CrossFit revives Brian Hero WOD with rope climbs and back squats

Brian does not reward theatrics. It rewards athletes who can keep their breathing, their midline, and their decisions intact after the first few squat sets start to bite. CrossFit brought the Hero workout back on May 29 as three rounds for time of five rope climbs to 15 feet and 25 back squats, with the bar set at 125 pounds for women and 185 pounds for men.

The twist is in how the workout punishes impatience. Rope climbs ask for timing, leg lock, and composure, but the back squats are what expose the real winners. Once the legs begin to dull and the trunk starts to loosen, the climb becomes slower, the descent becomes sloppier, and every trip to the rack takes on more cost. Fitter athletes will separate themselves by staying crisp on the rope, then immediately settling under the bar without the long pauses that turn each round into a reset. The biggest mistake is going too hot early, then spending the rest of the workout surviving the rack instead of working through it.

Brian first appeared on the Workout of the Day on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, with a different prescription: three rounds for time of a 15-foot rope climb, five ascents, and 25 back squats at 185 pounds. The 2026 version kept the same simple architecture, but CrossFit compared it directly to 120515 and shifted the rope work to five climbs, making the session a more explicit under-fatigue test without changing its identity. The message from the coaching notes was blunt: keep the bar moving, choose a load that can be handled unbroken in the first round, and do not let any round collapse into endless rest at the rack.

The workout honors U.S. Navy Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer Brian R. Bill, who was assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit. Born Aug. 23, 1979, in Stamford, Connecticut, Bill was 31 when he died on Aug. 6, 2011, after wounds suffered when his helicopter crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan. Military Times reported that 30 Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the Chinook shootdown. CrossFit’s 2012 post named his surviving mother, Patricia Parry, and her husband Dr. Michael Parry, his father Scott, and siblings Christian, Amy, Andrea, Kerry, Tessa, and Morgan.

Brian also sits inside a larger CrossFit memorial tradition. CrossFit says it has posted Hero workouts since 2005, and a 2024 article said new Hero WODs are released each Memorial Day and July 4. The heroes archive now lists 244 results, a sign of how far the tribute library has grown while still preserving the same core demand: move hard, stay disciplined, and honor the name on the whiteboard with quality work under pressure.