Team Workouts

Team workouts can play as vital a role to the CrossFit program as individual workouts do, according to Coach Greg Glassman. In this article, Coach describes 30 team workouts in detail.

As a rule, Crossfit WODs do not always lend themselves to teamwork. A number of obstacles must be surmounted to successfully operate a team WOD. Accommodating a wide variety of capacities in a single group while challenging both elite and novice athletes equally takes a deep knowledge of scaling and programming. Working with an odd number of participants and/or equipment shortages and still preserving the character of CrossFit’s programming also presents a unique set of challenges.

A chalkboard or white board is an indispensable tool to motivating these team workouts. Results from all but one of the 30 workouts featured in this article can be perfectly quantified. It has been our observation that “throwing numbers on the board” creates a climate where everyone gives 100 percent.

Here’s just one example of a team workout:
Run, Thruster, Pull-up Circuit Races: This simple workout has one five-man team working and a second five-man team “coaching” and timing a circuit race of five rounds of a 400-meter run followed by 15 dumbbell thrusters with 40 pound dumbbells followed by 15 pull- ups. After the first team completes the five round circuit they “coach” and time for 5 rounds for the remaining athletes.