Summer is coming and here at Steel Fox CrossFit that also means that Hero WODs are coming. Beginning in May we will be doing a Hero WOD every Friday, and of course Memorial Day Murph. While many of you are familiar with Hero WODs, I just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about what they are and why we do them.

What is a Hero WOD?

Much like the “girl WODs” that we are all familiar with, Hero WODs are WODs that are named after specific people. The major difference is that the HERO WODs are named after service members that have lost their lives in service to their country or community. Many of these are named after military personnel but there are some that are named for police officers and firefighters.

Why do we do Hero WODs?

While Hero WODs can be used as a repeatable benchmark like the “girls”, that is not the main reason we do them. The main reason we do them is to perform a difficult workout with a certain person in mind, and to use it to honor them and remember the great things about our life. When you are slogging away through yet another 400m run during Hotshots 19 it provides you with a chance to think about what those firefighters must have been going through running into those wildfires and how what you are doing is not so bad in comparison. It also gives us a chance to think about all the amazing things we have in life.

What is the best way to approach a Hero WOD?

These WODs tend to be heavy, long, difficult, high skill (or all of the above) workouts. So what is the best way to approach a given workout, especially if it has a movement or a weight you can not do? As with any CrossFit workout, scaling is always an option, so scale the weight to weight that is doable for you, scale the chest to bar pullups to pull-ups. But that being said, this is also a chance to push yourself and challenge yourself more than you are used to. These workouts are meant to mentally and physically challenging.

As we kick off into our “Season of Heroes” I look forward to seeing everyone in here sweating and pushing hard in honor of these fallen heroes.

~Coach Ryan