Benchmark WODs: Fran, Cindy, Grace and how to track your progress.

• A benchmark is a fixed WOD you repeat to compare your performance over time.
• The best known are "the Girls" (Fran, Cindy, Grace, Helen, Diane, Elizabeth, Karen, Annie...) and the "Hero WODs" such as Murph.
• For the comparison to count, repeat the same WOD with the same load, the same equipment and a similar rest beforehand.
• Log result, load, variant (Rx or scaled) and how you arrived (sleep, fatigue). Without that context the number misleads.
• Repeat them every 6-12 weeks, not every week: you need time to adapt, and every session should not be a test.

In functional fitness most WODs change daily. Benchmarks are the exception: workouts that do not change, precisely so they can be compared. If you do Fran in 6:40 today and in 5:55 eight weeks from now, you know you have improved at that kind of effort, because the only thing that changed is you.

The oldest benchmarks carry women's names and are known as "the Girls". Another group, the "Hero WODs", is dedicated to people who died in service, such as Murph (see the Murph WOD guide). Every gym and athlete also tends to have their own reference tests: a 5 km, a max set of pull-ups or a squat load.

The usual formats, with their equipment and a page where there is one. Official loads change by category and age: check the current standard of your box or event before comparing yourself with anyone.

• You want to measure power and technique under fatigue: Fran or Grace. They are short; with few variables any change in time is very visible.
• You want to measure muscular endurance: Cindy. Being an AMRAP, the result is full rounds plus reps, and pacing matters more than speed.
• You are a hybrid athlete mixing running and strength: Helen, because it combines a 400 m run with strength-endurance work.
• You are just starting: pick one and scale it (see the guide to scaling a WOD). A scaled benchmark you repeat is still a valid benchmark for you.

You do not need to do them all. Two or three of different qualities (a short power one, a long endurance one and a mixed one) are enough to track.

A benchmark is only comparable if you control what you can control. Before each attempt:

• Use the same load and the same variant. If you raise the weight or swap a movement, it is a different test: log it as such.
• Respect the same movement standard (full range, chin height on the pull-up, squat depth).
• Warm up in a similar way and rest a similar time since your last hard session.
• Keep the same equipment: barbell, plates, box height or wall-ball target.
• Use a timer that does not depend on your attention: see the WOD timer guide and how to choose a WOD timer app.

If a variable changes, log it. What does not work is comparing two results without knowing they were not equivalent.

• Result: time in a For Time, rounds plus reps in an AMRAP.
• Load and variant: the weight used and whether it was Rx or scaled.
• Context: hours of sleep, prior fatigue, time of day and any hard session the day before.
• Feel: perceived effort (for example 1 to 10) and where you slowed down: breathing, grip, technique.

A few attempts will show a trend. A single isolated number says almost nothing; a series of four or five does.

A reasonable interval is six to twelve weeks. Less does not let training produce measurable change and pushes you to test all-out all the time; more makes you lose track of when something started working.

Organize the calendar in blocks: a few weeks of work, a lighter week and the test. That way you arrive rested and the result reflects your level, not your accumulated tiredness. If you train by fatigue, see the guide to training by fatigue and HRV.

• Chasing Rx before you own the movement: you shorten reps and the result stops counting.
• Starting too fast and paying for it in the last minutes; in a long AMRAP like Cindy, pacing is the strategy.
• Comparing yourself with other people's times without checking category, age, load and variant.
• Doing it every week "to see how much you drop": you end up training only for the test and piling up fatigue.

Zoku Athletics is built for an athlete who wants to compare performance over time: it includes benchmarks, a multimodal timer (For Time, AMRAP, EMOM, Tabata and mixed) and progress tracking. The Free plan gives you unlimited benchmarks to measure your progress.

If you like to compete, Rival Live lets you face other athletes on benchmarks from the Zoku catalogue and enter the leaderboard. Plans and their contents are shown live in the pricing section of the home page.

The app is not public on the stores yet. It is in testing and there is no launch date.

The Free plan is free, with no card and no expiry. Pro and Elite are paid; what each includes is shown in the plans section of the home page.

Who is behind the website and the app: About Zoku Athletics.

• What is a WOD? Formats and meaning: What a WOD is and how to read one: AMRAP, EMOM, For Time and Tabata, what Rx and scaled mean and how to log the result to compare it.
• WOD timer: AMRAP, EMOM, For Time and Tabata: What a WOD timer is and how to use it: AMRAP, EMOM, For Time and Tabata formats, how to choose one, set it up and log the result.
• How to scale a WOD: Rx vs scaled: What Rx and scaled mean, when to scale a WOD and how to adjust load, movements and volume without losing the stimulus or your technique.