Noah Ohlsen Attempts 10 Benchmarks in 60 Minutes
As CrossFitters, we frequently challenge ourselves with “benchmark” workouts designed to track our fitness progress over time, while also competing against friends and professionals.
- After all, competition – whether with ourselves or others – is what keeps us returning for more, day after day.
Classic benchmarks include Hero WODs (those designed to honor a service member or first responder who gave their life in the line of duty) and “Girl” WODs (challenging Metcons, some of which are named after female legends in our sport).
- They can also be past competition workouts, such as “Acid Bath,” or ones that were originally programmed on the CrossFit mainsite, like “Filthy Fifty” or “Fight Gone Bad.”
Affiliates also often have their own benchmarks that are unique to their community, and new ones regularly pop up.
There’s something magical (and a little bit scary) about a benchmark workout that pushes us to go harder, faster, and test our true limits.
They aren’t WODs that we do every day.
Ohlsen’s Challenge
Recently, 10-time CrossFit Games competitor Noah Ohlsen took on a unique challenge, attempting to complete ten benchmarks in 60 minutes.
For the challenge, Ohlsen’s parameters were to complete a workout every 5 minutes until all 10 were complete or until a workout wasn’t finished within the 5-minute window.
The WODs on the list were:
The plan initially was to attempt only five benchmark WODs within the same time frame, but with some encouragement from his friend, former teammate, and training partner Chandler Smith, Ohlsen set his sights on ten.
- Before he began, Ohlsen issued a disclaimer that the YouTube video isn’t meant as encouragement to “try this at home,” but instead solely as a source of entertainment.
In the end, Ohslen impressively made it through Diane and was capped (within his self-imposed five-minute time limit), with 15 reps remaining on Elizabeth.
Ohlsen mentions metabolic fatigue that ultimately defeated him, one after the other, finally catching up.
