Isabel
20 Aug 2018
CrossFit Girl WOD “Isabel”
For Time
30 Snatches 135/95 lbs
06 min 40 sec – Fitness Level 0 – Beginner athlete
06 min 00 sec – Fitness Level 25 – Beginner athlete
05 min 14 sec – Fitness Level 50 – Average athlete
04 min 05 sec – Fitness Level 75 – Average athlete
03 min 24 sec – Fitness Level 90 – Advanced athlete
03 min 00 sec – Fitness Level 95 – Advanced athlete
02 min 34 sec – Fitness Level 98 – Elite athlete
02 min 11 sec – Fitness Level 100 – Regional athlete
What is Isabel?
Isabel is one of the most popular CrossFit Girl benchmark workout (WOD). The workout Grace is very simple. It is just 30 snatches for time with 135 lbs for men and 95 lbs for women.
The athlete may do any kind of snatch from muscle snatch to power snatch, squat snatch or split snatch. Usually, Isabel is done with 30 power snatches. Sometimes athletes switch to muscle snatches if they are strong enough.
What is a good time for Isabel?
According to the WOD Time Calculator, a good time to beat for Regional athletes is 2:11, for advanced athletes 3:24 and for beginners 6:40.
All these times consider that you can power snatch 135/95 lbs for 30 reps. If that is not a case, you should probably scale down the weight to about 80% off your 1 RM power snatch.
If you are doing Isabel for the first time and your 1 RM is close to 135/95 lbs, you should aim for 8-10 minutes and consider that a good time to beat.
On another hand, top athletes may found a 135/95 lbs too easy and even some of them have been able to do Isabel unbroken in just about a minute. Anyway, even finishing Isabel in a minute doesn’t make Isabel an easy workout.
How to get a good time for Isabel?
Your strategy will differ a lot by your goal time. You have to do large sets unbroken if you want a time under 2 minutes. But if you aim for 8 minutes, you should do only singles.
You will suffer a lot during Isabel, no matter what time are you aiming for.
First 10 reps are easy. You have probably started too quickly or used too heavyweight if you feel tired after 10th rep.
Second 10 reps hurt. You should find yourself fighting for next reps but still being able to manage the pace you had for first 10 reps. You are on a right way for new PR if you feel like you wanna die during the 20th rep.
Don’t think about last 10 reps. You just started last 10 reps, and you probably want to give up. Now it is time to keep pushing, tell yourself it is only 10 reps and count them down. There is no need for extra rest, keep going, 1 rep at a time, and you are done in no time.
Target time 5-8 minutes
Don’t do multiple reps in one set. Singles are the only way.
You should set your goal before doing the Isabel. Calculate how often you need to do each rep and stick to that goal for full 30 reps.
For example, if your goal is 5 minutes, you should do one rep every 10 seconds. (5 minutes * 60 seconds) / 30 reps = 10 seconds / rep.
Start the workout, hold that pace for at least first 20 reps and push the pace only if you still feel like you have some extra energy left.
Target time 3-5 minutes
You can still achieve that time doing only singles. You can even get time around 2.5 minutes super quick singles.
There is a little difference between a goal of 3-5 minutes and 5-8 minutes. You can no longer watch the clock as you need to be quick with next reps.
For example, for the time of 3 minutes, you need to do 1 rep every 6 seconds. This will be impossible to follow using a gym timer. You need to drop the bar and to regrip it as soon as you can.
Target time 2-3 minutes
You have to be very serious CrossFitter if you want to finish Isabel in 2 minutes.
As with a Grace, there are just two ways how to finish Isabel in that blazing fast time.
You can either try to do 6 sets of 5 reps or similar rep scheme. Pro tip, try 8+7+6+5+4, this will allow you to get through half of the reps in just two sets and then finish the second half with small sets.
Or you can try to do as many reps unbroken as you can and then finish with super quick singles. The first large set should consist of at least 15-20 reps to be worthwhile.
Target time under 2 minutes
You don’t need a strategy for that, prepare mentally, start the clock and go all out. Going unbroken is not enough, you have even to speed up your reps to be able to finish Isabel in under 2 minutes.
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