Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Very Hard

Ring muscle-ups are a high-skill movement that most average CrossFitters cannot perform consistently. The workout demands 8 total minutes of muscle-ups across 4 rounds with minimal rest between attempts. Even athletes who have muscle-ups will face rapid skill degradation under fatigue from rowing and wall balls. The combination of high skill demands with accumulated fatigue makes this accessible only to experienced athletes with solid muscle-up proficiency.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (9/10): High-volume rowing, wall balls, and repeated ring muscle-ups will exhaust both upper and lower body muscular endurance systems.
• Endurance (8/10): Four rounds of 3-minute AMRAPs with minimal rest creates significant cardiovascular demand, testing aerobic capacity throughout the extended workout duration.
• Strength (6/10): Ring muscle-ups require significant upper body strength, while wall balls demand moderate strength endurance with the 20/14 lb ball.
• Speed (6/10): AMRAP format demands quick transitions and sustained pace, especially critical during the shorter 1-minute muscle-up intervals.
• Power (5/10): Wall balls are ballistic movements requiring hip drive and explosive extension, while muscle-ups need explosive pulling power.
• Flexibility (4/10): Ring muscle-ups demand shoulder mobility and thoracic extension, while wall balls require overhead flexibility and hip mobility.

Movements

• Ring Muscle-Up
• Wall Ball
• Row

Benchmark Notes

This workout consists of 4 rounds alternating between 3-minute AMRAPs (rowing calories and wall balls) and 1-minute AMRAPs (ring muscle-ups). Total workout time is 32 minutes (4 × 8 minutes per round). Movement breakdown: ROW CALORIES (3 min AMRAP): Elite athletes can sustain 18-22 cal/min for 3 minutes = 54-66 calories per round. With 4 rounds and fatigue: Round 1: 60 cal, Round 2: 58 cal (fatigue), Round 3: 55 cal, Round 4: 52 cal. Total: ~225 calories for L10. RING MUSCLE-UPS (1 min AMRAP): This is extremely limiting. Elite athletes might manage 8-12 ring muscle-ups in the first minute, but this drops significantly with fatigue. Round 1: 10 reps, Round 2: 8 reps, Round 3: 6 reps, Round 4: 4 reps. Total: ~28 ring muscle-ups for L10. WALL BALLS (3 min AMRAP): Elite can sustain 25-30 reps/min for 3 minutes = 75-90 per round. With fatigue: Round 1: 85 reps, Round 2: 80 reps, Round 3: 75 reps, Round 4: 70 reps. Total: ~310 wall balls for L10. TOTAL CALCULATION: 225 (row cal) + 28 (ring MU) + 310 (wall balls) = 563 total reps for elite. However, ring muscle-ups are the major limiting factor - most athletes will spend significant time failing attempts or resting. This dramatically reduces the total. Adjusting for realistic ring muscle-up performance: L10 athletes: ~360 total reps, L5 athletes: ~240 total reps, L1 athletes: ~120 total reps. The benchmark heavily favors athletes with strong ring muscle-up capacity, as this movement creates the biggest performance differential. Final targets - L10: 360 reps, L5: 240 reps, L1: 120 reps.

Modality Profile

Three movements across all modalities: Row (monostructural cardio), Ring Muscle-Up (gymnastics bodyweight), Wall Ball (weightlifting with external load). Equal distribution with slight emphasis on weightlifting.