Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Very Hard

This workout combines moderate-heavy dumbbell loads with extreme volume over 20 rounds and minimal rest. The 30-second bike creates lactate buildup before immediately transitioning to max thrusters, creating severe metabolic stress. With only 60 seconds recovery between rounds, fatigue accumulates dramatically. The forced pace prevents proper recovery, and most athletes will hit failure on thrusters early, requiring significant scaling or rest extensions.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (9/10): High volume dumbbell thrusters performed to failure after bike calories will severely test upper body and leg muscular endurance over multiple rounds.
• Endurance (8/10): Twenty rounds of bike calories with minimal rest creates significant cardiovascular demand, testing aerobic capacity and heart rate recovery between intervals.
• Power (7/10): Bike sprints for calories and explosive thruster movement pattern require significant power output, especially when fatigued from previous rounds.
• Flexibility (6/10): Thrusters demand good overhead mobility, ankle flexibility, and hip mobility for proper squat depth and overhead position throughout high volume.
• Speed (6/10): Fast transitions between bike and thrusters, plus maintaining high cycling speed on calories, are crucial for maximizing thruster reps.
• Strength (4/10): Moderate dumbbell loads (50/35) require decent strength but focus is on volume rather than maximal force production.

Movements

• Air Bike
• Thruster

Benchmark Notes

This workout is scored by total reps of DB thrusters completed across 20 rounds. Each round consists of 30 seconds of 7/5 calorie bike followed by max DB thrusters (50/35 lbs) with 60 seconds rest. The bike calories are fixed, so the variable is thruster reps per round. Movement analysis: - 7 calories on bike takes elite athletes ~12-15 seconds, intermediate ~18-22 seconds, novice ~25-30 seconds - This leaves 15-18 seconds for elite, 8-12 seconds for intermediate, 0-5 seconds for novice to perform thrusters - DB thrusters at 50 lbs: elite ~2 sec/rep, intermediate ~2.5 sec/rep, novice ~3+ sec/rep Round-by-round breakdown: - Elite (L9-L10): 15-18 seconds available = 7-9 thrusters per round × 20 rounds = 140-180 total reps - Advanced (L7-L8): 10-15 seconds available = 4-6 thrusters per round × 20 rounds = 80-120 total reps, but fatigue limits this - Intermediate (L5-L6): 8-12 seconds available = 3-4 thrusters per round × 20 rounds = 60-80 total reps early, declining - Novice (L1-L4): 0-5 seconds available = 0-2 thrusters per round × 20 rounds = 0-40 total reps Fatigue considerations: - Rounds 1-5: Full capacity - Rounds 6-10: 10-15% decline in thruster pace - Rounds 11-15: 20-25% decline - Rounds 16-20: 30-40% decline The 60-second rest allows partial recovery but accumulated lactate from bike + thrusters creates significant fatigue. Elite athletes might average 23 reps/round early, declining to 15-18 reps/round late. Intermediate athletes might start at 15 reps/round, declining to 8-10 reps/round. No direct anchor matches this format, but the thruster loading (50 lbs male) and interval structure suggests elite performance around 400-500 total reps, intermediate around 250-350 reps, novice around 100-200 reps. Final targets: L10: 460+ reps, L5: 300 reps, L1: 140 reps

Modality Profile

Bike is monostructural cardio (M) and Thruster is a weighted barbell movement (W). Two modalities split evenly.