How do I improve my Helen (CrossFit) time?

Build the pull-ups until the sets of 12 are easy. For men in the middle of these profiles, going from 29 unbroken pull-ups to 38 is worth about 30 seconds on Helen. The matching step on the 400m, from 1:15 to 1:07, is worth about 21 seconds. By about 50 unbroken pull-ups the extra reps stop showing up, and a faster run is the part with room left.

Helen is three rounds for time of a 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pull-ups. Men swing 53 lb. Women swing 35 lb.

Where these times come from

This is the same CrossFit Games profile scrape as the Fran post: athlete IDs 1 through 299,999. Of 60,843 men and 34,241 women, 15,060 men and 4,804 women had typed in a Helen. I kept times from 6:00 to 20:00, which leaves 14,834 men and 4,718 women. In that window the median is 9:18 for men and 10:44 for women. What counts as a good time is in What’s a good Helen (CrossFit) time?.

The comparison needs a Helen, a max set of pull-ups, and a 400m on the same profile. That is 5,434 men and 1,229 women, with pull-ups from 1 to 80 and a 400m from 0:45 to 2:00. Their median Helen is a bit faster, 9:00 for men and 10:09 for women. About 25% of the men and 14% of the women on these profiles posted a Helen at all. People who know the time and enter it are a fitter group than a typical class.

An earlier version of this post fit the same comparison on 139 men from a smaller 2014 scrape, described in Gathering CrossFit data: the methodology. The formulas below replace that one.

Pull-ups and the 400m

Among the 5,434 men, those two numbers account for 44% of the variation in Helen times. The slower quarter of the pull-ups is 29 and the middle is 38. The slower quarter of the 400m times is 1:15 and the middle is 1:07.

Each extra unbroken pull-up is associated with a Helen about 3.4 seconds faster. Each second on the 400m is associated with a Helen about 2.7 seconds faster. Helen has three 400s, so a second per lap would be 3 seconds, and 2.7 sits next to that. A man with 38 pull-ups and a 1:07 comes out at 9:17.

The table holds the other number at the middle of this group and applies the formula. “To middle” is the step from the slower quarter to the middle. “To faster” is the step from the middle to the faster quarter, which is 50 pull-ups and a 1:00.

Through the middle of the men, the pull-up step is larger. It gets larger again on the way to the faster quarter, because that step is 12 more pull-ups against 7 seconds on the 400m.

For the 1,229 women, the same two numbers account for 46% of the variation. The slower quarter is 17 pull-ups and a 1:32. The middle is 25 pull-ups and a 1:22. The faster quarter is 32 pull-ups and a 1:14.

Each extra pull-up is associated with a Helen about 4.4 seconds faster, and each second on the 400m with about 3 seconds. A woman with 25 pull-ups and a 1:22 comes out at 10:33. On the way to the middle, the 400m step is 30 seconds and the pull-up step is 35.

After the sets of 12 are easy

The formula is an average across the whole range. The medians, at a similar 400m, show where that average comes from. These men all ran between 1:04 and 1:12. The row counts run from 36 athletes at 10-14 pull-ups to 282 at 40-44. The median falls from 11:37 to 8:20 by 50-54 pull-ups, and the 60-64 row is 8:20 again.

The steep part is getting the sets of 12 unbroken and then some. From 10-14 pull-ups to 15-19, the median drops by a minute and a quarter. From 50 pull-ups on, it sits still. Helen asks for 12 at a time, so a max set around 50 leaves the pull-ups as a small piece of the time.

The women in the same kind of slice ran between 1:18 and 1:28. The rows are smaller, 44 to 82 athletes, and they get thin after 35, so the table stops at 30-34. The drop is the same shape: about two minutes from 10-14 pull-ups to 30-34.

A 5k instead of a sprint

The 400m on these profiles is one hard lap. Helen is three laps with swings and pull-ups between them, so a 5k is the running number that matches the workout better. Among the 4,061 men who also posted a 5k between 14:00 and 40:00, going from a 23:57 to a 21:45 lines up with about 29 seconds of Helen. In that same group, going from 30 pull-ups to 39 lines up with about 28 seconds. Among 882 women, a 27:00 to a 24:30 lines up with about 36 seconds, and 17 pull-ups to 25 lines up with about 33.

A realistic step on the 5k is as large as the pull-up step. Eight seconds on the 400m is a thin slice of three laps, which is why that step is smaller than a two-minute 5k. Body weight stays out of the prediction once the pull-ups and the 400m are already in it.

These associations describe the athletes who posted the numbers. The profile has no kettlebell count. If your pull-ups and your run already match the formula and the Helen is still slow, the swings and the rest between movements are what’s left on the clock.