After talking with a few members over the last week I realized there may be some confusion with what is considered scaled and what is considered Rx (prescribed) when logging workouts into SugarWOD or your own logbook.

Rx will always mean doing the movements as prescribed, and if a weight is designated you’re doing the workout with the specific weight. Scaled will mean modifying the movement, or modifying the weight if there is a designated weight for the workout.

For this example we will take Friday’s workouts with the 7×2 box squats followed by 30 burpee box jump overs.
If you do box squats with any weight then the workout would be logged as Rx and you would note the weight used. Even if you used an empty barbell (which is still 35lbs or 45lbs) it’s still considered Rx. Everyone’s strength levels will be different so don’t feel like your workout is scaled just because your numbers may be different than the person next to you!

Now what would be considered scaled here? If you were unable to do box squats with weight due to injury or other reasons, or you did another type of squat. Even if you did a 500lb full range back squat it’d be considered scaled in this case because the movement was not done as prescribed, no matter how impressive it may be.
With the burpee box jump overs there’s a few more qualifiers to make the movement Rx. The box height must be the designated height for males or females, you must do a full jump with both feet to leave the ground and land on the box, and you must do a full 30 reps. If you change the box height (to more or less), do box step-ups, or do a different number of reps we would consider that scaled. Not every workout will have these type of things specified and so long as you do them to your ability you could consider it Rx.

I don’t ever want you to consider doing a workout scaled to mean you’re less of an athlete or person though! We’re all on the same health and fitness journey, but we’re all at different spots along the way. We all have off days where our body may not be cooperating and we need to adjust the workout for the day. Even professional CrossFit Games athletes will scale their workouts to meet their needs!

And finally, if you’re ever not sure on any of this please do not hesitate to ask. We are here to answer any questions you have on topics like these.