Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

This workout combines high volume (150 total reps each) with continuous work and no built-in rest. The descending ladder creates psychological relief but maintains intensity throughout. Wall balls will heavily tax the legs and shoulders while bike calories demand sustained cardio output. The combination of 300+ total reps across two demanding movements with significant fatigue accumulation makes this challenging for average athletes, likely requiring 15-20 minutes of sustained effort.

Benchmark Times for Somethin Even More Terrible (35:00 - 50:00)

• Elite: <6:00
• Advanced: 7:00-8:00
• Intermediate: 9:00-10:00
• Beginner: >16:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (9/10): 150 total calories on bike plus 150 wall balls creates massive muscular endurance demand, particularly in legs and shoulders.
• Endurance (8/10): High calorie bike volume combined with wall balls creates significant cardiovascular demand, testing aerobic capacity throughout the descending ladder format.
• Speed (7/10): Descending ladder format encourages faster cycling as sets get smaller, with transitions between bike and wall balls becoming critical.
• Power (6/10): Wall balls are explosive hip extension movements, and bike allows for powerful sprint intervals, especially in later smaller sets.
• Strength (4/10): Wall balls require moderate strength with 20/14 lb medicine ball, while bike is primarily cardio with minimal strength component.
• Flexibility (3/10): Wall balls demand overhead mobility and full squat depth, while biking requires basic hip and ankle range of motion.

Movements

• Wall Ball
• Air Bike

Benchmark Notes

This workout follows the classic Annie format (50-40-30-20-10 descending ladder) but substitutes double-unders with calorie bike and sit-ups with wall balls. Using Annie as the primary anchor (L10: 300-360 sec, L5: 480-600 sec, L1: 780-960 sec), I need to adjust for the movement substitutions. Calorie bike is generally faster than double-unders (especially for those who struggle with DU efficiency), while wall balls are significantly more demanding than sit-ups. Movement breakdown: Round 1 (50 reps each): Bike calories take ~45-60 sec for elite, wall balls ~100-125 sec. Round 2 (40 reps): ~35-50 sec bike, ~85-105 sec wall balls. Round 3 (30 reps): ~25-40 sec bike, ~65-85 sec wall balls. Round 4 (20 reps): ~18-30 sec bike, ~45-65 sec wall balls. Round 5 (10 reps): ~10-18 sec bike, ~25-35 sec wall balls. Total bike time: ~133-198 sec. Total wall ball time: ~320-415 sec. Adding transitions (20-30 sec total) and fatigue multipliers (wall balls get progressively harder, especially in later rounds with accumulated shoulder/leg fatigue), the workout should be slightly faster than Annie due to the bike efficiency offsetting some of the wall ball difficulty. Final targets: L10: 360 sec, L5: 600 sec, L1: 960 sec.

Modality Profile

Bike is monostructural cardio (M) and Wall Ball uses external load making it weightlifting (W). Two modalities split 50/50.