Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

This workout creates significant fatigue accumulation through continuous work across 5 rounds with no built-in rest. The 95/65lb thrusters become increasingly difficult as grip and shoulders fatigue from pull-ups, while the rowing maintains elevated heart rate throughout. The moderate weight combined with high volume (45 thrusters, 45 pull-ups total) and continuous nature pushes most average athletes to scale weight or break movements into smaller sets.

Benchmark Times for WOD

• Elite: <6:00
• Advanced: 7:00-8:00
• Intermediate: 9:00-10:00
• Beginner: >18:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High volume of upper body pulling and pressing combined with leg drive from thrusters tests muscular endurance across multiple muscle groups.
• Endurance (7/10): Five rounds of continuous work with rowing, thrusters, and pull-ups creates significant cardiovascular demand with minimal rest between movements.
• Power (6/10): Thrusters are inherently explosive from bottom to overhead, and pull-ups require powerful pulling to maintain pace under fatigue.
• Speed (6/10): Fast transitions between rowing, thrusters, and pull-ups are crucial for maintaining intensity across five challenging rounds.
• Strength (4/10): Moderate barbell load on thrusters requires decent strength, while pull-ups demand relative strength, but not maximal effort loads.
• Flexibility (4/10): Thrusters require good overhead mobility and ankle flexibility, while pull-ups need shoulder range of motion for full extension.

Movements

• Thruster
• Row
• Pull-Up

Scaling Options

Reduce thruster weight to 75/55 or 65/45 lbs. Scale calories to 8/6 or 7/5. Substitute banded pull-ups, ring rows, or jumping pull-ups. Consider reducing to 4 rounds if athlete is very new. Use lighter dumbbells (25/15 lbs) for thruster alternative.

Scaling Explanation

Scale if you can't maintain sets of 5+ thrusters at Rx weight or perform 5+ consecutive pull-ups. Goal is to maintain consistent round times around 2.5-3.5 minutes per round. Prioritize movement quality and sustainable pace over heavy load. Athletes should finish feeling challenged but not completely destroyed.

Intended Stimulus

Moderate-intensity glycolytic workout lasting 12-18 minutes. Tests muscular endurance and ability to maintain consistent power output across multiple rounds. Primary challenge is conditioning with secondary strength endurance component from thrusters.

Coach Insight

Pace the row at 80-85% effort to preserve legs for thrusters. Break thrusters early - consider 5-4 or 6-3 splits to avoid failure. Use efficient kipping on pull-ups and minimize transition time. The row should feel like active recovery between the couplet. Expect rounds 3-4 to be the most challenging as lactate accumulates.

Benchmark Notes

This workout is very similar to Fran (21-15-9 Thruster 95/65 + Pull-Up) but with 5 rounds of 9+9 instead of 21-15-9, plus rowing calories. Using Fran as the primary anchor: L10: 120-140 sec, L5: 320-360 sec, L1: 540-660 sec. Movement breakdown per round: 10/7 cal row (20-35 sec fresh), 9 thrusters 95/65 (18-27 sec fresh), 9 pull-ups (9-18 sec fresh), transitions (3-6 sec). Fresh round total: 50-86 sec. With 5 rounds, fatigue multipliers apply: Round 1-2: 1.0x, Round 3-4: 1.15x, Round 5: 1.3x. The rowing adds significant metabolic demand compared to Fran, and the higher total volume (45 thrusters + 45 pull-ups vs Fran's 45+45) with rowing calories justifies longer times. Elite athletes should complete this in 6-7 minutes, intermediate in 9-11 minutes, beginners in 15-18 minutes. This represents roughly 3-4x Fran times due to the rowing component and sustained volume across 5 rounds. Final targets - L10: 360 sec (6:00), L5: 600 sec (10:00), L1: 1080 sec (18:00).

Modality Profile

Three movements across all modalities: Row (monostructural cardio), Thruster (weighted barbell movement), Pull-Up (bodyweight gymnastics). Equal distribution with slight emphasis on weightlifting.