Ask any “bodyweight ninja” (the guy we all know who wants nothing more than to crush some bodyweight workout) what the last exercise he wants to see in a workout is.
“Heavy deadlifts” he’ll whisper, a slight shudder running down his spine as he imagines the beautifully-horrible sound of touch-and-go deadlift repetitions.
Deep down, though, he knows he loves a good deadlift WOD.
And with good reason!
What other type of CrossFit workout is going to fatigue the body with running, rowing, swinging, and kipping only to ask you to essentially win a powerlifting competition halfway through?
“Fran” doesn’t
“Cindy” sure as heck doesn’t
You’re gonna need to do something that involves a little bit more…iron.
Table of Contents
Top 19 Deadlift WODs
If you want to develop a bulletproof central nervous system with a matching endurance capacity to boot, try to go “Elite” on a deadlift WOD from our Top 19 Deadlift WODs list:
50 Deadlifts
Equipment: Barbell, bumper plates
I would say this is as “simple” as it gets, but anyone who has tried to rip off 50 heavy-ish deadlifts would disagree with the statement.
Mat Fraser uses this as a regular benchmark in his programming. If you’re thinking about signing up for HWPO, better be ready to test this one a lot!
DT
Equipment: Barbell, bumper plates
We did a whole breakdown of DT a few months back. TLDR? It’s hard, even if the deadlifts aren’t that heavy.
DT is a real “thinking man’s” deadlift WOD since it requires a bar-dropping strategy. The good news is, if you really like DT, you’re going to see another variation or two this workout later on this!
2023 SAPT Games Qualifier Triplet
Equipment: Plyo box, pull-up bar/rack, barbell, bumper plates
I actually did this one a few months ago (twice, actually; as bad as this camera angle is, it was much worse before).