The “Chelsea” CrossFit WOD (workout of the day) has only three bodyweight exercises and involves 30 minutes of work. But don’t let it fool you.
You may, like me, look at this bodyweight workout and think: simple. Simply programmed, sure. But simple to do? Absolutely not.
As you tie on a pair of the best cross training shoes, I’ll walk you through exactly how to do this workout and the benefits and share a few tips to help you smash it, including some modifications you can make.
It’s a full-body workout consisting of just three functional compound exercises. The CrossFit staple builds a stronger engine while testing your strength and stamina. Here it is.
What is the “Chelsea” CrossFit workout?
Whether you’re a CrossFit beginner or not, at some stage, you’ll come across benchmark workouts. Benchmark WODs are standardized workouts from CrossFit HQ that get rolled out within the community throughout the year.
The idea is to go as hard as you can to test your abilities across various areas. This one is an original bodyweight workout and will test your functional strength. Each WOD gets a name and never changes, so you can return to it and re-test whenever you wish.
Chelsea
EMOM 30 (every minute on the minute)
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Your goal is to complete the 30 reps within one minute and repeat for 30 rounds, totaling 30 minutes. If you’re unable to complete all movements within the 60 seconds, take a full minute to recover, then go again.
Try to complete as many of the 30 rounds as you can. If you’re unable to hit the reps within the first 7 minutes, scale to 3 pull-ups, 8 push-ups and 12 air squats. For a more advanced workout, wear a weighted vest.
I tried the “Chelsea” CrossFit WOD — here’s what happened
The first thing to do is imagine the total rep count by the end of this workout. Without scaling the reps, you’ll complete 150 pull-ups, 300 push-ups, and 450 bodyweight squats. That’s a whole lot of volume.
I managed to complete the full 30 minutes, scaled, which means I kept the reps as programmed but modified the exercises. You can do either, or both.
I found I could maintain the 5, 10, and 15 reps with 20 seconds to spare every round when performing the pull-ups jumping and kipping, and doing push-ups from the knees (after the first few rounds of full push-ups). The squats remained unmodified.
Although the workout programming suggests assessing at the 7-round mark, I saved myself a lot of pain by scaling early before I burned myself out, knowing I’d slow down immediately after a few rounds otherwise. Aim for a consistent, maintainable pace rather than going hard and leading with the ego only to drop off.
I can tell you with certainty that you don’t want to be the hero and struggle early, leaving yourself with no rest before the next round. You’ll quickly fall behind and then fatigue by racing to catch up. I’d aim for 10 to 20 seconds of rest each minute.
My coach advised jumping pull-ups (jumping up to the bar) or kipping (if you already have it in your arsenal) if you don’t have strict pull-ups, rather than opting for banded, because getting in and out of the band wastes valuable time.
You can try box push-ups or wall push-ups (placing your hands on a box, bench, or wall to elevate your upper body) if the full variation or knee push-ups aren’t working for you.
Try to avoid rushing your squats. Move fast, but aim for full depth (at least parallel) and full extension as you stand, rather than bouncing up and down. A common pitfall includes lowering the chest and leaning forward; instead, keep your weight in your heels, lift your chest, and maintain proper form.
After completing Chelsea, the next-day DOMs were insane, and it took a few days of gentle hot yoga to bring me back to life. Working with your body weight is the ultimate test of functional, foundational strength and will provide you with a brilliant benchmark for the future.
It’s a reminder that three simple push, pull, and squat exercises can provide a beasting of a full-body workout without weights, machines, or fussy programming.
