Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

While the individual weights and movements are moderate, the combination creates significant challenge. Devil presses are already fatiguing, and moving directly into burpees over DBs keeps heart rate elevated. The thrusters then hit already-taxed shoulders and legs. With 6 rounds and no built-in rest, this becomes a grip and shoulder endurance test that will take 12-15 minutes of continuous work.

Benchmark Times for Devil’s Advocate

• Elite: <4:30
• Advanced: 5:00-5:40
• Intermediate: 6:20-7:00
• Beginner: >12:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): Multiple rounds of complex dumbbell movements tax muscular endurance, particularly in shoulders, core, and legs with minimal rest between efforts.
• Endurance (7/10): Six rounds of compound movements with dumbbells creates significant cardiovascular demand through continuous work. The burpees especially drive up heart rate.
• Flexibility (6/10): Thrusters and devil presses demand good mobility in hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine for proper execution.
• Speed (6/10): Quick transitions between movements and fast cycling of moderate-weight dumbbells are key for good times.
• Strength (5/10): Moderate dumbbell loads require decent strength, especially in devil presses and thrusters where weight is moved through full ranges.
• Power (4/10): Some explosive elements in thrusters and burpees, but fatigue will likely make movements more grinding than explosive.

Movements

• Devil Press
• Burpee
• Thruster

Scaling Options

Weight reductions: 35/25 lb dumbbells for intermediate, 25/15 lb for beginners. Movement modifications: Regular burpees instead of over dumbbells, step-back burpees for beginners. Devil press can scale to alternating dumbbell ground-to-overhead. Thrusters can become dumbbell front squats + strict press. Volume options: Reduce to 4-5 rounds, or 4 reps per movement. Time cap at 20 minutes.

Scaling Explanation

Scale if unable to perform 5+ unbroken devil presses or thrusters with prescribed weight, or if burpees take more than 3-4 seconds each. Form deterioration on devil press is primary scaling indicator - shoulders should maintain stability throughout. Target completion time is 12-18 minutes with consistent pacing across rounds. Prioritize full range of motion and proper loading patterns over speed. Scale load or volume if round times vary by more than 30 seconds.

Intended Stimulus

Moderate-length glycolytic workout targeting 12-18 minutes. Combines heavy dumbbell complexes with explosive movements to test strength endurance and power output under fatigue. Primary challenge is maintaining quality movement patterns while managing grip fatigue and shoulder loading.

Coach Insight

Break up devil presses early - consider 3/3 or 4/2 from the start. Quick but controlled burpees, focusing on efficient transitions over the dumbbells. For thrusters, establish a sustainable rhythm and avoid rushing the first 2-3 rounds. Rest dumbbells in rack position between reps if needed. Watch for deteriorating form in rounds 4-5 when fatigue sets in. Keep dumbbells close to body on all movements to manage shoulder fatigue.

Benchmark Notes

This workout is structurally similar to Grace (30 reps) but with 108 total reps (18 per round × 6 rounds) and mixed movements. Per-movement breakdown (fresh state): - Devil Press: 4-5s/rep - Burpee Over DB: 4-5s/rep - DB Thruster: 2-3s/rep Round progression with fatigue: Rounds 1-2: ~60s (movements fresh) Rounds 3-4: ~70s (1.15x fatigue) Rounds 5-6: ~80s (1.3x fatigue) Transitions between movements: 2-3s elite, 3-5s intermediate Using Grace as anchor (30 reps, L10 90-120s male / 110-150s female) and scaling up for: - 3.6x total reps (108 vs 30) - Mixed movement complexity - Dumbbell manipulation Projected targets: Male: L10: 4:30-5:00 (270-300s) L5: 7:00-7:30 (420-450s) L1: 11:00-13:00 (660-780s) Female: L10: 5:30-6:00 (330-360s) L5: 8:30-9:00 (510-540s) L1: 13:00-15:00 (780-900s)

Modality Profile

Devil Press and Thruster are weighted movements (W), while Burpee is a gymnastics movement (G). With 2 weighted movements and 1 gymnastics movement out of 3 total movements, this gives us roughly 67% weightlifting and 33% gymnastics, with no monostructural movements present.