AMRAP Workout Drills

Welcome back to my series on what the common terms and acronyms in group fitness workouts mean.

Below you’ll find out about AMRAPs, what they mean, how they work and some great examples of them in action.

I had never heard of the term AMRAP when I started as a bootcamp trainer. I think perhaps we owe CrossFit for popularising it, which is great, because it’s an awesome training too to have.

AMRAP is an acronym that stands for As Many Rounds As Possible. On some occasions it can also stand for As Many Reps As Possible.

What you’ll need

A selection of exercises and a countdown timer.

How it works

Set out a circuit or a list of exercises. Each exercise needs a set number of reps. Set a timer on your phone for something like 10 minutes.

Great! You’ve got yourself an AMRAP.

All you need to do now is complete the Circuit as many times through as you can in the set amount of Time.

A real world example of an AMRAP is a walk-a-thon. People must complete as many laps or as many kilometres as they can in a set time.

AMRAPs are great for group fitness because even though you are doing exercises for reps, which is often a problem for mixed fitness levels, everyone still starts and finishes at the same time. It’s also a great way for you, the trainer, because you know how much time you need to put aside for the drill.

I’ll usually do several AMRAPs in one workout, changing the exercises each time. I’m not a fan of long AMRAPs because I find clients get bored so 8 minutes is usually my limit.

Variations

As Many Reps As Possible: Occasionally an AMRAP will refer to doing as many reps as possible in a set period of time. You’ll see this in fitness tests.

Used with EMOMs: One way to spice up a long AMRAP is with EMOMs. For example: Every 3 minutes or 5 minutes have people stop were they are and complete an exercise like running to a tree and back.

Example

Bench Plex

In the drill below, clients keep repeating the circuit in order until 5 minutes are up. For fitness testing you can get them to keep track of how many rounds they completed and compare back to that number later.

Each client will need a bench, box or step for this drill.

1. 5x Box Jumps
2. 10x Step Ups (10 ea.)
3. 15x Bench Dips

More example AMRAP workouts:

• Acronym Bootcamp – uses AMRAPs and EMOMs
• As Many As Possible – AMRAP in teams
• Trios Torture
• AMRAP Pairs Challenge
• 8 Mate AMRAP

Kyle Wood

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.