Let’s be honest—celebrity fitness content usually makes me roll my eyes. There’s always some actor posting a gym selfie with a caption like “feeling the burn” after a 15-minute Instagram story workout.
But then I caught wind that Tom Holland did a legitimate CrossFit benchmark workout, and I actually got interested. Not because he’s in the MCU, but because Cindy is *no joke*, and I wanted to know if he’d actually suffer like the rest of us mortals.
For the uninitiated, Cindy is one of CrossFit’s most brutal benchmark WODs (workout of the day). It’s deceptively simple: 20 minutes AMRAP—that’s “as many rounds as possible”—of just 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats. No weights, no complicated movements. That’s partly why it’s so brutal. You can’t hide from it.
Why Cindy Breaks People ?
Here’s the thing about Cindy: it looks easy on paper. A few pull-ups? I can do that. Some push-ups? Sure. But string them together for 20 straight minutes with no rest period, and your body has a very different opinion.
By round four or five, your grip is screaming. Your shoulders feel like someone’s been beating them with a baseball bat. Those “simple” push-ups? They start feeling like you’re pushing a car.
And the air squats—normally the easy part—become this weird purgatory where your legs are tired enough that standing up feels like defeat, but not tired enough that you can actually stop.
Most experienced CrossFitters hit somewhere between 9-12 rounds if they’re at a decent level. A solid athlete might break 13 or 14. Anything above that is genuinely impressive.
So What Did Tom Actually Do?
From what came out, Holland trained for it properly (props for that—at least he didn’t just show up and wing it). He has legitimate trainers and the kind of fitness regimen that comes with actually playing a superhero, not just pretending to be one on social media.
“It’s great, you don’t have to think about anything,” “You just count your rounds. Sometimes if I’m feeling really tired, I’ll do one round on the minute every minute, so you do 20 rounds. And then if I’m feeling great, I will just push through and do as many as I can. I think my record is 27 rounds.”
Think you can beat Holland’s record? To celebrate the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we challenge you to give it a try. The 20-minute workout can be done virtually anywhere and will put your fitness and mental grit to the test.
Should You Try Cindy?
If you’ve been curious, Yeah Go try it. Just manage your expectations. You’ll probably discover muscles you forgot you had. You’ll understand why CrossFit people talk about benchmarks like other people talk about traumatic events. And you’ll definitely feel like you did something real when you’re done—not like you phoned it in for content.
Fair warning though: the second round of pull-ups is where the mental game gets real. Bring that energy.
How to Do the “Cindy”
Set a timer for 20 minutes. Repeat the below sequence continuously for the full 20 minutes, aiming to complete as many rounds as possible within the time frame.
- 5 pullups
- 10 pushups
- 15 air squats