A heavy barbell paired with an unstable gymnastics movement. Elizabeth asks you to be strong on the ground and controlled in the air, back to back, with fatigue from one bleeding directly into the other.
Complete all squat cleans before moving to ring dips in each round. Total: 45 squat cleans + 45 ring dips.
Suggested time cap: 12 minutes · Competitive target: sub-4 minutes at Rx. Your score is the time it takes to complete all reps.
The squat clean is technically demanding on its own — receiving a heavy bar in a full squat requires speed, positioning, and confidence under the bar. Elizabeth then asks you to go straight from that heavy, ground-based effort to ring dips, where the challenge flips entirely: instead of stability from the floor, you need shoulder and tricep control on a moving, unstable ring path.
Fatigue compounds across both movements. Grip and leg fatigue from the cleans makes ring dips harder to stabilize, and shoulder fatigue from ring dips makes the next set of cleans feel heavier than the bar actually is.
Elizabeth scales per movement. Choose the row below that matches a clean you can move efficiently and a dip position you can actually control.
| Level | Squat Clean | Ring Dip |
|---|---|---|
| Rx | 135 lb (M) / 95 lb (W) | Full ROM on rings |
| Scaled | 95 lb (M) / 65 lb (W) | Banded ring dips or fixed-bar dips |
| Beginner | 65 lb (M) / 45 lb (W), or hang power clean | Push-ups or bench dips |
Scale the ring dip to a banded or fixed-bar version before removing the movement entirely — the instability of the rings is most of what makes this workout what it is, so a supported ring dip teaches more than a stable substitute at this stage.
Break the squat cleans into small sets from the first round — singles or doubles at 135/95 lb, not an attempted unbroken set. A missed or failed clean rep costs far more time than a brief reset between lifts, and squat cleans under fatigue carry real technical risk.
On the ring dips, take a moment to stabilize the rings before starting your first rep rather than rushing straight from the barbell.
A controlled ring dip you can repeat beats a fast one that ends in a flared-out, unstable position.
Elizabeth is a barbell-and-rings workout by design, but both movements survive a handful of straightforward substitutions.
| Equipment | Substitution | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| No barbell | Dumbbell squat clean | 1:1 reps |
| No rings | Fixed-bar or parallette dips | 1:1 reps |
| Can’t do any ring dips | Banded ring dips | 1:1 reps |
| No rig for rings at all | Push-ups or bench dips | 1:1 reps |
FITL scales this automatically based on the equipment and experience level in your profile.
Sub-4 minutes at Rx is a strong time for an experienced athlete. Most CrossFit athletes finish Rx Elizabeth in the 5–9 minute range. Scaled athletes should expect 8–12 minutes depending on ring dip capacity.
If you can’t yet do ring dips, start with banded ring dips to keep the instability challenge, or move to fixed-bar dips if stability isn’t the limiter and strength is. Push-ups or bench dips are the furthest scale for athletes without any dip capacity yet.
Yes. Substitute fixed-bar or parallette dips at a 1:1 rep ratio — you’ll lose some of the instability challenge, but the pressing strength demand stays intact.
With scaling, yes — but it’s one of the more technical guides in terms of barbell skill. Beginners should scale the clean load significantly (or substitute a hang power clean) and use a supported dip variation rather than forcing an unscaled squat clean under fatigue.
Get Elizabeth — and every benchmark WOD — automatically scaled to your equipment and experience level.