[For PDF’s of all the Skill Levels, see below]
Everyone knows that being “in shape” is a good thing. We all know that we are supposed to work out, to burn calories, to get our heart rate up.
What is the end goal though? How much work should you be able to do, how strong do you need to be, what skills are necessary, and how can you measure your progress? There are as many answers to these questions as there are people working out.
If you are training for a particular sport or activity it is fairly straightforward to define the desired outcomes. However, if your goal is simply being fit, it can be more difficult to set appropriate goals. What is needed are some benchmarks that will help you train in the most effective way and allow you to evaluate your progress as you go.
I first developed the Athletic Skill Levels in 2006 based on a simple idea; there are a set of skills which will predict success in a broad range of physical endeavors. Since posting the chart on our website in 2006 (when we were CrossFit North), it was linked on CrossFit.com, became a fundamental concept in the CrossFit community, and can be found on the walls of gyms around the globe. These Skill Levels define a limited set of physical skills and set progressive benchmarks in these skills. Using these benchmarks, you can develop a personalized set of goals for improving your fitness.
Having defined goals is a good start, but over the years, I’ve realized that the Skill Levels needed to do more. They needed to provide more guidance on how to make progress toward these goals.
We have trained thousands of people, using the Athletic Skill Levels as a benchmark of our clients’ progress. We have seen how people progress toward their fitness goals, and where their progress stalls. That experience has guided my development of version 2.0 of the Skill Levels.
Athletic Skill Levels 2.0
Many of the specific goals in the original Athletic Skill Levels are unchanged. They have stood the test of time and have proven to be realistic practical benchmarks. Several new goals were added, such as rope climbing and levers. The biggest change, however, is added detail. The Skill Levels now include many more steps toward each goal.
There are still 4 levels (plus I have added a Pre-Level 1). However, each level is now broken down into 3 sub-sections; Level 1A, 1B, and 1C, and so on. Important milestones in each area of physical development are listed so that you are able to maintain balance in your overall progress. Each of the elements on the list measures a particular area of fitness. The deadlift, for instance, measures hip strength and mobility; the pull-up is about shoulder and lat engagement. The thruster requirement means you’ve been able to develop your rack position, a decent squat, and some work capacity. It’s a good test. But for folks who don’t have good technique, it’s an insurmountable goal. Which is my point: fix that.
What the Skill Levels Mean
Pre-Level 1 pdf: This is a great place to start setting goals for people who do not yet have a fitness base.
Level 1 pdf: You can move like a human. If your town floods, you can get in a rescue boat without a firefighter pulling you in. If you can’t do three pull-ups, and three dips, you don’t have healthy shoulders. If you can’t squat all the way down comfortably, your hips are not healthy. These are basic health problems that can affect your quality of life. Fixing these problems generates a lot of self-confidence and sets the stage for further progress.
Level 2 pdf: You are an active, fit person who can tackle whatever you want to do. All of your joints have full range of motion and adequate strength. You know how to create stability and power. You are ready to dive into learning any new physical activity that may interest you. Being this capable is so much fun!
Level 3 pdf: This is general fitness for a competitive athlete. That’s already pretty rare territory. Most adults don’t need all this, but it can be fun and give you some challenging goals.
Level 4 pdf: The level 4 goals explore the limits of general fitness. They are attainable only through many years of smart consistent training. None of the individual goals are very advanced when compared to a specialist in that field, but the combination of these qualities is very hard to achieve. For many, if not most people, this level of all-around fitness is just not practical. Not practical because achieving all of these skills simultaneously means that you have really become a specialist in general fitness. Many, many people can perform some of the skills listed in Level 4, while at the same time they are unable to perform several level 2 skills. Perhaps the best use of these levels is when you are able to realize that you are already “good enough” in one area and can then focus on an area that needs work.
Using the Athletic Skill Levels Version 2.0
Make sure you can do the basics before you try to tackle the advanced!
That, in a nutshell, is the idea of the Skill Levels. Master the fundamentals and then build on them. Sounds simple. In practice, however, it can be tricky. And the real difficulty is this; we are accustomed to working on our strengths. However, for developing general fitness, we need to work on our weaknesses. Finding and eliminating our shortcomings can be very rewarding, but this often requires changing our outlook. We need to learn to enjoy incremental progress and learn to set aside our ego and emotion.
Many years of experience and 2 years of research went into the original Athletic Skill Levels, and 8 more years of work went into Version 2.0. I am very excited to share the Athletic Skill Levels with you and I hope that you find them as useful as we have.
Best regards,
Dave Werner