Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

While bodyweight bench press and pull-ups are fundamental movements, the 21-15-9 rep scheme creates significant fatigue with no built-in rest. The bench press load (bodyweight) is substantial for most athletes, and combining it with pull-ups creates upper body/pushing-pulling interference. Most athletes will need to break up both movements, especially in later rounds, typically taking 8-12 minutes with considerable accumulating upper body fatigue.

Benchmark Times for Volkswagen

• Elite: <4:00
• Advanced: 4:30-5:00
• Intermediate: 5:45-6:30
• Beginner: >12:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (7/10): High total volume of upper body pushing and pulling (45 reps each) creates significant local muscular endurance demands, especially with bodyweight loading.
• Strength (6/10): Bodyweight bench press is a significant strength test for most athletes, while strict pull-ups require substantial relative strength.
• Speed (5/10): For time format encourages quick transitions and cycling of movements, but grip fatigue will limit maximum speed.
• Endurance (4/10): Short-duration workout with moderate cardiovascular demand. The descending rep scheme allows some recovery between sets but maintains elevated heart rate throughout.
• Flexibility (3/10): Standard shoulder mobility needed for bench press and pull-ups. No extreme ranges of motion required.
• Power (2/10): Primarily strength-endurance focused. Some power may be used for pull-ups but not a primary demand.

Movements

• Bench Press
• Pull-Up

Scaling Options

Reduce bench press load to 70-80% of bodyweight or use fixed weight (135/95#). Scale pull-ups to chest-to-bar rows, banded pull-ups, or jumping pull-ups based on capacity. For newer athletes, modify to 15-12-9 rep scheme. Ring rows at appropriate angle can substitute for pull-ups while maintaining pulling pattern. Consider tempo bench press (3 second negative) if reducing weight significantly.

Scaling Explanation

Scale if unable to perform 8+ unbroken bench presses at bodyweight or 5+ strict pull-ups when fresh. Target completion time is under 12 minutes - scale load/movements if estimated time exceeds this. Proper pressing mechanics and full range of motion on pull-ups take priority over prescribed load. Athletes should be able to maintain sets of at least 4-5 reps throughout workout when scaled appropriately. This is not meant to be a max strength workout - intensity should allow dynamic execution.

Intended Stimulus

Moderate-length glycolytic workout targeting upper body pushing/pulling capacity, typically lasting 8-12 minutes. Tests strength endurance and ability to maintain power output across decreasing rep schemes. Primary challenge is upper body strength-endurance with significant chest/back fatigue management.

Coach Insight

Break bench press sets early to avoid failure - consider 12-9, 8-7, 5-4 for the 21s. Quick transitions between movements are key but prioritize proper setup on bench. For pull-ups, mix grip styles (switch between pull-up and chin-up) to distribute fatigue. Most athletes hit the wall during the round of 15. Rest 10-15 seconds between movements rather than grinding to failure.

Benchmark Notes

This workout follows the 21-15-9 rep scheme like Fran, but with bodyweight bench press instead of thrusters. Using Fran as our anchor (21-15-9 thruster + pull-up), we need to adjust for: 1. Movement Analysis: - Bench Press (BW): 2-3 sec/rep when fresh, increasing with fatigue - Pull-ups: 1-2 sec/rep (kipping), similar to Fran 2. Round Breakdown (Elite Male): Round 1 (21 reps each): - Bench Press: 21 × 2.5s = 52.5s - Pull-ups: 21 × 1.5s = 31.5s - Transition: 5s Round 2 (15 reps each): - Bench Press: 15 × 3s = 45s (fatigue multiplier 1.2) - Pull-ups: 15 × 1.75s = 26.25s - Transition: 5s Round 3 (9 reps each): - Bench Press: 9 × 3.5s = 31.5s (fatigue multiplier 1.4) - Pull-ups: 9 × 2s = 18s Total theoretical: ~215s for elite performers 3. Adjustments vs Fran: - Bench press is slower than thrusters but less metabolically taxing - Similar pull-up component - Slightly longer overall due to bench press mechanics Final Targets (adjusted from Fran anchor): Male: - L10: 4:00 (240s) - L5: 6:30 (390s) - L1: 12:00 (720s) Female: - L10: 5:00 (300s) - L5: 8:00 (480s) - L1: 14:00 (840s) Female adjustments account for relatively higher difficulty of bodyweight bench press for most women.

Modality Profile

Pull-Up is a gymnastics movement (bodyweight), Bench Press is a weightlifting movement (external load). With two movements split across two modalities, this results in a 50/50 split between G and W.

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