Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Very Hard

This workout combines extreme volume (16 rounds), continuous loading (ruck never comes off), and significant time commitment (likely 45-60+ minutes). The ruck weight creates cumulative fatigue across all movements, making thrusters particularly brutal after 15+ rounds of mountain climbers and shoulder taps. The sheer duration with no programmed rest, plus carrying weight throughout, pushes this beyond typical Hard workouts into Very Hard territory for average athletes.

Benchmark Times for Rep. John Lewis

• Elite: <20:00
• Advanced: 25:00-30:00
• Intermediate: 35:00-40:00
• Beginner: >60:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Endurance (9/10): 16 rounds of continuous work with weighted ruck creates massive cardiovascular demand over extended duration with minimal rest.
• Stamina (8/10): High volume mountain climbers and shoulder taps while carrying weight will exhaust core and shoulder muscular endurance significantly.
• Strength (6/10): Weighted thrusters and carrying ruck throughout demands moderate strength, especially posterior chain and shoulders under load.
• Speed (4/10): Steady pacing crucial for 16 rounds, but transitions minimal since ruck stays on throughout entire workout.
• Flexibility (3/10): Mountain climbers require hip flexion and shoulder mobility, thrusters need overhead range, but nothing extreme.
• Power (2/10): Thrusters have some explosive component but overall workout emphasizes grinding endurance over explosive power output.

Movements

• Thruster
• Mountain Climber
• Ruck March
• Plank Shoulder Tap

Benchmark Notes

This is a high-volume endurance workout with 16 rounds of mixed movements while wearing a ruck/weighted pack throughout. Breaking down by movement: 2:00 ruck march per round = 32 minutes total marching time. 45 mountain climbers per round (720 total) at ~1 sec each = 12 minutes. 33 shoulder taps per round (528 total) at ~1 sec each = 8.8 minutes. 13 thrusters per round (208 total) with ruck weight at ~3 sec each = 10.4 minutes. Base movement time totals ~63 minutes. However, the ruck march is paced/controlled time that allows some recovery between intense movements. The mountain climbers, shoulder taps, and thrusters will be done in clusters with rest breaks due to the high volume and added weight. Fatigue multipliers: rounds 1-4 at 1.0x, rounds 5-8 at 1.2x, rounds 9-12 at 1.4x, rounds 13-16 at 1.6x. Transition time between movements minimal since ruck stays on. Set breaking on bodyweight movements due to fatigue and weighted thrusters. This resembles a scaled-down Murph in structure (long endurance with weighted vest) but with more varied movements. Murph anchor shows L10 at 30-34 minutes, L5 at 43-55 minutes, L1 at 65-80 minutes. This workout has similar endurance demands but more movement variety and potentially lighter loading than Murph vest, suggesting slightly faster times. Final targets: L10: 20 minutes, L5: 40 minutes, L1: 60 minutes.

Modality Profile

4 movements: Ruck March (M - cyclical cardio), Mountain Climber (G - bodyweight), Plank Shoulder Tap (G - bodyweight), Thruster (W - external load). 2 Gymnastics, 1 Monostructural, 1 Weightlifting = 50/25/25