In my opinion, the best CrossFit workouts are the ones that leave me piled on the floor, muscles trembling, breath ragged and body truly cooked. These aren’t the only signposts for a great workout — they come in all shapes and sizes, depending on what you enjoy — but if you’re looking to torch your whole body in just 35 minutes, this CrossFit-inspired workout might be for you.
The 12 Days of Christmas CrossFit WOD (workout of the day, if you’re still getting to grips with the endless CrossFit terms) is renowned; it comes around every year, always different, and puts members through the wringer, providing a workout from head to toe that challenges muscular endurance, strength and mental fortitude.
What a gift for the holiday season. Fancy it? Here we go.
How does 12 Days of Christmas work for CrossFit?
To complete the workout, there are 12 exercises to tick off, performed in the style of the classic “12 Days of Christmas” song. You’ll add a new exercise each round and run them back down to the start, with reps increasing with each new move and descending as they do in the song.
Your time cap is 35 minutes, so there’s no time to hang around, although you can rest whenever you want.
As a trainer, I love taking inspiration and spinning up workouts to challenge my clients, so I’ve created this gem inspired by the typical CrossFit 12 Days of Christmas workout layout. A seriously good time to finish would be around 20 minutes, but take it at your own pace.
Although this year’s Christmas CrossFit WOD hasn’t been released just yet, you can find an example of the previous 12 Days of Christmas workout movements here.
How does the 12 days of Christmas WOD work?
Here’s your chance to try a WOD inspired by CrossFit:
- 1 Barbell back squats
- 2 Barbell clean and press
- 3 Hand-release burpees over bar
- 4 Barbell bentover rows
- 5 Push-ups
- 6 Pull-ups
- 7 Box jumps
- 8 Broad jump burpees
- 9 Kettlebell swings
- 10 Toes to bar (or knee tucks)
- 11 Butterfly sit-ups
- 12 calorie row
Start with 1 rep of the first exercise, then complete 2 reps of your second exercise and move back to your first exercise for 1 rep. Next, complete 3 reps of the third exercise, and move back through the second and first moves. Continue until you hit the last exercise. Complete 12 reps, then descend all the way down to the first.
How many reps are in 12 Days of Christmas?
If you finish within the time cap, you’ll manage 364 reps in total. This workout is designed to kill you with volume. Remember, you’ll repeat exercises back-to-back multiple times, so think carefully about the load you use. I’d go lighter than you would by several pounds because even though the reps look low, the number of rounds and overall volume is high.
If this is your first time and you want to hit the workout with a friend, split the reps you-go-I-go or work in synchro to keep the same reps each.
If it feels too easy, scale. If you're losing time with weights that are too heavy, scale. It should feel like a beasting, but ideally, you can complete reps unbroken for each move, only resting if you need to between moves.
This isn’t my first rodeo, so if you’d like to repeat the workout, check out another 12 Days of Christmas workout I whipped up last year.
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