The Diane WOD is a CrossFit Benchmark Girl WOD. It is used to assess athletes’ progress over a period of time and can be used for upper body and core strength. It also assesses your lower body strength as it uses gymnastics movements.
The movements are technical and involve a fair amount of coordination. You will need to have strong shoulders, a strong chest, and a strong back to successfully complete a handstand push-up.
To do the Diane WOD, you will need to complete three rounds of 21-15-9 reps for time in the following exercises:
- Handstand Push-ups
- Deadlifts 155 pounds
You should note that you can select between Kipping handstand push-ups or strict handstand push-ups.
A good time to complete the Diane WOD is 5 minutes and 29 seconds and caps at 9 minutes.
Intermediate athletes can try this workout, but there is also a variation for a more elite athlete.
Diane WOD Goal times
There are 4 levels of goal times level 1, level 2, level 3, and Elite.
- Level 1: 7:00-10:00
- Level 2: 4:00-7:00
- Level 3: 2:30-4:00
- Elite: Sub 2:30
Diane WOD Tips
- If you are able, you should keep a consistent pace throughout the entire workout. If necessary, you can break the first round up to preserve more energy for the last two.
- The couplet is designed to be a sprint. What you want when scaling is to have efficient movement. Attaining an under 10:00 time cap with sloppy movement defeats the purpose of this workout.
- If possible, go through all sets of deadlifts and handstand push-ups unbroken. If this is not a possibility yet, you can break the reps down into a sizeable number of sets that you can hold for the entire workout.
- Take only a little rest (3 to 7 seconds recommended) between sets.
Diane WOD Scales
Diane WOD is supposed to be done quickly, attaining a 10 minute or less time. It also needs to be done unbroken. The weight on your deadlifts should be moderate. You can scale the load according to your skill level to push through this Crossfit workout.
With workout scaling, you can cut your reps from 21-15-9 to 15-12-9.
Handstand Push-Ups
You can swap out handstand push-ups with regular push-ups or piked push-ups on a box. Alternatively, you can also do handstand push-ups on mats.
Beginners can switch to incline push-ups for a bit more challenge.
Deadlifts
You should reduce the weight to something you can do 15 times with efficiency and great form.
Beginners can use 65 pounds for deadlifts, while intermediates can use 105 pounds.
Related: Comparing deadlifts to kettlebell swings
What to Expect from the Diane WOD
The Diane WOD should feel moderately heavy and uncomfortably fast at first. The deadlift weight shouldn’t be too light or too heavy. The sweet spot is in between.
Choosing not to scale this workout could mean taking 20 minutes or more to complete it.
The reason athletes take this amount of time is that the skill level is too high or the load is too heavy.
