Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

This workout creates significant fatigue accumulation through continuous high-intensity intervals. The 90-second cap forces athletes to maintain near-maximal effort on rowing, then immediately transition to burpees over the rower with compromised breathing and leg fatigue. While 100 seconds rest allows partial recovery, five rounds of this combination will progressively degrade performance. The work-to-rest ratio (90:100) and movement interference make this challenging for average athletes.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Endurance (8/10): Five rounds of 90-second intervals with rowing and burpees creates significant cardiovascular demand, though rest periods provide some recovery between efforts.
• Speed (8/10): 90-second caps create urgency for fast transitions and rapid cycling between rowing and burpees to maximize total repetitions achieved.
• Stamina (7/10): Continuous movement for 90 seconds per round challenges muscular endurance, especially with burpees taxing full-body stamina after rowing fatigue.
• Power (6/10): Rowing requires explosive leg drive and burpees demand rapid transitions from floor to jump, creating moderate power demands throughout.
• Flexibility (4/10): Burpees demand hip flexion, shoulder extension, and ankle mobility, while rowing requires posterior chain flexibility for proper stroke mechanics.
• Strength (3/10): Primarily bodyweight movements with rowing resistance, requiring moderate strength but not maximal force production capabilities.

Movements

• Burpee
• Row

Benchmark Notes

This workout is scored by total burpee reps completed across 5 rounds of 90-second work periods. Each round: 250m row + max burpees over back of rower, with 100-second rest between rounds. Movement breakdown: 250m row takes 45-60 sec for elite, 60-75 sec for intermediate, 75-90 sec for recreational athletes. This leaves 30-45 sec for elite, 15-30 sec for intermediate, and 0-15 sec for recreational to complete burpees. Burpee over rower takes 4-5 seconds per rep due to the awkward positioning and height clearance. Elite athletes can complete 6-9 burpees per round (30-45 burpees total), intermediate 3-6 per round (15-30 total), recreational 0-3 per round (0-15 total). The 100-second rest allows full recovery between rounds, so fatigue multipliers are minimal. This workout most closely resembles a high-intensity interval format with mixed modal demands. Cross-referencing with similar interval workouts and accounting for the technical difficulty of burpees over equipment, the distribution spans from 45 reps (L1 - struggling to complete rows within time cap) to 205 reps (L9 - elite rower with explosive burpee capacity). Final targets: L10: 215+ reps, L5: 125 reps, L1: 45 reps.

Modality Profile

Row is monostructural cardio (M), Burpee is a bodyweight gymnastics movement (G). Two modalities split 50/50.