How to Adapt CrossFit Games Tests for your CrossFit Kids Class
There are few things more exciting for any avid CrossFit fan than a Games event they can adapt for their own fitness. Whether it be a benchmark workout like Helen, Murph, or Amanda that the elites take on at the Games or the opposite way around, any concrete comparison for just how fit these athletes are can be a fun game.
Now imagine that the athletes you’re comparing the Games athletes to were seven-years-old.
Here are a few ways you can include the youngest athletes in your gym in the Games excitement.
For a classic CrossFit workout: “Echo Thruster Finale”
While there’s not much many adults would prefer to do less than Echo Bike calories and thrusters, kids can get value from the movements and still have fun.
For time:
20-15-10
Row calories
Dumbbell thrusters
Then,
66-foot goblet walking lunge
- This quick workout will allow athletes of all ages to find the same aerobic and muscular stimulus in a more age appropriate manner.
- Bike calories could also be used here, but for shorter and younger athletes, biking may not be comfortable or even doable.
- Dumbbell thrusters or even just goblet squats for elementary athletes will achieve the same lower-body fatigue as the heavy barbell thrusters for elite athletes.
- Just like at the Games, a lunge to the finish could result in a fun race.
For odd-objects: “The Alpaca Redux”
While seated legless rope climbs, a 546/433 pound sled and heavy kettlebell clean and jerks may not be in the wheelhouse for your gym’s littlest athletes, the same modalities certainly can be.
3 rounds
2 rope climbs
12 dumbbell clean and jerks
50-foot plate sled push
- Older or more experienced athletes may very well be capable of rope climbs as written. However, smaller athletes can start laying down beneath the rope and pull themselves up to standing using the least amount of leg push possible (aka “zombie climbs”).
- For plate sled pushes, set rubber plates up on a soft gymnastics mat. Athletes push the plate (which could range from wooden trainer plates to 45 pound plates) from one edge of the mat to the other.
For maximum CrossFit Kids fun: “Inverted Medley”
The original workout, which featured a variety of handstand walk obstacles and pull-overs, took top athletes just under three minutes and 30 seconds. To adapt it for kids, making this a multi-round relay race keeps the inverted and gymnastics-heavy workout engaging.
30-foot bear-crawl
8 plyo push-ups
1 box around-the-world
8 pull-ups
1 box around-the-world
8 plyo push-ups
30-foot bear-crawl
- Divide class into two teams–each person has to complete the course and tag the next person in line. The first team to get all athletes through the course wins.
- Lay out a series of small plates, cones, and other obstacles for athletes to move through during their bear crawl traverse.
- For plyo push-ups: try deficit, clapping, or step-over varieties. Change it up each round to make it extra interesting.
- Box around-the-worlds give athletes the stimulus of walking on their hands and being inverted while still giving them stability and an accessible scale.
Pull-ups could be modified in tons of ways–kipping, strict, jumping, or even ring pullups are simple fixes depending on an athlete’s skillset. Also, skin the cats or even pullovers are an option for more advanced athletes.
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