Madness indeed – being in NC means that March Madness is the tune of the moment. But, this workout has a madness all its own. The first few rounds give you a challenge but as is my style of workout design, it also may inspire a false sense of security. While the battle rope throw reps go down… the burpees come up. Or burps if you’ve overdone it hydration wise at this point …or so I have heard.
I also owe you an article about the “$5 battle rope anchor” which will be completed as soon as I get a nice day for photos. It’s coming this week.
This is another workout in the theme of full-body challenge with plenty of strength, mobility, endurance, and if you keep the breaks short it gets pretty darn anaerobic. Feel free to scale it up or down in terms of kettlebells used, length and weight of battle rope, etc.
Are you ready?
Warm-up:
Joint Mobility circling sequence
Additional Joint Mobility sequence 3x:
Kettlebell Warmup Circuit 3x:
- 10x kettlebell swings
- 3x goblet squats
- 3/3 “round the worlds”
Main Circuit – 5x:
With the battle rope throws, it’s “your choice” we stuck with basic ‘up-downs’ as they’re pretty satisfying to do after a long week! As for the burpees, feel free to scale those to your ability – keep the jump, remove the jump, walk them back, skip the pushup, do what you need to do! The focus again should be on quality of movement, and while it’s fun to see how fast you can complete this, that should not be the main objective. Stay safe with your training to keep training for a lifetime!
- Battling Rope Throws (1st round 50, 2nd round 40, 3rd round 30, 4th round 20, 5th round 10)
- Burpees (1st round 3, 2nd round 5, 3rd round 10, 4th round 13, 5th round 15)
- Floor Tap Lunges with Knee Raise 10/10 (you may think this is a break, it’s not)
- Heavy kettlebell swings 10x
- Kettlebell snatches 5/5
- Heavy or moderately heavy kettlebell goblet squats 10x
Abs Challenge 3x:
It’s no secret that we’re all about the “power breathing crunch” from Dragon Door – I first saw Andrea Du Cane demo these years ago. Are you feeling a stomach slackness that makes you sad? These help. I jokingly call them “ego restorers” but it’s kind of true if we’re going to be honest. More details of this powerful “must have” move soon.
We did this circuit with a favorite 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off timing. It’s brutal but keeps us on track – on occasion we do a rep counting version too.
- 30 seconds Power Breathing Crunches (this comes to about 3-5 of them depending on how long you hold)
- One-arm one-leg plank switches
- Scissor kicks
- Bridges (shoulder and/or full bridges – we do a mix)
We then cooled down with joint mobility, which also helps us assess how we did in terms of moving well during the workout itself. This approach has been a big part of the way I train for the past 10 years or more and it’s HUGELY informative.
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