Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Very Hard

Ring muscle-ups are a high-skill movement that most average CrossFitters cannot perform consistently, especially under fatigue. The descending ladder creates continuous work with no built-in rest, and the thrusters (115/75) between muscle-up sets will significantly compromise grip strength and shoulder stability. The combination of advanced gymnastics skill with moderate-heavy loading in a time-pressured format makes this accessible only to experienced athletes with solid muscle-up proficiency.

Benchmark Times for JON SNOW

• Elite: <7:00
• Advanced: 8:00-10:00
• Intermediate: 12:00-14:00
• Beginner: >23:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): Ring muscle ups and thrusters at moderate-high volume will severely test upper body pulling, pushing, and leg muscular endurance capabilities.
• Endurance (7/10): The 21-15-9 format with challenging movements creates significant cardiovascular demand, requiring sustained aerobic output throughout the descending ladder.
• Flexibility (7/10): Ring muscle ups require exceptional shoulder mobility and thoracic extension, while thrusters demand good overhead and hip flexibility for proper positioning.
• Strength (6/10): 115/75lb thrusters require moderate strength while ring muscle ups demand significant relative strength for the transition and support phases.
• Speed (6/10): For time format encourages fast transitions and cycling, though technical movements may limit maximum speed potential for safety.
• Power (5/10): Ring muscle ups require explosive hip drive and transition power, while thrusters demand power from the legs through overhead press.

Movements

• Ring Muscle-Up
• Thruster

Benchmark Notes

This workout follows a 9-6-3 ring muscle-up pattern with 21-15-9 thrusters at 115/75 lbs, creating a high-skill gymnastics + barbell combination. I'll reference Amanda (9-7-5 ring muscle-up + squat snatch 135/95) as the closest anchor, with L10: 420-480 sec, L5: 720-840 sec, L1: 1080-1380 sec. Movement breakdown: Ring muscle-ups are extremely technical, requiring 8-10 seconds per rep when fresh, but significantly longer under fatigue. Round 1: 9 RMU (90-120 sec) + 21 thrusters at 115 lbs (50-70 sec) = 140-190 sec. Round 2: 6 RMU (fatigue factor 1.3x = 65-85 sec) + 15 thrusters (35-50 sec) = 100-135 sec. Round 3: 3 RMU (fatigue factor 1.5x = 35-50 sec) + 9 thrusters (20-30 sec) = 55-80 sec. Total movement time: 295-405 sec. Adding transitions (15-30 sec), set breaks for muscle-ups (60-120 sec), and failed attempts (30-90 sec), total time ranges 400-645 sec for elite to 1200-1500 sec for beginners. This workout is slightly easier than Amanda due to fewer total muscle-ups (18 vs 21) and lighter snatches replaced by thrusters, so I've adjusted Amanda's benchmarks down by approximately 10-15%. Final targets: L10: 420 sec, L5: 840 sec, L1: 1380 sec.

Modality Profile

Ring Muscle-Up is a bodyweight gymnastics movement, while Thruster is a weighted barbell movement. With two movements from different modalities, this creates a 50/50 split between Gymnastics and Weightlifting.