Worried that you’ll miss your workout because of vacation or traveling for work? Or fearing that you can’t get a full exercise in? Steve Dion, CrossFit IronSpider head coach and co-owner, has you covered with an Every Minute on the Minute (EMOM) workout that will keep you going, whether it’s on the beach, or from your hotel room during your work trip.
For this EMOM workout, there are two parts: Odd minutes and even minutes, totaling 20 minutes total and 10 on each part. Burpees will be performed on the odd minutes, and thrusters on the even minutes. Dion says to aim for 10 burpees and 15 thrusters during the exercise, though the repetitions can be adjusted to equalize the amount of rest you should be getting in between.
“Increase or decrease the repetitions of either or both exercises to average 20 seconds of rest after each exercise is completed,” Dion said. “In the earlier sets you will likely have more time to recover, but as time progresses, the rest time will likely decrease. If you get through the sixth minute and you still have over 30 seconds of rest, increase the number of repetitions for that or both exercises.”
A burpee entails starting on two feet, then making your way to the ground before standing back up and jumping in the air.
“It is a full body movement pattern where we’re falling down, getting up and then with a jump,” said Dion.
He added that if modification is needed, instead of jumping your feet backwards, you can do it one step at a time, or if there are knee or hip issues, you can clap your hands above your head instead of jumping.
For thrusters, weights will be in each hand as you squat down, almost as if you are sitting in a chair, then exploding back up with the weights and arms extended out.
“Now we’re moving more vertically, straight up and down as opposed to horizontally,” said Dion. “The biggest point of performance to prevent injury is keeping your posture tall. If we allow the weight or just our body movement to bow over, that’s going to expose our lower back and over that number of repetitions, we’re likely to have a really sore back.”
Dion says the workout is designed to be high intensity in short intervals.
“The pace or intensity of this workout should be challenging, fast pace. We want to work hard for those 30-ish seconds and then need the remaining time to recover,” he said. “The goal of the workout is to work hard for short bursts which increases our body’s ability to recover faster. The speed at which you can recover from challenging work is a direct indication of your level of fitness.”
If you are on the road and don’t have a dumbbell close by, Dion says that any heavy objects, like a backpack, will suffice.
Though it may seem like a long, challenging workout, Dion says the workload is spread out over a decent amount of time and the goal is to test your endurance.
“When you look at it written on paper, that seems like a large, potentially daunting number, but it’s spread out over 20 minutes,” he said.