CrossFit is a sport that incorporates an enormous variety of exercises, from Olympic weightlifting to push-ups to strongman to jumprope, but there’s one movement that’s always seemed to take a back seat: the bench press. Maybe it’s because a lot of people don’t find it functional, maybe because it’s awfully hard to drag a bunch of benches out during a WOD, but it’s just never been a big part of the sport, although it has made appearances in a few workouts here and there.
One of the most famous workout to feature bench presses is Linda, and ladies and gentlemen, that’s the second event of the 2018 CrossFit® Games Regionals.
Here’s what it looks like:
Linda
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps for time of:
Deadlift, 295 / 220 lb.
Bench press, 195 / 135 lb.
Squat clean, 145 / 105 lb.Time cap: 17 minutes
Dave Castro dropped the first hint that there would be bench presses in the Regional this year two days ago, which brought both joy and chagrin to the CrossFit community. (Our favorite negative comment was probably “what’s next year, bicep curls?”) But the bench press is a staple in fitness and has been used in one form or another for well over a hundred years.
Perhaps the most famous video of a Linda was this bout with Jason Khalipa and Dan Bailey:
Lynne is another popular bench press workout that’s five rounds of bodyweight bench press and pull-ups for max reps, but Linda is better known — we mentioned it as a possibility when we saw Castro upload the hint for this workout — and the combination of deadlifts, bench press, and squat cleans is particularly grueling. That’s every darn muscle in the body, plus it requires powerlifting movements and explosive movements.
Castro wrote on Instagram,
Linda. Which introduces the bench press to our competition this year. Linda is based off of % of body weight. Last years average Games competitor weight was 195 male and 145 female. So Linda at regionals will be based off of those averages. (But we did down scale the women weight on the bench slightly.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BihOiPTlkMm/?taken-by=thedavecastro
Meanwhile, he has confirmed handstand walks will be in Event 3 of the CrossFit Regionals. We’ll let you know the exact workout as soon as it’s posted.
Featured image via #GO on YouTube.
