Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

The 100/70lb sandbag weight is moderate-heavy for most athletes, but the 21-15-9 rep scheme creates significant fatigue accumulation across three demanding movements with no built-in rest. Squat cleans tax the entire body, reverse lunges maintain leg fatigue, and sandbag facing burpees compound the exhaustion. The awkward sandbag grip and continuous nature make this substantially harder than the sum of its parts, requiring most athletes to scale weight or break reps frequently.

Benchmark Times for 30:01 - 45:00

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

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High volume of compound movements with a 100/70lb sandbag will severely test muscular endurance, especially in legs, core, and grip strength.
• Endurance (7/10): The 21-15-9 format with heavy sandbag movements creates significant cardiovascular demand, requiring sustained aerobic output throughout the descending rep scheme.
• Strength (6/10): The 100/70lb sandbag load requires substantial strength for squat cleans and carrying through lunges, though not maximal effort territory.
• Speed (6/10): The descending rep format encourages fast transitions and quick movement cycling, though the heavy sandbag will limit overall speed potential.
• Power (5/10): Sandbag squat cleans require explosive hip extension and rapid force development, though the heavy load and fatigue will limit power output.
• Flexibility (4/10): Squat cleans demand good ankle, hip, and thoracic mobility, while lunges require hip flexor and ankle range of motion for proper execution.

Movements

• Reverse Lunge
• Sandbag Clean

Benchmark Notes

This is a 21-15-9 format workout with sandbag movements totaling 45 reps per movement (135 total reps). I'll use Elizabeth (21-15-9 squat clean 135/95 + ring dip) as the primary anchor since it shares the exact rep scheme and includes squat cleans, then adjust for the sandbag loading and movement differences. Movement breakdown per round: - Round 1 (21 reps each): Sandbag Squat Clean (100/70) ~2.5 sec/rep = 52.5 sec, Reverse Lunges ~1.5 sec/rep = 31.5 sec, Sandbag Facing Burpees ~4.5 sec/rep = 94.5 sec. Total: ~178 sec - Round 2 (15 reps each): With 1.1x fatigue = ~128 sec - Round 3 (9 reps each): With 1.2x fatigue = ~83 sec - Transitions: ~15 sec total - Raw total: ~404 sec Elizabeth anchor shows L10: 160-200 sec, L5: 360-420 sec, L1: 540-720 sec. However, this workout is significantly more demanding due to: 1) Sandbag Facing Burpees being much slower than ring dips (4.5 vs 2 sec/rep), 2) Sandbag handling being more awkward than barbell, 3) Higher total volume of work. The burpees alone add ~135 seconds vs ~90 seconds for ring dips. Adjusting Elizabeth upward by ~40-50% to account for the burpee penalty and sandbag awkwardness: L10: 240-280 sec, L5: 420-480 sec, L1: 720-840 sec. Final targets - L10: 240 sec (4:00), L5: 420 sec (7:00), L1: 720 sec (12:00)

Modality Profile

3 movements total: Sandbag Squat Clean (W), Reverse Lunge (G), Sandbag Facing Burpee (G). Two gymnastics movements (67%) and one weightlifting movement (33%), rounded to nearest 10% gives G: 33, W: 67.