Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

This workout creates significant fatigue accumulation through 12 rounds of high-intensity intervals with minimal rest. The 20-second AMRAPs demand near-maximal effort on both bike calories and pull-ups, while only 10 seconds rest prevents meaningful recovery. The combination of cardiovascular stress from biking immediately followed by grip-intensive pull-ups creates interference patterns. Most athletes will hit failure on pull-ups in later rounds due to cumulative grip fatigue and systemic exhaustion from the relentless pace.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Endurance (8/10): Twelve rounds of 20-second intervals with minimal rest creates significant cardiovascular demand, testing aerobic capacity and recovery between efforts.
• Stamina (7/10): High-volume pull-ups combined with bike calories over 12 rounds will heavily tax upper body muscular endurance and grip stamina.
• Speed (6/10): Quick transitions between bike and pull-ups are crucial, and maintaining high output during brief work intervals requires speed.
• Power (4/10): Short 20-second intervals encourage explosive efforts on the bike and dynamic pull-up movement, though not purely power-based.
• Strength (3/10): Pull-ups require relative bodyweight strength, but the interval format emphasizes endurance over maximal strength output.
• Flexibility (3/10): Pull-ups demand shoulder mobility and lat flexibility, while biking requires basic hip and ankle range of motion.

Movements

• Air Bike
• Pull-Up

Benchmark Notes

This is a 12-round Tabata-style workout alternating between calorie bike and pull-ups (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest). Total work time is 4 minutes (240 seconds) with 12 x 10-second rests. Movement breakdown: Calorie Bike - Elite athletes can sustain 15-18 calories per 20-second interval when fresh, degrading to 12-15 calories in later rounds due to fatigue. Average athletes manage 8-12 calories per interval, while beginners achieve 5-8 calories. Pull-ups - Elite athletes can maintain 8-12 pull-ups per 20-second interval early, dropping to 6-10 in later rounds. Average athletes manage 4-7 per interval, beginners 2-4. Fatigue pattern: Rounds 1-3 at baseline pace, rounds 4-6 show 10-15% degradation, rounds 7-9 show 20-25% degradation, rounds 10-12 show 30-40% degradation as lactate accumulates. The 10-second rest between movements is insufficient for full recovery, creating cumulative fatigue. No direct anchor matches this format, but referencing Cindy (AMRAP 20 with pull-ups) where L10 achieves 25-30 rounds (150-180 total pull-ups in 20 minutes), this 4-minute high-intensity format should yield proportionally higher rates. Elite total: ~360 reps (180 calories + 180 pull-ups), Average: ~240 reps, Beginner: ~120 reps. Final targets - L10: 360 reps, L5: 240 reps, L1: 120 reps.

Modality Profile

Two movements: Bike (monostructural cardio) and Pull-Up (bodyweight gymnastics). Equal 50/50 split between M and G modalities.