ParaWOD had to go on a bit of a vacation as I recently relocated from NJ and my beloved Crossfit Nassau to Northern VA. CFN is the gym that took a risk on me as an adaptive athlete, and through their coaching and encouragement it gave me the confidence to not only improve my quality of life through the workout regiment, but also to create this very site.

My new gym, Crossfit Impavidus, is a worthy successor. Every coach I’ve worked with is excited to see where we can take things next.

And today, the place where we took things was the WOD called HELEN.

This workout is a great one for para-athletes because it is easily adaptive and scalable.’

3 Rounds for Time

• 400m Sprint
• 21 Kettlebell Swings (24kg)
• 12 Pull-ups

Adaptation

• 400m sprint = 400m sprint. If you don’t have a good chair for moving quickly, consider doing a row for 200m.
• 21 KB Swings = 21 KB Swings. If you are in a sitting position, your range of motion will be limited. Try to get the KB as far down in front of you as possible, and then raise it up using your deltoids. You won’t have the kick that comes from your hips, but at the very least you will get most of the range of motion.
• 12 Pull-ups = 12 Pull-ups. Do it strict!

Coach Anna spotted me on the KB swings so I could keep my balance, but for everything else, it was straight-forward. Better yet, this was a great workout for my 10 year old daughter to do as well. We both scaled it, and she managed to finish ahead of me. But we both finished under 15 minutes, which means that this will be a great workout to do again and today’s work serves as a solid benchmark.

Thanks to Coach Anna and Crossfit Impavidus!