beyond the whiteboard

Below you will find details about the components of our new Whiteboard Calendar Overlay. When preparing for a workout, it’s important to look not only at information about the Workout itself, but also about the Movements contained in it. The purpose of this Overlay is to give as much information as possible to help you decide how to best approach a workout, and how to properly modify it if necessary.  

Workout Information

Levels

Rx’d results for most workouts will now be assigned a level.  This level is from 0-100, with a higher number being better.  It represents the percent of results that your result is better than.  For example, a level of “80″ means that your result was better than 80% of the site results for that workout.  One thing to note is that all modified results are grouped below the worst Rx’d result.  So if you do a workout as prescribed, you will automatically have a level higher than all the people who modified.  Due to the wide variations in scaling, we can’t assign a meaningful level to Modified results.  By including all the results for a workout, and not just Rx’d results, it allows us to standardize and compare levels across workouts.

Milestone Slider

The Milestone Slider is an easy way to see what score you need to get to achieve a certain level.  As you slide to different levels, the score field will update with the appropriate score for that level.  If you have done the workout Prescribed in the past, you will be given a Milestone to shoot for on your next attempt at the workout.

Previous Results

Your Previous Results will show up on the slider as well, arranged by their Level.  By clicking on different results on the slider, you will be able to bring up all of the details of your previous results.

Movement Information

Potential Max Graph

Whenever you perform a set for a specific lift, we can calculate the Potential Max of your set.  The Potential Max is an estimate of what 1RM that set would be equivalent to.  We use the standard 1rm Estimator formula to calculate this.  For example, performing 3 reps @ 185# gives you a Potential Max of 203#.  By comparison, performing 5 reps @ 174# would also give a Potential Max of 203#.  This allows us to say that 6 reps @ 174# is better than 3 reps @ 185#.

We have constructed a Potential Max Graph for each of your lifts using these concepts.  We have plotted every set of every workout for each movement, based on each set’s Potential Max.  This allows us to compare different sets with different reps, and see which one was better.  Within the same workout, you can see how intense each set was, by looking at how closely bunched the vertical red points (Potential Maxes) are. When looking at lifting workouts that were performed over the course of a week or two, you can use the Potential Max as a measure of relative intensity.  Over longer time periods, the trends of the Potential Max graph will give you good picture of how you are progressing in your lifts.

Max Lifts and Percentage Slider

We’ve also included a section that lists your 1 RM, 3 RM and 5 RM for weightlifting movements, if available.  These will give you an idea of what your current maxes are, which can be helpful in choosing an appropriate weight for a workout containing that movement.  There is also a small slider below each max, allowing you to quickly find percentages of your 1RM.  This makes it much simpler when performing a workout that assigns percentages.

Recent Levels and Recent Posts

We’ve also included a Recent Results graph which shows the levels of other recent workouts you’ve done that contain the selected movement.  This can be helpful in seeing how well you generally do on workouts containing, for example, Deadlifts.  This can give you an idea of what level to shoot for on a popular workout that you haven’t done before.

The Recent Posts box will let you know the weight/reps you performed during some recent workouts with that movement, to give you some insight into what weight you should choose for your current workout.

Lifestyle choices affect our fitness, but we often overlook their importance. That’s likely because there isn’t a simple and accurate way of measuring our progress and rank for each. Other services ask too many questions, and more often than not they are the wrong questions. They set the bar far too low, and, rather than improving choices, they end up reinforcing bad ones. Our new lifestyle strategy aims to fix this problem. Our goal is simple. To help you make better choices outside of the gym that will ultimately improve your performance inside of the gym.

Our goal is simple. To help you make better choices outside of the gym that will ultimately improve your performance inside of the gym.

It’s easy. Answer six questions about yesterday. You will accumulate points based on your answers. We’ll compare your choices with others at your gym, and even others from around the world. Better answers will result in more points, and more points symbolizes your improved path towards greater health and fitness. This isn’t a 1-month, 6-month, or even a year long challenge.  The pursuit of health and fitness doesn’t stop for anything, and for that reason points will reset on a weekly basis, giving you a chance to start fresh. You won’t get frustrated with falling behind the curve. You’ll have a new opportunity 52 different times a year to get yourself on track. No excuses.

You won’t get frustrated with falling behind the curve. You’ll have a new opportunity 52 different times a year to get yourself on track. No excuses.

Why these questions?  Each question, and its associated parameter, has been shown to have significant effects on physical performance and body composition.  Lacking in one area can mean the difference between a 4 min Fran and a 3 min Fran, as well as 15% body fat and 10% body fat.

The weekly breakdown will show you numbers on a daily basis.

We’ve decided to display the 75th percentile for the gym and site scores. Remember, the idea is to keep you motivated. We want you striving to be better than yesterday, last month, and last year. Displaying the 75th percentile will allow you to compare yourselves to the top Lifestyle earners out there. And if you’re ahead of the 75th percentile? Well, then you know you’re making some pretty good decisions.

We want you striving to be better than yesterday, last month, and last year.

We make a lot of small choices everyday that have a big affect on our health and fitness. Our approach is to try to measure some key choices in a simple straightforward way. Rather than let the choices build up, we are going to start fresh every week. So this week we are hoping you will try out the lifestyle feature and hopefully make a few better decisions.

When you see these buttons near a workout, you’ll be able to quickly do what you need to do.

Log

If you’ve done the workout, and want to log your result, clicking “Log” will let you begin logging it right away.

Plan

If you want to schedule the workout for yourself or your Gym, clicking “Plan” will let you do that.  As soon as you click, you’ll see this overlay.  Set your options and you’re done!

Favorite

If you see a workout you like, you can save it for later by clicking the “Favorite” button.  You can bring these workouts back up by using the Filters on the Plan page or the Explore>Workouts page.  Just click on the “WODs” filter, choose “Favorites” and click “Save”.  You can also access them by going to Log>Workout and clicking on the “Your Favorites” button there.

Quick Log

We have amazing users who send us amazing feedback, and, as you guys know, we take it every seriously. A common theme has been to log more fitness variables. For example, sleep. Our goal was to build an interface where a user could log various daily attributes in under 60 seconds. We got it to under 30 Seconds. Starting today you can log your Sleep, Body Condition, Mobility Work, Diet, Post WOD, Water Intake, Fish Oil and Shoes right from your whiteboard. Simply click an option from the whiteboard column and it will instantly get logged.

2 week Overview

The 2 Week Overview brings together Gym Programming, Workout Results, Weigh Ins and Journal Entries.

Today

An easy way to organize what you have to get done today. We created a to-do section which will show your WODs and let you know if you need to weigh in. On top of user submitted demos, we organized any movements prescribed today by workout elements. You can click any movement to view your movement history. We are also excited to include a list of related and recently published articles from the Crossfit Journal. We support the CrossFit Journal because it is the greatest fitness library in the world. Do yourself a favor and read an article, or watch a video if you are against reading, everyday.

A More Personal Feel

The first thing we decided to do is replace “beyond the whiteboard” with your Affiliate name. We assume you know what site you are on and don’t need to be reminded on every single page(the above picture has “CrossFit Kinnick”). Having your affiliate name(linked to the affiliate page) cleans up the user interface and gives a more personal feel to the site.

Navigation Made Simple

As we worked on features we realized the top navigation was getting a bit crowded. We grouped the navigation options into three categories: Log, Find, You. New features will easily be added to one of the top menus and will never cause design problems.

Don’t Panic

We aren’t changing everything on the site overnight. The new layout will have the same main section on every page. We will constantly make more videos and blogs anytime we are about to change a page.