"The Girls" Workouts (WODs)

“The Girls” refers to a collection of original named WODs (workouts of the day) created by CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman.

The original girls: A 2004 CrossFit Journal article explains that the original Girls from 2003 were “Angie,” “Barbara,” “Chelsea,” “Diane,” “Elizabeth,” and “Fran.” In the following months [CrossFit] introduced two more: “Grace” and “Helen.” Later came WODs like “Annie (2005) and “Eva” (2008), and in 2010, they added six new beauties to the official list: “Isabel,” “Jackie,” “Karen,” “Linda,” “Mary,” and “Nancy.”

Since then others like “Amanda” and “Gwen” joined the official ranks by being posted on the CrossFit main site, with more like “Christine” gaining popularity via the CrossFit board and variants such as “Heavy Fran” and “Amanda .45” arising as new takes on the originals.

Still others, including the popular “Cindy,” and the newest “Grettel,” “Ingrid,” and “Barbara Ann,” have been posted on the CrossFit Main Site, but not formally included in an official list of “Girls” benchmark WODs.

There are, of course, many hero, memorial and tribute workouts named for women as well, which are listed in separate categories.

Why girls’ names? CrossFit founder Greg Glassman gave his workouts names because he wanted to “explain the workout once and then give it a name.” The original workouts were given female names, similar to how the US National Weather Service names storms (because he felt that because the workouts were so physically demanding that they left athletes feeling as though a storm hit them). In January 2021, months after Glassman resigned as CEO, CrossFit continued the tradition by posting the first new “Girl” WODs on the main site in years.

See also: Hero WODs | Memorials & Tribute WODs | Classic Benchmark WODs | ⚡️ WOD Calendar