Three advanced gymnastics skills, three different domains — inverted pressing, single-leg balance, and pulling — bundled into one 20-minute AMRAP. Mary doesn’t have Amanda’s single hard barrier. It has three smaller ones, back to back, for twenty straight minutes.
Score: total rounds completed, plus reps completed into any unfinished round — the same fixed-movement AMRAP scoring Cindy uses, not a variable total.
Most benchmarks test one or two movement patterns under fatigue. Mary tests three genuinely different skills in the same round: the shoulder stability and inversion tolerance of a handstand push-up, the single-leg balance and ankle/hip mobility of a pistol, and the grip and pulling endurance of a pull-up. None of them shares much technique with the others, which means there’s no “coasting” movement in this workout the way some triplets have one easier piece.
Like Amanda, most athletes will scale at least one of these three movements — that’s expected, not a shortfall. Unlike Amanda’s single hard skill (the muscle-up), Mary’s three movements each have a more gradual, more accessible progression path, which makes it a workout people tend to grow into over time rather than one they either have or don’t.
Mary scales per movement. Choose the row below that matches where you actually are with each skill — not the same tier across all three.
| Level | Handstand Push-Up | Pistol | Pull-Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rx | Full ROM, head to floor | Full single-leg squat, alternating | Full ROM, chin over bar |
| Scaled | Box or pike push-ups | Box-assisted single-leg squat | Banded or jumping pull-ups |
| Beginner | Seated dumbbell push press | Air squats (bilateral) | Ring rows |
Scale each movement independently based on where you actually are with it — it’s common to be Rx on one of these three and scaled on the other two. There’s no requirement to scale all three the same way.
Don’t rush the pistols. A balance failure that sends you stumbling costs more time than a deliberate, controlled rep — this is a movement where slow and stable beats fast and inconsistent.
On the handstand push-ups, use a pace you can sustain across every round of a 20-minute AMRAP, not your best single set. Break the pull-ups into planned sets from the start, same as every other pull-up-heavy workout in this library.
Mary rewards athletes who can repeat the same controlled effort in round 8 that they had in round 1 — across three different skills, that’s a harder ask than it sounds.
Mary is a wall-and-pull-up-bar workout by design, but all three movements survive straightforward substitutions.
| Equipment | Substitution | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| No wall for HSPU | Pike push-ups or seated DB push press | 1:1 reps |
| Limited single-leg mobility | Box-assisted pistols or air squats | 1:1 reps |
| No pull-up bar | Ring rows | 1:1 reps |
| Limited pull-up capacity | Banded or jumping pull-ups | 1:1 reps |
FITL scales this automatically based on the equipment and experience level in your profile.
Scores are measured in rounds completed plus reps into an unfinished round (e.g., “6 rounds + 8 reps”). This varies widely based on HSPU and pistol capacity — the more useful benchmark is comparing your own score over time as each skill develops.
If a full single-leg squat isn’t controlled and stable yet, use a box-assisted version (sitting back to a box before standing) or substitute bilateral air squats — forcing unscaled pistols before the balance and mobility are there usually costs more time than it’s worth.
Start with pike push-ups if you have no HSPU capacity yet, or a seated dumbbell push press if you’re not ready to invert under fatigue at all.
Like Amanda, this is one of the more advanced benchmarks — but its three movements each have a more gradual scaling path than Amanda’s muscle-up, so it’s more realistic to grow into over time. Beginners should scale all three movements and treat consistent rounds as the goal rather than chasing Rx early.
Get Mary — and every benchmark WOD — automatically scaled to your equipment and experience level.