s ability without bias. So if you have a BeastScore higher than Sam Briggs, then more often than not, you would out perform her in a competition involving the “unknown and unknowable.” Your higher BeastScore indicates most prepared for whatever may come out of the hopper. And you know you are getting fitter as your BeastScore increases over time, regardless of what happens with your Open rank.

4 Reasons Why CrossFit Competitions Should Base Their Division Levels on BeastScore

Group of athletes practicing box jumps at gym

Competition is fundamental to CrossFit. Every time you go to the box for a WOD, you’re competing with yourself and your peers. But for some, that’s not enough. They crave even more competition. On the weekends, they seek out throwdowns or charity WODs, anything where they can go head to head against others to test their strength and skill.

But if you’re a CrossFit affiliate hosting one of these competitions, what if there were a way to make your competitions not only safer, but better? There is a way. Using BeastScore can help you create a simple, safe, competitive event. Here’s how:

4. Simplify Registration

Let’s start with an easy one. Say you want to host a competition. You have to worry about registrations, staffing, programming the WOD, insurance—the responsibilities go on and on. BeastScore can not only take registrations off that list, it can actually improve the process.

First, BeastScore can handle registrations for any type of event. Is this a single entrant comp? No problem. Teams? We got this. Multiple divisions? Easy as pie. BeastScore is set up to handle all this online, process the payments, and provide boxes with a simple, organized registration list along with the collected fees.

But BeastScore goes a step further. Say John Q. Crossfitter is interested in signing up for a competition. He looks at the Rx and Scaled options and suddenly he’s got a decision to make: sign up for Rx even though some of the lifts (like snatches) look intimidating, or sign up for Scaled even though the WODs look like a breeze? BeastScore takes the guesswork out this process. If you’re a competitor, all you have to do is enter 10 of your PRs and BeastScore will tell you definitively what division you belong in. The algorithm is just that accurate.

If you handle registrations manually without third-party registration software, you can still use BeastScore for your division levels, but making sure your competitors all have BeastScores prior to the registration deadline might be akin to herding cats. With our registration system, BeastScores are verified at time of registration.

If you already have a preferred registration software, it’s possible the developers of the software would be willing to make changes to require BeastScores during registration (email us to discuss).

3. End Sandbagging

Unfortunately, in organized competitions you run into sandbagging. What is sandbagging? It’s when athletes compete in lower divisions to gain a competitive advantage. Why do they do it? Who knows? Maybe they have their sights set on the Second Division (D2) top prize. Maybe they’d just rather be somebody in D2 than nobody in D1. Whatever the reason, sandbagging has two serious consequences:

1. It’s demoralizing for competitors who are facing a stacked deck.
2. It discourages lower-skill athletes from competing—what’s the point if you’re just going to get smoked by a sandbagger?

BeastScore eliminates the possibility of Sandbagging. Competitors are placed in the appropriate division level based on their skill. With BeastScore, you can encourage more people to compete, knowing that they’ll be going up against other competitors at their skill level.

2. Increase Safety

Let’s go back to the earlier scenario of John Q. Crossfitter trying to pick his own division. Let’s say, he chooses Rx despite some trepidation about the WOD difficulty. The day of the competition arrives. Fueled by the crowd and adrenaline, he pushes past his limit on snatches, sets a PR… and seriously injures himself. He just wasn’t ready for that level. In the back of his mind, he knew it, but BeastScore could have told him unequivocally. Now he’s got months of rehabbing his shoulder before he can even set foot in a box again.

For you, the host, insurance will cover John’s injury and liability. But insurance is for after the fact. BeastScore can help reduce the likelihood of this sort of thing occurring. Injuries are bad for the athlete (of course), the box, and the sport of CrossFit. BeastScore can even help you plan your WODs to challenge competitors in each division level without overwhelming them.

1. Improve Competition

Look at this like the aggregate of the three previous items. If you’re planning a competition where you don’t have to worry about registrations, you’ll be able to spend more time focusing on the important stuff. If you know that competitors will be placed in the right divisions and challenged with appropriate WODs, you’ll worry less about safety. Plus, you can promote the event to a wider range of competitors, assuring them that they’ll be going up against athletes of comparable skill. And if that’s the case, then your event will be more competitive and more exciting to wa

Interested in using BeastScore for your next competition? Email us.

5 Ways BeastScore Can Help Athletes

CrossFitters doing Ring Dips

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.

 

 Exhaustion-Reversed4. 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.

 

Rings2-Reversed1. 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.